2013 Car Of The Year Shortlist

The ‘Car of the year’ phrase was invented by Motor Trend magazine in the 1950’s for their annual award for best American automobile. 

It also refers to an award given yearly to the best automobile selected by a jury of journalists from four different motor magazines in South Africa.

How does the judging process work? At the annual meeting the jury members are presented with a complete list of the finalists and the votes each car received. 

A decision on how many finalists make the final testing stage is based entirely on the amount of votes received during the process.  The only discussion and debate is around the cut-off point for entries into the final stage.

During the test days, the Guild Evaluators carry out a series of dynamic and static assessments on each of the selected vehicles.

The dynamic and static evaluation takes place over the test period in a controlled environment, which is geared at testing all aspects of the vehicle including: the appearance, handling, value-for-money and aesthetics.

In order to assist the assessment process, the jury Guild members are provided with comparative informational charts drawn from the entry forms and a price list of all the cars’ parts.

There are three conditions that the judges need to adhere to when voting:

1. The evaluators are allocated a maximum of twenty-five points to use for judging the finalists.
2. No vehicle is allowed to be allocated more than ten points by a judge.
3. The vehicle with the maximum amount of points at the end of the test days is deemed the winner and once the votes are counted, the outcome is final.

While many consumers are eager to find used cars deals in the market, many new car shoppers pay careful attention to the Car of the year awards to ensure they get the best value for money, so on that note who is the favourite to win this award?

In my personal opinion, I believe that the Opel Meriva is one of the top contenders for the Car of the Year award. 

The Opel Meriva is a 1, 4 litre turbo-charged engine which delivers 103 kW @ in the range of 4900 – 6000 r/min with 200 Nm of torque delivered across the range of 1850-4900 r/min. This 6-speed manual transmission creates a platform to propel the Opel Meriva from 0 to 100 km/h in 10, 3 seconds with a top speed of 196 km/h. 

Fuel consumption for this level of performance is a remarkably low 6, 7 l/100km for the combined cycle with CO2 emissions of 196 gm/km.

The vehicles interior specs has made it a worthy Car of the Year finalist: power windows in the front and back, air-conditioning with particulate filter, follow me home lights, front and side airbags for the front seats and curtain side airbags for the rear, electronic driving aids including cruise control and a radio/CD combination with MP3 and Aux input features.

According to the GMSA’s Vice President, Malcolm Gauld: 

“The guild was certainly spoilt for choice this year and we are excited by the fact that the membership has recognized the Opel Meriva Cosmo for the innovation and advanced technology that this vehicle has introduced to the small MPV market. We look forward to dynamic testing phase of the contest where we believe the excellent driving dynamics of the Opel Meriva will come to the fore.”

In conclusion, the upcoming Car of the Year test days in April 2013 promises to separate the average vehicles from the great ones. 

If you cannot wait until then, drop by one of the local dealerships and test drive one of the new cars for sale in their showroom.