TWO CARS OF THE YEAR FOR 2011!

A completely unique situation has unfolded in the South African, and possibly world motor industry, as not one but two cars were chosen for the country’s Car of the Year award. The BMW 530d and Volkswagen Polo 1.6 TDI were voted the 2010 Cars of the Year. Organised by the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists, the award seeks to reward a car that bests represents its class, while also being the best of a number of finalists.

The 530d and Polo 1.6 TDI beat other finalists which were, in alphabetical order, the Citroen DS3, Ford Figo, Honda CR-Z, Hyundai iX35, Hyundai Sonata, Kia Sportage, Opel Astra and Volkswagen Amarok. You’ll notice most of these were in our Best Cars of 2010 list, so it’s not a bad list.

So how did it happen that two cars won? Easy. They both achieved the exact same scores, as assessed by the jury members. Mind you, this has never happened in the history of the competition which stretches back to 1985. Although independent auditors do this anyway, I have also verified the results myself and am satisfied that this was no political decision. Both cars did score the same.

Incidentally the third highest scorer was the Ford Figo, closely followed by the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Sportage in the top 5.

BMW has won this title six times since it began, while Volkswagen has taken it three times now over the same period.

Another interesting thing about this is that the Polo range was named World Car of the Year for 2010, while the BMW 5 Series range is a finalist for this year’s grand title. I guess our jurors just couldn’t choose between the two.