Last week’s Car of the Year (COTY) awards saw the Porsche Panamera walk away with top honours. The Volvo V90 and Alfa Romeo Guilia also took second and third place respectively at COTY, which was sponsored by Wesbank.
Each year the South African motoring fraternity gathers to celebrate motoring excellence as represented by the WesBank South African Car Of The Year competition. At the 33rd running of the event, the revered German manufacturer, Porsche, took the top honours when the Panamera was crowned the 2018 WesBank South African Car Of The Year (COTY) winner at a cocktail dinner hosted by WesBank, the competition’s headline sponsor.
Facing increasingly tough competition in this year’s 10-vehicle strong line-up – vehicles that all represent the best of the best from a cross-section of segments and price points – the Porsche Panamera is a worthy contestant which ultimately represents motoring excellence, and is a worthy winner of South Africa’s most prestigious motoring prize.
Speaking before the announcement of the winner, Bernard Hellberg Jr, Chairman of the SAGMJ said: “This year’s competition was extremely fierce due to the high standards of all competitors, and as a result, no juror could accurately predict the outcome of the evaluation. What clearly emerged from this year’s scoring statistics, was that the competition was perhaps the tightest it’s ever been. It became an exercise in extreme jurisprudence to determine a winner, but that winner scored extremely highly in each category, and exhibited a high level of consistency across all scoring criteria.”
The South African Guild of Motoring Journalists (SAGMJ) also recognises the Volvo S90 as first runner up, as well as the Alfa Romeo Giulia as second runner up in this year’s competition. Beaten by a narrow yet decisive margin, both Volvo S90 and the Alfa Romeo Giulia are exemplary finalists.
The South African competition still boasts a world-first purpose-designed digital scoring system breaking new ground for vehicle evaluation and assessment. Although the scoring mechanism may have evolved, the SAGMJ continues to adhere to COTY’s most unique feature. Each of the finalists is still put through a stringent testing procedure. This is done by a peer-elected COTY Jury at the world-renowned Kyalami Race Track in Midrand
Here, the winning vehicle is evaluated and scored in relation to its segment competitors, with each vehicle’s final score determined by Exterior Design & Styling; Interior Use of Materials; Interior Layout; Technology; Engine Performance; Gearbox & Transmission; Engineering Integrity & Build Quality; Ride Quality & Refinement; Steering & Handling; Affordability; Value for Money; and Overall Excellence.
In recent years, the competition has had many historic moments. In 2012 Hyundai Automotive SA won the title for the first time in its history. The brand became the first Korean vehicle brand to win. In 2011, the competition caused an even bigger stir. For a first time in history, the BMW 530d and Volkswagen Polo 1.6 TDI shared the crown. In 2015, the Porsche Macan became the first SUV to win the contest.
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