SA 2011 COTY winners

Mike Hoxbig

Mike Hoxbig

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Johannesburg - The winner of the 2011 SA Guild of Motoring Journalists' Car of the Year title was announced in Johannesburg last night.

And it was... well, two cars tied for the first time in the long history of the competition - the VW Polo 1.6 TDI and BMW's 530d. Which was a rather unsatisfactory end to the long process and will no doubt cause much controversy over coming weeks.

VW won the competition outright in 2010 with its Golf 1.4 TSi Comfortline. BMW has won five times, 1988 with its 735i, 1990 with the 525i, 1993 with the 316i, 1997 with the 528i and 2001 with its 320d.

The 10 finalists for the 2011 South Africa’s Car of the Year honours were announced in October 2010 but the final judging took place only in February this year with two days of testing at the Gerotek vehicle testing centre, west of Pretoria.

THREE DAYS TO VOTE

The judges, all motoring journalists of long standing, for the first time relied on their memories of driving the cars either at their launch or in a road test but they also had the opportunity to refresh their thoughts on the various tracks at the vehicle testing centre.

Thereafter they had three days to cast their votes via the internet on a specially created computer program.

All of which replaced what used to be three days of concentrated driving over an identical course involving track and public roads, extended periods of static evaluation and hundreds of ticks in a questionnaire whose data was pooled with that of the other judges to produce a winner.

Eight manufacturers were represented among the 10 finalists; Hyundai and VW had two entries each.

The finalists were BMW’s 530d, Citroen’s DS3 1.6 THP Sport, Honda’s CR-Z Hybrid, Kia's Sportage 2.0 CRDi GLS 4x4, Opel's Astra 1.4T and Ford’s Figo 1.4 Ambiente, VW’s Polo 1.6 TDI and Amarok 2.0 BiTDI 4x2 bakkie and Hyundai's iX35 SUV and Sonata sedan.

Strong candidates for the title included VW’s Polo (currently World Car of the Year) and Ford’s high-value Figo, while the Amarok makes a long-overdue case for representation of the bakkie market – a key volume segment in the terms of outright vehicle sales.

Interestingly, the list of candidates included three Korean cars – a state of affairs that would have been unfathomable a decade ago...
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http://www.wheels24.co.za/News/General_News/Shock-result-for-SA-Coty-contest-20110308

/waits for the resident troll to start harping on about his usual kak.
 
So many diesel powered engines. Flies in the face of the some of the motor experts who castigate diesel.
 
cleask said:
The 530d is a great car and deserves to be the outright winner!
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..........must not make a joke............about................the 530d........................rotating it 180 degrees..... ;)
 
McT said:
Personally, I don't see the point of a COTY which only a few can afford?
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It's all relative, isn't it. In its segment the new 5-series is the pick of the bunch. If ultimate affordability becomes the deciding factor, and with car prices heading into the stratosphere, we'll soon have melamine-laced Chinese knock-offs competing only with Indian jalopies assembled in a forest clearing. :p
 
It seems that fuel economy is playing a big part in the COTY equation - which it should be considering the high price of petrol/diesel.
 
It must be really difficult to come up with this list every year, but the fact that a hybrid has made it onto the list says a lot for the future of motoring.
 
ha my polo won :) ... yay!!!! ... (ok joint winner with the BMW) ... happy with my purchase ... and can now say i bought the car of the year ...
 
I test drove the polo tdi 2 weeks ago and was unbelievably disappointed.
The "power" delivery was sluggish and unimpressive, the drive extremely boring and the technology inside for the price you pay very minimal.

Will give it another go, but I dont see how they can make this coty
 
tau1z said:
I test drove the polo tdi 2 weeks ago and was unbelievably disappointed.
The "power" delivery was sluggish and unimpressive, the drive extremely boring and the technology inside for the price you pay very minimal.

Will give it another go, but I dont see how they can make this coty
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give it another drive its nippy ... give a solid drive ... 5min aint gonna say anything ... remember its a turbo car ... so there is some turbo lag ... u need to get it above that 2000rpm ... anything below that its dead i agree ... also initially under 2000km the car felt sluggish for me ... after that ... it flys ... id cruise easily at 160kph with this car and have been doing so
 
adamr said:
give it another drive its nippy ... give a solid drive ... 5min aint gonna say anything ... remember its a turbo car ... so there is some turbo lag ... u need to get it above that 2000rpm ... anything below that its dead i agree ... also initially under 2000km the car felt sluggish for me ... after that ... it flys ... id cruise easily at 160kph with this car and have been doing so
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yeah i will do.
I also had 3 other people in the car, so maybe that contributed to the "sluggishness". I owned a fiesta tdci about 4 years ago, and that did feel a bit quicker (Although, that long ago, its hard to tell)

Its missing a 6th gear though, which would be nice. the lack of ipod integration with the steering wheel is also an irritation. The car did feel vemuch more solid than the previous polo, but for an extra 20k you can get a golf 6 tsi comfortline with a service plan.
 
tau1z said:
I test drove the polo tdi 2 weeks ago and was unbelievably disappointed.
The "power" delivery was sluggish and unimpressive, the drive extremely boring and the technology inside for the price you pay very minimal.

Will give it another go, but I dont see how they can make this coty
Click to expand...

I wtf'd when I heard the Polo TDI had won - Its a decent enough little car but at that price... on top of that it comes with nothing but the bare essentials and you still need to pay and arm and a leg for a service plan.

Happy about the BMW though, it is in a league of its own.
 
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