|
By
EWAN KENNEDY
8 December 2008
Given
the high price of fuel only a few short weeks ago it comes as no
surprise that this year’s Australia's Best Car Awards (ABC)
featured plenty of vehicles with fuel-saving diesel or hybrid
engines.
No
fewer than half of the awards went to the fuel savers – five
turbo-diesels and one hybrid figured in top spots in their
classes.
Naturally
there was a skewing of the results towards the 4WD market
segments, with Volkswagen's
Tiguan TDI gaining the gong for Best Recreational 4WD. At the
moment the Tiguan is only sold with diesel power, but petrol units
will shortly be introduced.
BMW's
X5
is offered in both petrol and diesel format, but it was the
exceptional 3.0d turbo-diesel variant that topped the category for
Best Luxury 4WD.
‘Real’
4WDs, those that are actually designed for off-road conditions,
are pretty rare beasts these days, but Land Rover is certainly up
there in serious territory that’s long been familiar to the
British marque. Land Rover
Discovery 3 TDV6 variant was given the ABC Best All-terrain
4WD award for 2008.
People
movers are more practical than 4WDs, but lag behind in the
popularity stakes as many consider them uninteresting and lacking
in image. But they make a lot of sense, all the more so in the
case of the Hyundai iMax
diesel that was voted Best People Mover.
Audi's
A4
TDI diesel format is one of only two passenger cars in the economy
segment to gain an ABC 2008 award, that for Best Prestige Car. The
judges gave the 2.0-litre diesel what they called “a perfect
10” for the combination of performance and economy.
Interestingly, Audi is dominating the Le Mans 24-hour race with
diesel engines these days, so the old saying about racing
improving the breed certainly looks to be apt.
Rounding
out the economy models was another passenger car, the only hybrid
to gain an award in the ABC 2008 ratings. The Lexus GS450h is interesting in that the hybrid setup is actually
aimed more at performance than straight out economy. Its prize for
Best Luxury Car was gained for the third year running, proving
that Lexus-Toyota certainly look to be on the right track.
Back
to the petrol models that took out the remainder of the ABC awards
for 2008:
Mazda2
Neo
was the Best Small Car gaining particular credit for being,
“well-built, with a strong heart and excellent all-round
packaging”.
Mazda
scored a double, with the Mazda6
in Classic format picking up top votes for Best Mid-size Car over
$28,000.
Hyundai
also took out two awards in 2008, with the European styled Hyundai
i30 being judged Best Mid-size Car under $28,000.
Another
winner of two ABC awards in 2008 (interestingly, no company gained
more than two) was Audi. Its A4 TDI has already been mentioned.
The Audi TT in
turbocharged four-cylinder quattro format was judged to be the
Best Luxury Sports car.
Best
Sports Car was considered to be the BMW 135i coupe. The sometimes fierce discussion as to what
constitutes a sports car continues here. The Audi TT which is a
low-slung pure-sports machine was called a Luxury Sports, whereas
many would say the BMW 135i is very much a coupe, not a sports
car.
Though
technically there is no such thing as an overall winner –
Australia's Best Car – in the ABC’s books, the Large Car
section is often unofficially given credence as being ‘The’
winner. That’s because Ford's Falcon and Holden's Commodore (and
some bit players) compete here. This time around the new FG
Falcon XT was voted number one in its class. The judges saying
that it had won due to, “a sustained approach to product
development”.
Australia's
Best Cars awards are increasingly being regarded by industry gurus
and the buying public, as being the best in the business. The
winners are rigorously tested by experts from the state and
territory motoring associations; that is the AANT, NRMA, RAASA,
RACQ, RACT, RACV and RACWA.
The
ABC awards differ from others of their type in that any vehicle
currently on the new-car market is eligible, not just the latest
releases. This is a more sensible way of doing things as buyers of
new cars may not necessarily look only at recently introduced
models.
Full
details of the Australia's Best Cars awards, including information
on the judging criteria, past winners and a lot of other
interesting facts, can be found at www.australiasbestcars.com.au/.
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
|
