AWARDS, GONGS AND PAT-ON-THE-BACKS
24 November 2007 - Miles Better News Agency

It is the time of year when some members of the motor industry traditionally reap the benefits of the year’s hard work of launching and promoting their new models to the motoring media.

Awards, Cars of the Year titles and any other positive news about the latest products and record sales all traditionally come together at the end of a year. This is just in time for the motor industry Marketing and PR gurus to use the publicity to start their sales campaigns for the following year.

Of the many awards given by the motoring media, the European Car of the Year is the most important to manufacturers so the much improved and transformed Italian manufacturer Fiat must really be looking forward to 2008. Their retro styled Fiat 500 small ‘A’ class car has just been awarded the 2008 title.

Since the annual European Car of the Year competition started in 1964, Fiat Group Automobiles, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia brands, have won no less than twelve of these titles.

This year’s the competition was judged by an international jury of 58 senior motoring journalists from 22 European countries. All but one of them included the Fiat 500 in their short-list and 34 of them placed the compact 500 top of their list. Six members of the European Car of the Year voting jury are UK based.

The shortlist of models for the competition included models released in the last 12 months, or about to be released, as is the case for the Fiat 500 in the UK. Perhaps a sign of the times, when affordable, fuel efficient and compact cars are considered to be more acceptable, no top end luxury cars, MPVs or 4x4s were included in the final line-up of seven cars eligible for judging by the jury.

The Fiat 500 won the title by a considerable margin, scoring 385 points. The Mazda2 was placed second with 325 votes and in third place was the Ford Mondeo with 202 points. Fourth went to the Kia Cee’d with 166 points, fifth to the Nissan Qashqai with 147 points, sixth to the Mercedes C-class with 128 points and seventh was the Peugeot 308 with 97 points.

The Fiat 500 is already on sale in some mainland European countries. Customers in Italy and France placed over 105,000 orders for the new model in just four months and Germany has already has seen 6,300 orders placed in just a few weeks. Sales in the UK start early ion 2008 at prices starting at just under £8,000.

Views
My own view on the criteria for giving awards to models or manufacturers, based on 40 years writing about new models and automotive technologies, is that the products must be fit for purpose and they must meet the needs in a changing world for the majority of owners. There is no point in making some airy-fairy design or hugely expensive minority model a Car of the Year, or indeed Best Car, in any sector.

2007 has been a busy year for new model introductions. The public are more demanding, they generally want new, more stylish, cleaner, more fuel efficient cars at cheaper prices. An impossible task. And then we have the Politicians in the UK and EU who are also making demands on the industry to lower CO2 emissions for their entire model ranges. Here are a few worthy efforts that definitely deserve a pat-on-the-back.

The Fiat 500 will prove to be a popular choice with customers and not just a flash-in-the-pan because of its chic retro design. We UK mainstream motoring writers have yet to try the car, test drives are taking place in January, so we hope our senior colleagues have really done their job properly. The previous rear-engined Fiat 500 only became really desirable after production ceased and by and large the car was an evil handling, unreliable so-and-so and sold on its looks and size before it became desirable as a collectors motoring by-gone. Fiat now generally make excellent small cars with really fuel efficient, low CO2 emitting engines, so the prospects for the new 500 look good and it should provide competition for the current ‘cult’ stars, the MINI and Smart fortwo.

Moving up the ladder to the every growing ‘Supermini’ sector, a segment that now accounts for most new car sales in the UK. The Mazda2, which came second to the Fiat 500, looks to be the motoring scribe’s ‘supermini’ newcomer choice for 2008. But it will not beat the Vauxhall Corsa for all-round performance versus price and certainly will come nowhere near Corsa with regard to UK sales volumes. The Mazda2 will be the basis for the new Ford Fiesta.

Next comes the popular C segment, the second largest sales sector in the UK. Yes the Focus and Astra fight it out to be top dog but my award for the best new product goes to the Kia Cee’d range of Hatchbacks and SW Estates. They are exceptionally well built, designed and produced in Europe and they are very affordable with seven-year warranties. The Cee’d models are ideal family or business user cars and with frugal diesel engine options. Just to get a place in the final of the European Car of the Year competition was a huge endorsement for this model and for the Kia brand.

Moving up the scale the new Ford Mondeo has received more Car of the Year Awards in 2007 from UK motoring writers than any other make. It may not be perfect but it is well engineered, well priced, slightly larger than before, better quality and only let down by some aspects of the interior design and trim quality. Using my criteria for best meeting the needs of motoring in 2008 for the widest audience of buyers, the Mondeo gets my Car of the Year vote.

Also worthy of mention and selling in the same segment as the Mondeo, although in the ‘premium’ segment of it, are the Mercedes-Benz C-Class Saloon and Estate models launched this year. Again slightly larger than the models they replaced, but much better for styling, build quality and performance and with more powerful but lower CO2 emission engines. A worthy place in the final of the European Car of the Year event.

For larger executive cars there were no finalists in the European competition this year. There are fine new models now on the market, the Audi A5/S5, the revised BMW 6-Series, the awesome Mercedes C63 AMG and the Lexus 600h hybrid are the pick of the bunch.

People carriers or MPVs continue to gain in popularity and for size versus specification versus price the Citroen C4 Grand Picasso gets my vote. It looks good and has a clever interior design.

SUVs or 4x4s, despite the anti Chelsea tractor lobbyists, continue to be popular. There is no doubt the Land and Range Rover products are the best for off-road work but overall for the vast majority of SUV owners, who mainly drive on surfaced roads with some off-roading at sometimes, the new Peugeot 4007/Citroen-C-Crosser.Mitsubishi Outlander family is best overall. All the vehicles are built by Mitsubishi Motors so the build quality is excellent, they use the Mitsubishi two/four-wheel drive system and the excellent PSA Peugeot-Citroen 2.2-litre HDI turbodiesel engine which is really fuel efficient and relatively clean. For those customers wanting a bit more off-road capability from their 4x4 at a reasonable price, the new and tough Nissan X-Trail is a good alternative choice.

Supercar of the Year, but without traditional supercar prices, but still with awesome 187mph performance and drop-dead good looks has to be the Audi R8 with its 4.2-litre, V8, 400bhp+
petrol engine with quattro all-wheel drive. There is no point in nominating one of a handful of hugely expensive supercars in this sector because they sell in such small numbers. The R8 might be sold out for the next year or so but it is so hugely impressive because of the performance it has, its design, stunning looks and still it is relatively well priced at £76,25. Certainly my most memorable drive of the year.

My biggest pat-on-the-back for 2007 goes to BMW for the EfficientDynamics programme. Whilst the EU’s automotive rule makers and manufacturers pontificate about when and what new lower CO2 levels will be required, as an average across all their model ranges, BMW has just got on with finding a solution. Hybrids, fuel-cell, electric and even hydrogen fuelled vehicles may be an answer for a small number of niche vehicles but when it comes to mainstream models most experts think that really fuel efficient petrol and diesel engines in lightweight bodyshells will be the most cost-effective solution for manufacturers and customers.

BMW’s EfficientDynamics technology not only helps lower CO2 emissions through weight-saving measures, but cleverly the German manufacturer has launched this year a raft of new and revised petrol and diesel engines with more power and torque as well. EfficientDynamics includes using lightweight composite body panels, variable thickness lighter steel panels and aluminium for components to make their models lighter, stronger and indeed faster, but with less CO2 emissions.

They are to be heartily applauded. This year BMW in the UIK expect another record year of sales. Next year, with all but two of their model ranges using EfficientDynamics technology, BMW say they will sell in the region of 110,000 cars in the UK year featuring EfficientDynamics technology and these cars will save the emission of 45,720 tonnes of CO2 in 2008 alone.

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