Johannesburg - The South African Car of the Year competition entered a new era this year, with a more diverse jury and committee, and the much-anticipated return of the test days.
Sadly, the physical testing fell away during the pandemic years but thanks to a brand new headline sponsor in the form of Old Mutual Insure, the test days were back with a bang in 2023.
As always, the competition is staged by the South African Guild of Mobility Journalists, who selected 27 of their members to be jurors, including yours truly. A big task lay ahead though, with the 21 finalists that you see below, as voted for by the guild and jury.
As you can see, the finalists, which were all launched in 2022, are divided into nine categories. However, jurors are instructed not to judge the vehicles directly against one another or even against those in the same category, but instead to consider each car’s most direct rivals in the marketplace when scoring.
The categories are relatively broad and aimed at creating a more diverse pool of winners, and the competition doesn’t hand out “participation trophies” to cars that are alone in their category. In order to win a prize, they need to match the average score of other category winners.
There can, of course, be only one overall winner. The car has to impress the jurors and triumph in the automated-scoring process, which takes sales numbers and value for money factors into consideration.
The juror scoring took place in early April, when the 27 judges congregated at Zwartkops Raceway for a full day of dynamic driving.
Let me tell you that while there’s a very giddy, and undeniable joy in putting 21 different cars through their paces on a closed circuit, it was quite a task to work our way through each of them and make all the necessary notes in the score book.
Each car was put through a loop that included cornering as well as slalom and brake-testing sections on the main track, and another small gymkhana at the nearby skidpan where test wet-weather grip. Additionally, the 4x4 models were taken on a short but intensive off-road coarse next to the skidpan.
After overnighting just outside Joburg at the La Wiida lodge, where business was unusually slow at the bar after pretty much everyone went to bed early after that long day at the track, we had some time to tally our scores and road test any vehicles that we wanted to spend more time with.
Luckily, the lodge was close to the part of the R511 that winds through the Hennops River Valley, which is a great stretch of road for testing cars in real-world conditions and residents of the area became highly acquainted with shiny new cars sporting Car of the Year stickering.
When we felt we’d driven each car sufficiently, it was time to finalise our scoring for each vehicle. That meant inputting a score of between 1 and 10 points for 32 questions that covered everything from design to user-friendliness to practicality, performance, handling, ride refinement and value.
“The test days are always the most exciting part of the COTY competition,” said Mabuyane Mabuza, chairperson of the 2023 COTY Committee. “It is a time when the top journalists in the country come together to review the different cars and share their expert opinions about all the competitors to find the category and overall competition winners.
“Our jury worked tirelessly to find the winners of this year’s competition. The test days allowed the jurors to immerse themselves in everything the finalists had to offer, contributing to the tough decision of who will be crowned the COTY 2023 winner.”
Mabuza, the COTY committee and SAGMJ General Manager Michelle York pulled out all the stops to make this year’s event happen within a fairly tight time line. It all concludes when the winners are announced at a banquet event hosted by Old Mutual on June 1.
Having experienced all 21 cars, I have no idea which one is going to take the top prize and there didn’t seem to be a clear consensus among my fellow jury members.
But there were three vehicles that stood out for me.
Ford Ranger: The very definition of Car of the Year is that its winner represents excellence while raising the bar within its segment. The Ranger, of course, is not a car but I reckon it does all that and more within the bakkie realm. But is Mzansi ready for a Car of the Year that’s actually a Bakkie of the Year?
Audi RS 3 Sportback: Possibly the last of its kind, the performance hatchback is sublime in every dynamic area, and it doesn’t fare too badly as an everyday car either. But is it too niche to win this competition? Maybe.
Kia Sportage: This is possibly the best all-rounder in the competition and it won praise from many a juror. The SUV does almost everything right, but is perhaps lacking a little when it comes to powertrain innovation. A strong contender though.
Watch this space at the beginning of June to see which one takes top honours.