Which cars fare best in global car of the year competitions?

Staff Reporter|Published 5 years ago

The new Mazda3 is faring well in international contests but will it succeed in SA's COTY? Its pricing might count against it here. The new Mazda3 is faring well in international contests but will it succeed in SA's COTY? Its pricing might count against it here.

Johannesburg - An analysis of some of the world’s premier motoring competitions - the World Car Awards and Women’s World Car of the Year, AutoTrader South African Car of the Year - has revealed which cars are rated by motoring journalists to be the best in the world.

There are several interesting parallels between these three car competitions – when it comes to vehicles that are either finalists or overall winners. In order to see which vehicles are the most popular, an analysis of the three programmes was undertaken. The recent 2019 Women’s World Car of the Year contenders and winners were compared to the 2020 AutoTrader South African Car of the Year finalists and the 2020 World Car Awards finalists.

One of the stand-out cars in all three programmes is the Mazda3. It won the Women’s World Car of the Year competition, it won Best Family Car at the Women’s World Car of the Year competition, and it is a South African Car of the Year finalist. The Mazda3 is also faring extremely well at the World Car Awards. It is up for two awards: the overall World Car of the Year and also the World Car Design of the Year.

The Toyota GR Supra has also received the thumbs up from motoring journalists all over the world. It too is an AutoTrader SA Car of the Year finalist, it was a finalist in the performance category at the Women’s World Car of the Year, and it’s also a World Performance Car finalist.

Yet another firm favourite with journalists is the Volkswagen T-Cross. It is an SA Car of the Year finalist, and it was a finalist in the overall Women’s World Car of the Year. Turning to the World Car Awards, it is a World Car of the Year finalist and also a World Urban Car finalist.

Five other vehicles - the Porsche Taycan, Kia XCeed, Porsche 911, Range Rover Evoque and Kia Soul EV - have fared exceptionally well at Women’s World Car of the Year and the World Car Awards. They are not AutoTrader South African Car of the Year finalists because they’re not available in this country yet or weren’t available for local evaluation during the test days.

Finally, the Jaguar I-Pace was a 2018 Women’s World Car of the Year finalist. It scored an unprecedented three wins at the 2019 World Car Awards: it was named World Car of the Year, World Green Car and World Car Design of the Year. Thus, it would be fair to say that it has accumulated a substantial fan base amongst motoring journalists all over the planet. Now it’s a finalist in the 2020 SA Car of the Year contest. It’s going to be very interesting to see how it fares!