Volkswagen Polo, Camaro and Audi R8 crowned
By Marc Lachapelle
Volkswagen became the first repeat overall winner in the World Car of the Year awards as announced at the New York Auto Show on April 1. The German carmaker’s fifth-generation Polo ‘supermini’ took the top prize in the seventh annual edition of these awards after a three-month selection and voting process. Volkswagen had first won the coveted award for 2009 with its sixth-generation Golf.
Reborn Camaro voted Best Design
The Volkswagen Polo racked up a total of 761.1 points. The second highest scoring entry was the Mercedes-Benz E-Class with 747.1 points, followed by the Toyota Prius with 715.4 points and two German luxury compact utility vehicles: the BMW X1 with 691.6 points and Audi Q5 with a tally of 683.4 points.
The jury of 59 automotive journalists from 25 countries had first selected ten contenders from a list of thirty nominated vehicles in January. A second vote in February yielded final scores after candidates were judged on merit, value, safety, environment, significance and emotional appeal.
The sole Canadian judge on the jury this year was Ottawa-based journalist John LeBlanc. WCOTY awards co-founder Gerry Malloy is one of program’s directors and Beth Rhind is its Executive Manager. Both work out of Cobourg, Ontario.
Audi R8 takes Performance Car title… again
Another German entry achieved the notable feat of winning the same category for a second time in three years. After taking the World Performance Car award in 2008 with the original R8, Audi repeated this year with the new V10-powered version of its first exotic sports car. For the record, Audi also won the World Performance Car trophy in 2007 with the RS4 sedan.
The Audi R8 V10 topped fifteen rivals with a total score of 173 points. In second place was the Porsche 911 GT3 with 107 points, followed by the Ferrari California with 88 points and a closely-matched duo of British entries, the Jaguar XFR sedan with 75 points and the Aston Martin V12 Vantage coupé with 74 points.
Reborn Camaro voted Best Design
The all-new, fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro, launched as a 2010 model after a seven-year hiatus, was chosen as the World Car Design of the Year by the same international jury. Results of this, and all of the WCOTY awards’ secret ballots were again tabulated by the international accounting firm KPMG.
Journalists were presented with a list of four contenders chosen by a panel of five automotive design experts from the original group of new vehicles nominated for this year’s WCOTY awards. The three finalists were announced at the Geneva Auto Show in March. In addition to the winning design from Chevrolet, the two other standouts were the Citroën C3 Picasso and the Kia Soul.
BlueMotion is Greenest
Volkswagen accepted another trophy in this edition of the WCOTY awards. The automaker won the 2010 World Green Car prize with its BlueMotion technologies, as used in various Golf, Passat and Polo models. Based on VW’s common-rail diesel engines, these technologies combine measures and systems such as engine start-stop, energy recuperation and reduced rolling resistance to achieve outstanding fuel efficiency and lower emissions.
Jury members were presented with a list of thirteen contenders selected for their environmental-friendliness by a panel of three experts in ‘green’ technologies. This was considered necessary, given the variety of green technologies and the complexity of many.
BlueMotion’s win is a vindication of sorts for the internal combustion engine since the other two finalists for the Green Car award were (in alphabetical order) the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, both powered by gas-electric hybrid systems.
