Double Happiness for Subaru
This month must be a month of celebration for the people at Fuji heavy Industries, the company which makes Subaru cars. Only recently, their rally driver Peter Solberg took home the Driver’s title in the 2003 World Rally Championship (Citroen got the Makes’ title) and yesterday, the latest Legacy was voted ‘Car of the Year Japan 2003/2004’, the first time a Subaru has won the title.
As full details are not yet available on the points scored, we can only go by the rankings and the Subaru beat 9 other finalists which were selected from a list of 53 nominees by the Japan Car of the Year (COTY) committee which is made up of journalists. Unlike COTY events of earlier years where there were separate awards for Japanese models and Foreign models, the event now includes imports and there is a single COTY Japan.
The rankings this year were:
1. Subaru Legacy
2. Toyota Prius
3. Mazda RX-8
4. Honda Odyssey
5. Jaguar XJ
6. Audi A3
7. BMW 5 Series
8. Nissan Teana
9. Volkswagen Touareg
10. Volvo XC90
There are also three special awards given out as part of the event and these are for the car that is ‘Most Fun’, ‘Best Value’ and ‘Most Advanced Technology’. Not surprisingly, the Mazda RX-8 was judged the ‘Most Fun’ while the Nissan Teana was considered the ‘Best Value’. An imported model, the aluminium-bodied Jaguar XJ received the award for ‘Most Advanced Technology’.
Past COTY winners have been:
2003 Honda Accord
2002 Honda Fit
2001 Honda Civic
2000 Toyota Vitz
1999 Toyota Altezza
1998 Toyota Prius
1997 Mitsubishi Galant
1996 Honda Civic
1995 Mitsubishi FTO
1994 Honda Accord
1993 Nissan March
1992 Honda Civic
1991 Mitsubishi Diamante
1990 Toyota Celsior/Lexus LS400
1989 Honda Civic
1988 Mitsubishi Galant
1987 Nissan Pulsar
1986 Honda Accord
1985 Toyota MR2
1984 Honda Civic
1983 Mazda Capella
1982 Toyota Soarer
1981 Mazda 323 FWD
[Honda = 9, Toyota = 6, Mitsubishi = 4, Nissan = 2, Mazda = 2, Subaru = 1]
