CIMB Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2010 – Thank you all for voting
Having kick started the first round of evaluations late in August, the judging team behind the CIMB Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2010 has completed its evaluation of all 28 nominated cars for the country’s first online car awards. The 28 cars were split into five rounds of road testing as the judges took time off their daily duties and burrowed our way through various scenic routes around the country.
Unique for a car award in Malaysia, scoring and ranking of the cars for the award is dependent on both the verdict of the judges, as well as opinion of the public. A scoring matrix was developed whereby the judging panel contributes 80% of the car’s total score, while public voting determines the remaining 20%.
Online voting took place for the entire month of November, where nearly 7,000 Autoworld members logged in and had their say in the award outcome as well. The saying ‘every vote counts’ is often used in politics, but we experienced that first hand in the process of analyzing our results. In certain categories, online voting was actually decisive in swinging results to the winning cars.
“We were shocked ourselves to see how even with only 20% of the scoring decided by the public, they were still able to influence the outcome of results. In fact, this fulfills our initial premise that the outcome of the CIMB Autoworld Car Awards 2010 would be a ‘consensus’ between public opinion and scoring from our judges,” said Jaime Cheng, General Manager of Autoworld.com.my.
Having visited Malacca, Penang, Cameron Highlands and Kuantan in the first four rounds of testing, the judging team went on a day trip to Tanjung Tualang, Perak, for the final round of testing, and a delicious seafood lunch. Five cars were evaluated for this final round, namely the Ford Fiesta, Lexus LS 460 Sport, Mazda CX-9, Mazda8, and Toyota Hilux 3.0.
As before, editor and chief judge Mr Y.S. Khong plotted a lengthy and comprehensive test route which allowed the judges to test the cars over a healthy mix of highway & trunk road driving. Our sojourn to the obscure town took us past the Selangor Fruit Valley at Rawang, but a tight schedule meant that we did not have time to sample its offering of durians and various local fruits.
The hard work did not end with the five test drive sessions. The judges actually re-convened after completing all the evaluation rounds to re-evaluate to review their decisions and reflect on their overall performance. Fortunately, save for some minor adjustments, the judges had remained pretty faithful to their original evaluations of the tested cars.
Reflecting on the overwhelming support received in organizing the award, Jaime said, “I would like to thank our judges and also voters for their hard work and support for taking us this far, to the brink of presenting our first ever car awards. Support from our sponsors are equally pivotal to our success, and on behalf of the CIMB Autoworld Car Awards 2010 team, I cannot thank all parties enough for their kind and unwavering support.”
“This award simply would not be possible without the generous help of our title sponsors CIMB Bank, and also our partners, namely KPMG, Malaysian Automotive Association, and SME Magazine. We also received strong support from our colleagues in other publications, such as Zerotohundred.com, iProperty.com, Lelong.com, Motorsportchannel.com, and Fastlane of Singapore,” Jaime added.
The public has spoken. The judges have also decided. The consensus has been made. Announcing of results for the CIMB Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2010 will take place on 12 January 2010 at our award gala dinner at Holiday Inn Kuala Lumpur.
