Shell V-Power powers Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2011
Autoworld.com.my, the first car portal of Malaysia, has joined forces with Shell to organize the Shell V-Power Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2011. The award is now in its second incarnation having debuted in 2010, and this year’s edition covers all new cars launched in the Malaysian market between 1 November 2010 and 31 October 2011.
Fittingly for an award organized by the country’s first automotive portal, the 2010 edition of this award was the first to utilize the power of the Internet in its judging process. The vehicle evaluation process combines scores from test drive sessions led by chief judge Mr YS Khong with results of online votes from the public to pick its winners.
Test drive sessions of the nominated cars have just been completed for with 32 out of 33 nominated cars over four rounds of judging. Powered by Shell V-Power, the award’s panel of judges took the first eight cars to Banding Inn resort near Belum rainforest, and then took the next eight to Lumut. Along the way, the judges would swap cars at selected Shell stations whilst taking much-needed coffee breaks.
According to Mr YS Khong, “In our test drives, routes are specially plotted to give judges the opportunities to evaluate various ride, handling and performance characteristic of each vehicle in order to deliver a balanced verdict. To give even added element of fairness, all of our test cars were refueled by Shell V-Power 97 petrol, which is the ideal fuel for our test drive session as it is designed to improve performance, whatever car you drive.”
After a brief hiatus came the third and fourth rounds of evaluation, with Malacca and Ipoh being the respective destinations. It was hard work and play for the judges, who in the midst of evaluating the driving performance of the cars, also stopped by various attractions along the way, sampling the local culinary specialties. At the moment, the judges are preparing to review the final nominated car – Peugeot’s RCZ.
Online voting for the Shell V-Power Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2011 commenced on 1 November, and will conclude on 11 December 2011. Members of the public are invited to cast votes for their favourite cars and have a say in the outcome of what is, as of now, the only car awards in the country that incorporates public feedback into its scoring system.
“Our scoring system is unique in the sense that the public does have a say in the award outcome. Our judges may decide on one car, but if enough members vote for an alternative, results can be swung. Last year, there were several categories that had their results swung by online voting. This really took us by surprise as online voting only accounted for 20% of our scoring matrix for each car,” said Mr Khong.
“With that, there is little doubt then, that the Shell V-Power Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2011 is an award of great credibility. We can’t just decide our winners arbitrarily, our readers have to agree with them,” Khong concluded.
Logon now at www.autoworld.com.my/car-awards-2011/, vote for your favourite car and stand a chance to win cash prizes.
