Nation’s best cars honoured in Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2013
Petaling Jaya, 9 January 2014 – The Autoworld Car of the Year Awards has just concluded its fourth edition with the announcement of its 2013 winners in a specially-held grand presentation dinner at the Tropicana Golf & Country Resort this evening.
Attending the dinner were representatives of various automotive companies, members of the media, and other invited guests, who were being hosted by staff and management members of Autoworld.com.my Sdn Bhd and its parent company JobStreet Corporation Bhd.
With the aim of providing consumers an independent and unbiased judging to acclaim only the best cars among the best, the Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2013 selects its winners using a unique scoring matrix that combines scores from a panel of judges and also an online voting poll open to its database of over 130,000 registered members and more than 200,000 monthly unique visitors.
Continuing his service as the award’s Chief Judge is Autoworld.com.my editor Mr Y.S. Khong, who worked with a team of ten judges to pick nineteen winners from a pool of 32 nominated cars. The judges’ scores make up 80% of the overall evaluation with the remaining 20% decided by online voting.
The nineteen categories of the awards cover all mainstream sections of the market including passenger cars, MPVs, and SUVs. Notable awards include the Value for Money passenger car, MPV, and SUV categories that represent the smartest possible purchases for the pragmatic consumers. The three value for money winners were the Honda Jazz, Mazda CX-5, and SsangYong Stavic.
Environmental sustainability was also given a nod with the specially created Alternative Energy vehicle category for hybrid and electric-powered vehicles, this year won by the facelifted Honda CR-Z, which was also named Best Coupe / Performance Car. It was a largely profitable night for Honda, with the Accord and CR-V also bagging awards in the Mid-Sized Passenger Car and Crossover / SUV categories respectively.
As before, members of the public were given their say in the overall outcome of the awards. Besides contributing 20% to the overall score of each vehicle, the car that garnered the highest total number of votes from Autoworld members receive the Autoworld Members Choice Award. Members of their judging panel also convene to select their own Judges Choice Award whilst the vehicle with the highest overall score walks home with the Overall Car of the Year Award.
For the first time in the awards’ history, this year’s Members’ Choice, Judges Choice, and overall awards all went to a single vehicle – the Volkswagen Golf GTI. In the Judges Choice selection, nine out of the panel’s eleven judges had voted for the GTI.
The Autoworld Car of the Year Awards 2013 continues to enjoy strong support from its long-term partners, with the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) maintaining its role as a supporting organization. It is also strongly backed within the media fraternity, with SME Magazine being the awards’ official media partner, and three other motoring publications – Cars.my, On The Road, and Traction – playing the roles of supporting media partners.
