THERE’S a fine tradition of introducing new judges to COTY with the same tender care fresh recruits are introduced to life in the army.
As this year’s debutante I get the full shock and awe of realising how much we’ve got to get through in a week: inspecting and driving 66 different cars at Ford’s You Yangs Proving Ground.
Then we take six on road before culling that to three, arguing some more and deciding on a winner, before heading home for tea and medals.
Meeting my fellow COTY judges also introduces me to the no-nonsense way that Wheels does things – if the arguments are this heated on day one will we reach the end of the week without a scrap?
You Yangs allows road tests to be concentrated like Campbell’s soup, and although most fun is had on the high-speed handling course and sliding around on the gravel – we have to know what cars are like with ESC both off and on, after all – it’s the mountainous durability circuit that’s most informative.
With scarred tarmac and blind crests it’s a good simulation of the real world, and the cars that shine on it tend to be the ones that impress everywhere else. It also features the spectacularly evil ‘chatter bumps’, a set of ferocious corrugations spaced deliberately to put suspension out of phase when hit at speed.
But while there are some very clear losers, there are many more potential winners and the debate over which cars we’re going to take with us soon gets heated.
Having been involved in similar tests on two other continents I can say without risk of perjury that Wheels’ is the most comprehensive and toughest going.
Yet for all the heat, there’s light as well – with the CX-9, Subaru Impreza, E-Class, A4, Astra and Volkswagen Tiguan going through.
With only good cars left we give full consideration to the most important question: which of our challengers is going to lift the crown…
Painted in Green Hell Magno after its Nurburgring spiritual base and air-freighted in from Germany, the Mercedes-AMG GT R will this weekend make its local debut at Australia’s premier motoring circuit – Mount Panorama, before the annual Bathurst 12 Hour race.
Although the left-hand drive hardcore coupe still wears Affalterbach number plates, and will be driven around our famous 6.172km track by five-time Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) champion and AMG brand ambassador Bernd Scheider, production right-hand drive models will arrive in Australia in July priced from $349,000 plus on-road costs.
The figure undercuts the $360K tag expected for the 430kW/700Nm GT R, thrusting AMG’s most track-focused model against the 397kW/610Nm 911 Turbo at $384,600 plus on roads. Plus, the facelifted 991 Series II GT3 is only weeks away from a Geneva motor show reveal.
The monstered 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine makes peak torque between 1900rpm and 5500rpm, before peak power arrives at 6250rpm and drills through the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The 1555kg GT R claims a 3.6-second 0-100km/h – not quite 3.0sec-quick like 911 Turbo – teamed with a 318km/h top speed.
Meanwhile, familiar V8 Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen will help punt the #22 Mercedes-AMG GT3 entry at the weekend’s Bathurst 12 Hour race, alongside Schneider in #83 and David Reynolds in #61 – all contesting a win in the outright GT3 class.
Japan, the SUV and Mazda triumph against a stellar COTY ’17 cast.
THE road grime has settled on the proving ground pounding and countless road kilometres at the core of Wheels’ prestigious Car of the Year award, yet the embers of fiery debate are still aglow.
We have a winner: the 2017 Wheels Car of the Year is the Mazda CX-9.
It also marks Mazda’s second consecutive COTY, following the ND Mazda MX-5’s triumph in 2016, making it one of just five brands to back up (with Ford, Holden, Mitsubishi and Volkswagen).
The CX-9’s victory also comes precisely four decades after the first for a Japanese car – the Honda Accord in 1977. Mazda’s first, with the 323, came three years later.
The 2017 Car of the Year was announced at a gala event in Melbourne tonight.
The rigorous COTY process saw a 28-strong field culled to a sensational six over three days at the Ford You Yangs Proving Ground in Victoria.
On Stage Two’s road loop, the heat was on the Mazda among fierce competition from the Holden Astra, Subaru Impreza and Volkswagen Tiguan, persuasive models from brands with multiple COTYs to their credit.
“The CX-9 blitzes the category for interior comfort and versatility, despite being smaller (and more than 130kg lighter) than the model it replaces,” wrote Wheels senior journalist Nathan Ponchard in Wheels’ bumper 194-page Car of the Year issue, which is on newsstands now and also available as a digital edition.
“This seven-seat SUV is so vastly superior to the competition, you’d need to stretch to a premium SUV like Audi’s superb Q7 to try and better it – for double the price…”
MOTOR’s Performance Car of the Year champion for the year 2017 is the Porsche 991.2 991 Turbo S.
The uber 911 beat arguably the strongest PCOTY field ever assembled, the dozen contenders including the finest offerings from Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW, Audi, Mercedes-AMG and more, to record Porsche’s 13th victory at the event.
It completes a three-peat for the 911 following the victory of the 991 Turbo in 2015 and 991 GT3 in 2016, however while those wins were fairly emphatic, this year’s competition went right down to the wire.
You can read the full story on how the Turbo S scored its victory in the new issue of MOTOR, on-sale February 2, however while the final results were close, it was clear early on in the event that the 911 would be a major contender.
Combine this with tireless brakes, brilliant steering and an incredible ability to soak up punishment and once again Porsche’s engineers have confirmed that they are among the very best in the world at creating performance cars.
The Audi A4 was named Australia’s most stylish car at last night’s Australian Motoring Awards, taking home the gong over fellow style contenders; Honda Civic, Holden Astra and Ford Mustang.
Each car put a stylish foot, or tyre, forward, but none were a match for the sophisticated sleek of Audi’s popular sedan.Now in its second year, the WhichCar Style Award aims to unearth Australia’s most stylish car following a strict set of criteria; design innovation, functional ergonomics, stand-out features, value for money and target market.
To be eligible, the car’s had to be released during the past 12 months and cost less than $100,000. A shortlist of 12 cars was put to public vote to select the four finalists which were judged by a panel of some of the country’s leading voices in design, fashion and lifestyle.
The results were close as judges argued their case between the emotive Ford Mustang and the classy Audi A4.
Style is in the eye of the beholder, and it’s no surprise that many expected the pupil-dilating Mustang to take home the gong after the statement-making Alfa Romeo 4C received the inaugural 2016 WhichCar Style Award.
The 4C is a car celebrated for its sexy, striking look. “An automotive Sophia Loren,” Michael Pickering, Men’s Style editor and WhichCar Style Award judge noted at the time. However, this year, it was the elegance and enduring grace of the Audi A4 won the judges over.
Now, the German mid-sized sedan was not without some stiff competition. The three other finalists were the forward-leaning and emotionally-pulling Ford Mustang, the sharp Honda Civic and the brand new, European-designed Holden Astra.
But ultimately, it was the quietly luxurious and highly detailed Audi A4 which came out in front. The judges were won over by the A4 cabin’s ambient, fine-ribbon lighting, the delicate emblems stamped on the interior and the beautiful metallic detailing, offset with leather and suede. This year’s winner came down a wonderful attention to detail on the inside, and enduring, sophisticated style on the outside.
“Straight away, you get a sense with the Audi A4 that it feels very ‘luxury’,” ELLE Editor-In-Chief, Justine Cullen commented. “It’s incredibly chic, it’s very pared-back.”
Tanya Buchanan, Editor of Belle agreed; “With the Audi A4’s interior, there was a beautiful use of tactile finishes that really appeals to me,” the design influencer said.
“The fabric, the leather, the brushed metal… they’re tactile, but nothing jars. It just feels very comfortable, luxurious.”
While the Audi does sit at the upper end of the $100,000 price point, when you consider the finer details, its money well-spent. As our judges noted, there has not been one aesthetic feature overlooked.
“The beauty of the Audi is like a blank palette. It allows the designers then to dress that with detail,” said Australian automotive designer, Paul Beranger.
“It’s like wearing a beautiful black dress, and then dressing it with jewellery and other small pieces that just make the overall statement stand out.”
ABOUT THE WHICHCAR STYLE AWARDS
- The 2017 Which Car Style Award finalists were the Ford Mustang, Holden Astra, Audi A4 and Honda Civic. Following an online reader poll.
- Vehicles are not rated against each other, but measured against a strict criteria. This criteria covers design innovation, functional ergonomics (practicality of the design), stand-out features (X-Factor), value for money and target market (how well the design meets owner’s wants and needs).
- All vehicles were giving a score out of 50 by each of our six judges. The 2017 panel was led by renowned Australian automotive designer Paul Beranger and included editors from Bauer’s leading lifestyle brands; Tanya Buchanan from BELLE, Emma Vidgen from Real Living, Justine Cullen from ELLE, Ged Bulmer from motoring titles such as Wheels Magazine and Michael Pickering from Men’s Style.
The new Impreza is a massive leap forward, and a welcome return to form that made its mark on the COTY top six.
SUBARU’S model plan often feels like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get next. Sure, with the exception of the Subaru BRZ they’re predictably boxy and send drive to all four corners, but dynamic quality is far more hit and miss.
No longer – the new car is vastly better. If we were handing out a gong for the biggest improvement of the year then the Scooby would have scooped it. It’s across-the-board, from design to handling, with generous standard kit and competitive pricing sharpening its case. While the old car was as blunt as a wooden spoon, this one practically has a serrated edge.
The proving ground element demonstrated the fundamental quality of the chassis, which is both impressively compliant over bumps and taut feeling when asked to play in corners. All-wheel drive is unique to the segment, and comes in the basic 2.0i for under $23,000, while the $29,190 2.0i-S hatch adds torque vectoring that could be felt working to tighten the car’s line in slower corners.
The Subaru scored particularly well on safety with the optical Eyesight monitoring system working extremely well, if proving itself to be a bit over-keen when it came to reporting lane departure. Radar cruise is good and in our AEB tests the Subaru Impreza earned a star from teacher, its system working faultlessly at spotting and reacting to threats, putting many (much) more expensive rivals to shame.
The new Impreza is a massive leap forward, and a welcome return to form, for what was once one of the world’s most compelling car brands.
It’s clear this A4 generation is the best Audi ever sold in Australia, but can it top the final six?
THE PHRASE ‘always the bridesmaid and never the bride’ could have been tailor-made for the Audi A4.
Around in one form or another for over four decades and eight iterations, the premium medium from Ingolstadt has long lived in the critical and commercial shadows cast by its cutthroat compatriots, the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.
For today’s B9 generation, it was as if all stops were pulled out. Old bugbears like uncompetitive pricing, poor spec, meagre base-model performance, bone-jarring ride, nose-heavy handling, corrupted steering and poor rear-seat packaging are now things of the past.
Around 65kg lighter despite being longer and wider than before, the B9 rides on the same aluminium- and magnesium-intensive MLB Evo modular longitudinal architecture underpinning the latest Audi Q7, and – as with that SUV behemoth – the resulting levels of strength, rigidity, and refinement transform the Audi.
And not just on the expensive variants. Past experience with German cars in this class has taught us that things only really started getting interesting mid-way up the range, but because all the ingredients are now in place, even the base 1.4 TFSI S-tronic sedan puts forward an extremely persuasive argument. Nothing gives the entry-level game away.
Long-time readers will know that one area where the A4 conceded ground to its BMW and Benz opponents was dynamics, underlined by the fact that the latter pair boast the on-paper benefits of rear-drive engineering. While we have yet to see a B9 RS4 to pitch against a respective BMW M3 or C63 AMG, the core Audi models have at last closed that gap as well, more or less.
In the final wash, whether coming up trumps tackling the You Yangs PG or taking in the extensive and demanding drive loops that systematically eliminated many more expensive rivals, it is clear that this A4 generation is the best Audi ever sold in Australia.
Mazda’s stylish seven-seater manages to meld together the core Car of the Year disciplines and commands attention in the final six.
In the 12 years since the Ford Territory won Car of the Year, sales of SUVs have risen from 18 percent of the total Australian market to 37 percent in 2016, just four points shy of the dwindling passenger-car percentage.
So it’s somehow timely – perhaps even well overdue – that Mazda has delivered us a seven-seat family SUV as desirable as the new-generation Mazda CX-9.
A true indicator of the CX-9’s excellence is how it manages to meld together the core COTY disciplines – Function, Technology, Efficiency, Safety, Value – into one consistently satisfying whole.
For example, the technology it brings isn’t just for impressing the neighbours. An aluminium bonnet and front guards in a $42K base-spec seven-seater brings real-world chassis-balance and fuel-efficiency gains, not to mention a value-for-money prize.
Loveliest of all is its interior quality. A superb leather-bound steering wheel, even on the base model, and excellent dashboard presentation and finish mark this mainstream Mazda as something beyond its station in life.
Its drivetrain – a spirited 170kW/420Nm 2.5-litre turbo-petrol four – has enough spunk to match the most accelerative seven-seaters in its class but with fuel economy at least 20 percent better than any V6 rival (including the previous-gen CX-9).
CX-9 began its journey to COTY glory by wiping the floor with its rivals in a 10-car Megatest earlier in 2016, and commands attention as a COTY finalist.
2017 WHEELS CAR OF THE YEAR! We name the best ride you can buy. HSV’s 474kW GTSR revealed; we sample Kia’s rear-drive twin-turbo Stinger and then send a smokin’ Mercedes-AMG GT R sideways; and hunting Tassie tigers in one of Jag’s quickest cats
ALSO INSIDE THIS BUMPER 196-PAGE EDITION
- 2017 Wheels Car of the Year: Behind the scenes, all the contenders
- GTI v GTi: VW, Pug hot hatches duke it out
- Lexus LC500: Space-age looks, old-skool V8
- Saud and proud: The sublime Mercedes-Maybach in its element
- BMW’s 5 Series steps out in style
- Wheelstories: The bloke who started Giocattolo Motori
The WhichCar Style Award is back for its second year and set to be announced tonight at the Australian Motoring Awards.
Last year, the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider took home the gong, pipping fellow finalists Land Rover Discovery Sport, Holden Cascada and the Jaguar XE.
It was the Alfa’s shouty design and artistic flare that won the Italian car the top spot of the inaugural WhichCar Style Awards.
This year the judging panel had an even bigger challenge. From 12 contenders, the public voted on Australia’s four most stylish cars of 2016.
The Ford Mustang, Holden Astra, Audi A4 and Honda Civic finalists were closely scrutinised by our judges who assessed each of the cars based on the following criteria:
- Design Innovation
- Functional Ergonomics
- Stand-out Features
- Value For Money
- Target Market
Visit www.whichcar.com.au at 7:15pm tonight to find out who won the WhichCar Style Award for 2017.
