Twelve vehicles, comprising models from Italy, Japan, Korea, Germany, France, and Sweden and, in keeping with the diverse South African automotive landscape, covering almost every motoring genre will battle it out for the ultimate local automotive accolade: the 2019 AutoTrader South African Car of the Year.
As anticipated, voting revealed such close scores the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists (SAGMJ) increased the finalists from ten vehicle models to twelve contenders. They are, in alphabetical order:
The Alfa Romeo Stelvio, the Honda Civic Type R, the Hyundai Kona, the Lexus ES, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, the Nissan Micra, the Porsche Cayenne, the Renault Duster, the Suzuki Jimny, the Suzuki Swift, and the Volvo XC40.
The 25 Jurors will be given the opportunity to drive all the finalist vehicles over the next three months under normal driving conditions experienced by the average consumer. The formal evaluation days, scheduled for March at Kyalami, Gauteng, will allow the COTY Jury to assess the cars independently, with routes and modules designed to test the vehicles on specific criteria.
For the first time in the 34-year history of the contest categories have been introduced and the five categories in the 2019 event are: Urban Compact (small hatch and sedan), Medium Family (hatchback/medium sedan, and MPV), Premium (executive and premium sedans), Leisure SUVs and Crossovers, and Lifestyle Utility (bakkies, 4×4s, and bakkie-derived sports utility vehicles).
All entrants must meet one major requirement to win a category: they must finish in the top six out of the 12 finalists in terms of overall scoring, and a neck-and-neck battle is predicted in four of these five categories. However, while the Lexus ES is the only one finalist in the Premium category, this does not mean it will automatically win, as it needs to finish in the overall top six.
The Micra and Swift do battle in the Urban Compact category, the Civic Type R and A-Class go head-to-head in the Medium Family category, the Pajero Sport and Jimny are the contenders in the Lifestyle Utility category, while the Stelvio, Kona, Cayenne, Duster, and XC40 will contend the Leisure SUV and Crossover category. The winners of the categories and the overall winner will be announced at a gala event in April this year.
– Paul van Gass
