'09 SA Car of Year named at Jozi banquet bash

Would it have been your choice? The Honda Accord 2.4i Executive has been named as the South African Car of the Year from a shortlist of nine.

The announcement was made during a banquet at Gallagher Estates in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.

Honda also won the event in 2007 with its Honda Civic 1.8VXi sedan.

Honda SA's MD Yoshiaki Nakamura said: "The Accord's win is particularly sweet, given the highly competitive market conditions and the widely-held expectation that the title would be bestowed on a compact contender.

"Buying trends are favouring smaller, more economical models, but the Accord is a perfect example of how space, performance and luxury can be combined with frugality, efficiency and value to deliver a highly desirable and relevant motoring package."

The brand has also been represented as a COTY finalist several times. The CR-V SUV was a 2008 finalist and previous versions of the Accord and the Jazz also achieved finalist status.

The Accord sedan range offers a choice of two-litre and 2,4-litre petrol engines, as well as a recently announced i-DTEC turbodiesel. Transmissions offered are a six-speed manual and a five and six-speed automatic gearboxes.

Prices start at R270 900, which includes a three-year/100 000km warranty, and a five-year or 90 000km service plan.

SCORE SHEETS

The original long list of potential winners was polled from motoring journalists across South Africa towards the end of 2008 and was pared down to nine, which were tested on the same roads, on the Gerotek test tracks west of Pretoria, and on dirt roads near Johannesburg, in January.

That went on over three days.

Comprehensive score sheets were filled in by more than two dozen experienced motoring writers while on the move and the data crunched by independent auditors with a special focus on price.

Then it was the big wait until the announcement...

These were the nine finalists and adjacent to each is their average fuel consumption (in litres/100km) over the three days of testing in January.

Click on the names to read more about them

Ford Fiesta 1.6 Trend- 9.05

Suzuki Swift 1.5 GLS- 8.4

Mazda6 2.5 Individual- 11.2

Jaguar XF 3.0 V6 Premium Luxury a/t- 13.1

VW Tiguan 1.4TSi Trend&Fun 4Motion- 12.0

Audi A4 1.8T Ambition Multitronic- 10.9

Honda Accord 2.4i Executive- 11.3

Honda Jazz 1.5 EX- 6.95

Suzuki SX4 2.0- 9.85

The SA Car of the Year competition, organised by the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists, is recognised worldwide as the best there is for its depth and detail - the Mazda2 1.5 Individual that won in 2008 was shortly afterwards named as World Car of the Year.