By: IOL Motoring Staff
There's little doubt that Janis Joplin would have approved of this year's Women's World Car of the Year result.
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class has emerged as overall winner in the contest, which is judged by a panel of 23 female motoring experts, including South African journalist Charleen Clarke.
The judges also declared numerous category winners:
SUPREME WINNER
Mercedes-Benz S-Class
FAMILY CAR
Audi A3
SPORTS CAR
Audi S3
ECONOMY CAR
Honda Jazz/Fit
LUXURY CAR
Mercedes-Benz S-Class
GREEN CAR
Tesla Model S
SUV
Range Rover Sport
RUNNERS UP
The Audi A8 narrowly lost to the S-Class, by just one tenth of a point, in the Luxury Car category and the big Audi also came second overall in the competition, ahead of the Tesla Model S.
The WWCOTY statement did not list runners up for every category, but did mention that the VW Golf Variant/Sportsvan narrowly lost out to the Audi A3 saloon in the Family Car award, while the BMW M4 and Porsche Macan were also cursed with narrow defeats in the respective Sports Car and SUV segments. The Budget and Green Car segments were reportedly won with more comfortable margins.
JUDGING CRITERIA
The judging panel is expected to vote on ten different criteria, which remain the same regardless of category. Some of these include design and function, style and sex appeal, comfort, storage, drive quality and value for money.
The secret ballot is collated and analysed by the New Zealand office of international accountancy firm Grant Thornton, which commented that this year's voting was the closest seen in the contest's five-year history.
DREAM CAR
As a "fun exercise" on the side, the judges were also asked to nominate their dream car, the one that they would most aspire to own. Jaguar's F-Type took top honours here.