By: IOL Motoring Staff
Johannesburg - It's like a game of Survivor for cars; these are the 12 that made it through to the final round of the 2016 WesBank/SAGMJ Car of the Year award.
They were chosen from an original list of 45 eligible vehicle ranges by a 26-member jury, itself drawn from the ranks of the South African Guild of Motoring journalists.
And they are, in alphabetical order:
The next phase is where it gets hands-on, with preparations for two days of stringent evaluations at the beginning of February 2016.
Most of that will happen at the Gerotek test facility near Pretoria, where the jury members will assess each car independently, over routes and modules designed to mirror, as closely as possible, the way the average customer would use them.
That'll give the jury members the opportunity to re-acquaint themselves with the cars on specific aspects such as build quality, ergonomics, fuel consumption, environmental friendliness, safety features and value for money.
However, you can't compare a big SUV with a luxury sports two-seater - even though they might cost about the same - any more than you can compare the roadster with a budget hatchback of about the same size.
So the jury members will also have access to independent performance test data, comparative pricing and specification data, as well as comparative parts pricing data, compiled by the Guild's digital partner, MAPO. That way each finalist can be evaluated in comparison with the cars against which it will compete for the consumer's hard-earned money.
The big question being asked of each finalist is: “How much better is this car than other offerings in its segment?”
And when that question has been answered in finite terms - by each jury member, for each finalist - the scores (identified by code numbers, so the auditors won't know which score-sheet applies to which car) will be independently tallied.
Then, at a gala banquet on 8 March, the top scorer will be crowned the 2016 WesBank / SAGMJ Car of the Year.