Midrand - In what's been described as one of the tightest contests ever, the Porsche Macan S Diesel has won the WesBank SAGMJ Car of the Year competition, making a hat trick of consecutive wins for Porsche after the Boxster in 2013 and the Cayman S in 2014. This is certainly going to prove controversial.
The announcement was made at a glitzy banquet in Johannesburg on Wednesday night and follows an intense evaluation process that each of the 11 finalists was subjected to earlier in March.
The vehicles are put through their paces at the Gerotek test facility in Gauteng, after which each of the 28 South African Guild of Motoring Journalists jury members vote for a winner. Each juror is given 50 points to divide between at least seven vehicles and may not allocate more than 10 points to any one vehicle.
Rather than comparing the diverse group of finalists to each other, jurors look at how each one fares within the context of its own natural competitors.
To make the competition fully transparent, the SAGMJ has promised to make each juror's votes public in the days following the announcement. We'll make this information available to you as soon as it's released.
These were the 2015 finalists, in alphabetical order:
Audi A3 Sedan 1.4T FSI SE S Tronic
BMW M4 Coupe AT
Citroen C4 Picasso e-HDi 115 Intensive
Honda Accord 3.5 V6 Exclusive
Lexus ES 250 EX
Mercedes-Benz C 200 AT
Nissan Qashqai 1.6 dCi Acenta AT
Porsche Macan S Diesel
Renault Duster 1.5dCi Dynamique AWD
Subaru WRX Premium
Toyota Corolla 1.4 D-4D Prestige
PREVIOUS WINNERS
1986 Toyota Corolla Twin Cam
1987 Mercedes-Benz 260E
1988 BMW 735i
1989 Toyota Corolla GLi Executive
1990 BMW 525i
1991 Opel Monza 160 GSi
1992 Nissan Maxima 300 SE
1993 BMW 316i
1994 Opel Kadett 140
1995 Opel Astra 160iS
1996 Audi A4 1.8
1997 BMW 528i
1998 Ford Fiesta Fun
1999 Alfa Romeo 156 T-Spark
2000 Renault Clio 1.4 RT
2001 BMW 320d
2002 Audi A4 1.9 TDI
2003 Volkswagen Polo TDI
2004 Renault Mégane 1.9 dCi
2005 Volvo S40 2.4i
2006 Audi A3 Sportback 2.0T
2007 Honda Civic 1.8 VXi Sedan
2008 Mazda2 1.5 Individual
2009 Honda Accord 2.4 Executive
2010 Volkswagen Golf 6 1.4 TSI
2011 BMW 530d and Volkswagen Polo 1.6 TDI
2012 Hyundai Elantra 1.8 GLS Executive
2013 Porsche Boxster
2014 Porsche Cayman S