It was a clean sweep for Skoda at the Auto Express Car of the Year awards this week, as the Czech manufacturer walked away with five trophies including Car of the Year for its Citigo city car.
The Citigo was a double winner having earlier taken honours in the City Car category. The success was matched by the Superb: the saloon model was awarded best family car ahead of the Ford Mondeo and Kia Optima while the Superb Combi took the Estate car gong. The Driver Power Award for what was once seen as Volkswagen's affordable division rounded out the evening although the Skoda team was also commended for winning the table quiz...
The Volkswagen Group was well represented on the role of honour with the Golf Cabriolet taking Convertible honours while the Amarok fended off established competitors such as the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux to take the new Pick-up award. Porsche's new Boxster won the Roadster category ahead of the BMW Z4 and Mazda MX-5 with the SEAT Alhambra retaining its crown as the best seven-seat MPV.
Also scoring back-to back victories were the Ferrari 458 Italia, Peugeot RCZ and Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which took Best Performance car, Best Coupé and Best Luxury car awards respectively - the S-Class for the seventh year on the bounce.
The Luxury Car award was the only high point in Mercedes-Benz' night as its cars lost out to BMW in both the Compact Executive (3 Series) and Executive (5 Series) categories. The 1 Series scored the hat-trick for the Bavarian manufacturer by scooping the Compact Family Car award ahead of the Volkswagen Golf and new Kia cee'd.
Other new cars claiming awards were the recently released Peugeot 208 (Supermini), Mazda CX-5 (Crossover) and the Ford Focus ST, which won the Hot Hatch category a mere month after it went on sale. Ford's other win on the night, in the five-seat MPV category, came from its C-MAX model.
Double victory in the SUV categories for Land Rover with the Evoque taking Compact SUV honours and the Discovery doing likewise in the Large SUV category.
Vauxhall's range-extending Ampera model was honoured with the Green Award with the Jaguar C-X16, which will soon morph into the F-Type, given the Design Award.
Paul Healy - 28 Jun 2012