Car of the Year is not just the numbers

Never have I agonised over a Wheels Car Of The Year decision quite like this one.

I’ll be completely open about that. In the past, I’ve built up a clear picture of what was rising to the top of the running order, whereupon I’d hand a voting slip to the editor, who’d disappear off to the traps to tally the numbers and declare the winner. Easy.

When Ged Bulmer was in the big chair, he did likewise, remaining shtum when asked what the winner was by one of the judges. “You know I’m not about to tell you that,” he fired back, observing Wheels’ time-honoured confidentiality ahead of the big announcement.

“But was the voting unanimous?” shot back the judge. “Yep,” said Bully, before realising his error.

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This year the voting wasn’t quite so cut-and-dried.

In fact, we had the rare luxury of a whole weekend to mull our final verdict. I’m not sure if those additional days swayed any decisions on the panel.

It didn’t change mine, but despite there being a clear majority in favour of this year’s winner, the gap between first and second place was more of a cleft than a gulf.

There will always be people who won’t like a COTY verdict. It’s the nature of the beast that when you throw 17 vehicle lines into the mix, only one will win – and therefore a lot of people will be disappointed that perhaps they backed the wrong horse or, come to that, feel that we have. Especially
so in a field as open as this year.

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Perhaps it’s worth looking at things another way. COTY isn’t a one-size-fits-all award. The fact remains that all of the cars that warrant an invite are extremely good.

The finalists are truly excellent and easily merit a buy recommendation. So if you see something you fancy in this year’s field, relax in the knowledge that in choosing it, it’s unlikely you’ll end up suffering much in the way of buyer’s remorse.

That said, there can be only one winner, and it’s a deserved champ. We put in the hard yards inspecting every car, putting them through the mill at the proving ground as well as on town and country roads, in order to bring you a verdict you can trust. Nobody else in Australia tests vehicles like this, but things have subtly changed.

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In the past, the judging criteria were numerically rigid.

The car that totted up the biggest numbers won, and this occasionally threw up some outlier decisions. We all know the examples (and many of you have sounded off in the comments of this timeline). This year, we’ve let the criteria guide the process and also relied on common sense and shared experience to arrive at a verdict that feels right.

If we’re awarding Car Of The Year to a vehicle which nobody then buys, we’ve clearly got something wrong. It’s still almost sacrilegious to admit in the office here, but that has happened in the past.

I’ll likely get phone calls from ex-editors telling me I’m wrong.

Nevertheless, I feel it’s our duty to help nudge COTY in a direction that better serves and prioritises our readers. I hope you agree.