The South African Guild of Motoring Journalists (SAGMJ) last night announced the Volkswagen Golf VI 1.4 TSI 90 kW Comfortline as South Africa’s 2010 Car of the Year (COTY) at a gala banquet held at Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand.

The announcement of the prestigious accolade comes after a stringent process of voting and physical testing of eligible cars launched onto the SA market from 1 November 2008 and 31 October 2009. An in-depth poll of the SAGMJ full members, followed by a second vote by the COTY jury, arrived at eight finalists towards the end of last year. The COTY jury, made up of the top motoring journalists in the country, then put the finalists through two days of testing in February and subjected them to a rigid scoring process.

The final audited scores showed the Volkswagen Golf VI 1.4 TSI 90 kW Comfortline as the eventual winner of what is widely considered to be the most prestigious accolade in the motor industry. It beat off strong competition from the Alfa Romeo MiTo 1.4 TBi, Audi Q5 2.0T FSI quattro S tronic, Chevrolet Cruze 1.8 LS, Hyundai i20 1.6 GLS, Suzuki Alto 1.0 GLS, Toyota Prius 1.8 ECVT Advanced and Volvo XC60 3.0T Geartronic, which were the other finalists vying for honours in the country’s premier motoring event.
Much of the evaluation process took place at the world renowned Gerotek vehicle test facility outside Pretoria, making the South African Car of the Year competition unique amongst similar accolades awarded globally because of the extensive testing which takes place in a controlled environment. The contenders are also evaluated taking their direct market rivals into account and are therefore judged in their segments rather than against each other.

Run by the SAGMJ since 1986 and sponsored by Wesbank since its inception, previous winners include the Toyota Corolla Twin Cam (1986),  Mercedes-Benz 260E (1987), BMW 735i (1988), Toyota Corolla GLi Executive (1989), BMW 525i (1990), Opel Monza 160 GSi (1991), Nissan Maxima 300 SE (1992), BMW 316i (1993), Opel Kadett 140 (1994), Opel Astra 160iS (1995), Audi A4 1,8 (1996), BMW 528i (1997), Ford Fiesta Fun (1998), Alfa Romeo 156 T-Spark (1999), Renault Clio 1.4 RT (2000), BMW 320d (2001), Audi A4 1.9 TDI (2002), Volkswagen Polo TDI (2003), Renault Megane 1.9 dCi (2004), Volvo S40 2.4i (2005), Audi A3 Sportback 2.0T (2006), Honda Civic 1.8VXi Sedan (2007), Mazda2 1.5 Individual (2008) and the Honda Accord 2.4 Executive (2009).

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