Audi A3 named WCOTY
World Car of the Year awarded to Audi's new A3 in New YorkA quick straw poll of the 300-plus media gathered at the World Car Awards prize-giving ceremony inside the New York motor show venue revealed the Mazda3 was widely expected to win this year’s coveted World Car of the Year gong.
Those expectations were thrown a curve ball when Audi’s latest A3 luxury hatch polled more votes to snatch the top award away from Hiroshima’s star performer and Australia’s biggest seller.
The Mazda3 had emerged an early favourite for the main World Car of the Year award after it received glowing media reviews around the world since going on sale in recent months.
However, German cars took out a clean-sweep of the five trophies on offer, with the BMW i3 snatching up a double whammy of awards: the World Green Car and World Car Design of the Year trophies.
The other winners were the Porsche 911 GT3, which picked up the World Performance Car award, and the Mercedes Benz S-Class, which captured the inaugural World Luxury Car prize.
German cars have won seven of the past 10 World Car of the Year awards, with Volkswagen picking up four of the last six with models like the Golf, Polo and up! Japanese brands have won the remaining three, thanks to the Mazda2, Lexus LS 460 and Nissan LEAF.
Accepting the top award this year on behalf of the company, Audi’s North America president Scott Keogh said: “The Audi A3 has only been on sale three weeks and already it’s off to a flying start.”
Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi, said: “This major award win is an achievement that the whole company can celebrate.”
In its 10th anniversary year, World Car Awards’ co-chair Peter Lyon said that although the result was a surprise for some, Audi was indeed a worthy winner.
“The BMW i3’s best design award was more controversial as jurors seemed to either love its styling or well, not. But then again, we are a program that has 69 jurors spread across 22 countries, with varying tastes and values, so a slightly unexpected result is par for the course and what makes our awards a nail-biter.”
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