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Carsales Staff20 Apr 2014
NEWS

WCOTY: The other winners

World Design, Luxury, Green and Performance Car Award winners announced

BMW, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz have continued Germany’s domination of the 2014 World Car Awards by claiming the Green, Design, Performance and Luxury trophies.

The Porsche 911 GT3’s World Performance Car Award, presented at the New York International Auto Show, came despite an engine-failure crisis, which has seen the car-maker replace almost 900 engines around the world within months of the car’s launch.

It’s Porsche’s third consecutive win in the category, following its 2013 award to the Boxster/Cayman twins and the 911’s 2012 trophy. Its Cayman also won the inaugural World Performance Car Award in 2006.

The GT3 trumped a field of 26 new cars and snuck home ahead of the other finalists, Ferrari’s brilliant 458 Speciale and the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, in the category that demands a minimum of 500 cars for eligibility.

“To be elected against such formidable competitors by a large number of auto experts pays a huge compliment to our designers and engineers,” Porsche Cars North America CEO and President, Detlev von Platen, said.

The World Car Awards jurors noted that “Race-engineered cars are Porsche’s original bread and butter and the latest 911 GT3 is 100 per cent at home on any track, with buckets of fine balance and handling prowess even with the engine theoretically in the wrong place.”

BMW’s i3 pulled off a unique double-header, winning both the 2014 World Green Car Award and the World Design Car Award.

It pipped the natural gas-powered Audi A3 Sportback g-tron and the radical Volkswagen XL1 to win the World Green Car Award and then slipped past the Mazda3 and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class to win the Design Award.

“To have the BMW i3 named World Green Car of the Year is a great honor,” said Dr Ian Robertson, Member of the BMW Board of Management responsible for Sales and Marketing. “From the production process onwards, the BMW i3 is a truly sustainable vehicle, created with the needs of the 21st Century city in mind.”

It is not BMW’s first World Green Car award, having won the 2008 edition with its more conventional 118d Efficient Dynamics edition.

But its World Car Design of the Year trophy surprised some, especially given that it’s not possible to exit the rear seats without opening one of the front doors.

Mercedes-Benz dominated the voting in the World Luxury Car Award with its all-new S-Class.

In the first year of the World Luxury Car Award, the S-Class beat home the Bentley Flying Spur and the Range Rover Sport.

“It’s not only our customers who expect a new S-Class to set standards, but also the journalists,” Daimler board member, Professor Thomas Weber said.

“The success of the S-Class in this category makes us very proud indeed, and once more demonstrate that we have met these expectations.”

As we’ve reported, Audi’s latest A3 was named the 2014 World Car of the Year, delivering the brand its seventh award in the World Car Award’s 10-year history.

The Audi stood out in the initial nomination of 24 cars, which the Award’s 69 jurors whittled down to a short list of 12 cars, then three finalists. In the final showdown, the A3 beat home the BMW 4 Series coupe and the new Mazda3.

While it is Audi’s second outright World Car of the Year award, the brand has also won the non-profit award program’s World Performance Car titles in 2007, 2008 and 2010 and World Car Design of the Year titles in 2007 and 2008.

The A3 shares much of its underbody architecture with the 2013 World Car of the Year winner, the Volkswagen Golf 7, though the A3 is made from a higher-specification version of the Volkswagen Group’s MQB modular small car architecture. Critically in the eyes of the judges, this specification includes a four-link rear suspension system that the Golf doesn’t receive.

The World Car Awards are the biggest in the world, according to Prime Research, and its jurors include motoring.com.au correspondents Michael Taylor and Peter Lyon, and 67 other jurors from 22 countries around the world.

To be eligible for the 2014 World Car Awards, cars had to be on sale on at least two continents between January 1, 2013 and May 31, 2014.

World Performance Car Award winners

2006 Porsche Cayman S
2007 Audi RS4
2008 Audi R8
2009 Nissan GT-R
2010 Audi R8 V10
2011 Ferrari 458 Italia
2012 Porsche 911
2013 Porsche Boxster/Cayman

World Design Car Award winners

2006 Citroen C4
2007 Audi TT
2008 Audi R8
2009 Fiat 500
2010 Chevrolet Camaro
2011 Aston Martin Rapide
2012 Range Rover Evoque
2013 Jaguar F-TYPE

World Green Car award winners

2006 Honda Civic Hybrid
2007 Mercedes-Benz E 320 Bluetec
2008 BMW 118d Efficient Dynamics
2009 Honda FCX Clarity
2010 Volkswagen BlueMotion
2011 Chevrolet Volt
2012 Mercedes-Benz S 250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY
2013 Tesla Model S

Past WCOTY winners

2005 Audi A6
2006 BMW 3 Series
2007 Lexus LS 460
2008 Mazda2/Demio
2009 Volkswagen Golf
2010 Volkswagen Polo
2011 Nissan LEAF
2012 Volkswagen up!
2013 Volkswagen Golf

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