My thoughts on the 2nd Car of the Year winners

The envelopes have been opened and the winners of the 2nd Car of the Year — Philippines (held last March 30 at the Rockwell Tent) are now proudly showing off their all-glass trophies.

Now, one of the most frequently asked questions thrown my way as president of this year’s COTY-P proceedings is what I think of this year’s crop of winners. It’s a question that always sends me into a reflective mode. And I have to say that I see new angles to each victory (and defeat) in the recent awards every time I look back to it.

To refresh everyone’s memory, the candidates for this year’s COTY-P awards should have been available for sale to the public from Sept. 1, 2004 to Dec. 31, 2005. But that’s not all. This being the second year of COTY-P, cars that failed to win last year and have undergone no changes whatsoever (aesthetic or mechanical) are automatically disqualified to whittle down the field. This is why vehicles like the Toyota Corolla Altis and Camry, Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Pajero and Nissan Patrol and Cefiro were conspicuous by their absence. Needless to say all winners, whether they underwent a change or not, defend their title.

Next, the eligible cars should be present for COTY-P testing on specific weekends of January and February. Testing is held at a closed section of Forest Hills Golf and Country Club in Antipolo, Rizal. The course included a combination of short straights, sweeping curves, tight corners and steep inclines. Saturdays were for instrumented tests while Sundays were for qualitative tests. The numbers are then crunched and sent to SGV for audit.

And now for my take on the winners. The Hyundai Getz, winner of the Subcompact Car of the Year award, took some people (not COTY-P members) by surprise, many of them expecting the Honda Jazz to take the plum. It should be noted, however, that those people have not had the chance to drive a Getz. While the saying "it drives like a big car" is way overused, it’s perfectly applicable to this little Hyundai. It’s a platform-mate to the Kia Picanto (which was also a contender in this class) but the Getz feels much more sophisticated and refined, especially for its size. We tested the gasoline-engined model, but expect to be bowled over by the much torquier common-rail diesel variant.

Getting back to the anticipated Honda Jazz victory, considering that price is a big factor in the classification of the vehicles as well as in the overall rating, I don’t see it winning over its own Honda City sibling considering that the two cars’ performance is pretty much the same (they are mechanically identical) and they share just about every feature. The City adds a trunk but enjoys a substantial price advantage over the admittedly better-looking Jazz. But COTY-P is not a beauty pageant. (Still, we would’ve loved to see how the gorgeous new Suzuki Swift would have scored. Unfortunately, it was not available for testing.)

Runner-up to the Getz is last year’s class winner, the Toyota Vios. Obviously, the attributes that led to the Vios becoming a runaway sales champ were not lost to the COTY-P jurors who drove it.

Compact Car of the Year honors go to the Mitsubishi Lancer 1.8 MX. Talk about an underdog! What happened to the critically acclaimed Ford Focus and the highly popular Mazda3, you ask? To be perfectly honest with you, I too, expected either of those two competent cars to win.

"The Focus is a World Rally car!" a non-journalist friend of mine raged.

"You conveniently forget that the Lancer is a World Rally car too," I explained.

"But it’s never won a championship with the current platform," he shot back.

"Neither has the Focus," I said.

This is a case of the school wallflower getting picked by the crush-ng-bayan to be his date to the prom. Again, pricing had a lot to do with it. But the Mitsu’s relatively low price was not its sole strength.

Truth be told, the perennially overlooked Lancer is a stunningly solid car once you get past its bland exterior. It rides much more comfortably than the more firmly sprung Focus or Mazda3 and has impressive cabin space to boot. Throw in a torquey yet fuel-efficient engine mated to a high-tech CVT gearbox with a 6-speed manumatic shifter, a plush leather interior and a killer Pioneer DVD entertainment system with a pop-up LCD monitor and it’s like marrying a plain Jane who turns out to be fantastic lover, a wonderful mother and a great cook.

Runner up to the Lancer is the new Hyundai Accent, whose state-of-the-diesel engine-art CRDi motor simply blew away its gas-engined rivals even with its tachometer needle barely touching 2000 rpm.

The 2nd COTY-P’s Executive Car of the Year is the Mazda6 2.3, a driver’s car of the highest order. And a surprise really, considering that the "driver’s cars" in the Compact Car class failed to win. The Mazda6 outscored the 2nd-placed all-new Hyundai Sonata as well as last year’s class and overall winner, the Honda Accord 3.0 V6.

Sporty good looks, BMW-like driving dynamics, a lower price and a just right-sized 2.3-liter 4-cylinder engine (the Accord and Sonata had more powerful but gas-guzzling 3.0- and 3.3-liter V6s) mated to a manumatic transmission were the Mazda6’s aces.

A lot of people expected a mighty war between the Audi A4 2.0, the BMW 320i and the supercharged Mercedes C180 Sport for Luxury Car of the Year honors. Who would’ve known that the mighty German triumvirate would be toppled by one brash American in the Chrysler 300C? Size-wise the flashy 300C belongs to the next bigger-sized class. But as price takes precedence over size (realities of the market) and since its sticker is closer to the A4/3-series/C-class segment rather than the much more expensive A6/5-series/E-class range, the Chrysler’s vastly more commodious cabin and much more powerful (by at least 100 hp) 3.5-liter V6 wallop the other cars’ tighter interiors and 1.8- and 2.0-liter fours. (Fuel economy is much less of a consideration in this category.) Runner-up to the 300C is the slick and superbly engineered Audi A4.

As responsible journalists, it was our job to tell the filthy (and not-so-filthy) rich which P5.0-million-and-up ultra-luxury sedan was best for them. In this case, it was the BMW 530i which got the Ultra-Luxury Car of the Year nod, followed by the same company’s new CRDi-powered 730Ld (yep, they were in the same price bracket as a super-duper-ultra-ultra-luxury car class seemed too much already). Credit the Bavarian’s renowned driving dynamics, higher horsepower, excellent build quality, advanced technology — among many other virtues — to raise them over the likewise excellent and great-looking Audi A6 2.4 and Mercedes S350, the only other cars represented in this class.

In the pickup race, expectations ran high for the hot-selling Toyota Hilux and Isuzu D-MAX. Again, quite a few eyebrows were raised when the Ford Ranger’s name was called as Pickup of the Year. But why should it? The Ranger was last year’s winner in this category (and is the only repeat winner). As in the case of the understated Lancer, the Ranger’s styling takes a backseat to the macho bearings of the Hilux and D-MAX. But factor in the best ride in its class (a very relative term), a super-smooth yet powerful turbodiesel engine, impressive build quality, very good braking performance abetted by ABS and a very reasonable price tag and you’ve got yourself another David slaying the Goliaths. The most-powerful-in-class Hilux came in 2nd, though, underscoring the terrific overall performance and quality one can expect from this Toyota, that is, if you can afford its price premium.

For the Entry-level MPV of the Year, the award went to the Toyota Innova, which competes in COTY-P ofr the first time. This is one award that hardly needs an explanation. Compared to its rivals, its list of features, overall performance and build quality was so much higher that it was almost in a class of its own. (Last year’s winner, the Hyundai Starex, came in 2nd.) Price-wise, the Innova hit right smack in its competitors’ sweet spots, further cementing the deal.

One class up, the 7-seat Mitsubishi Grandis took Luxury MPV of the Year honors over the likewise 7-seat but substantially bigger Chrysler Town & Country, its sole rival. A more car-like driving experience, a more fuel-efficient 2.4-liter engine (coupled to Mitsubishi’s manumatic Sportronic gearbox), an admirably high build quality and a whopping million-peso price advantage won over the T&C’s more powerful but much thirstier 3.8-liter V6, roomier interior, ingenious Stow-N-Go leather seats and jaw-dropping power sliding doors and tailgate.

One of the most competitive categories was the Compact SUV of the Year, won by none other than the Mazda Tribute 3.0 V6. It beat the likes of the Honda CR-V 2.4 (this year’s runner-up), Nissan X-Trail 2.5 (last year’s winner), Ford Escape 3.0, Hyundai Tucson 2.0CRDi, and Toyota Fortuner 2.7G. Personally, I wouldn’t have been surprised if any other of these vehicles won. They each had their own lengthy list of strengths and a few weaknesses but in the final tally, the numbers pointed to the fun-to-drive Mazda with the big power moonroof. (I’d also like to point out that no off-roading tests were conducted for the simple reason that 99% of SUV buyers almost never take these trucks off-road.)

In the Luxury SUV of the Year category, the very capable Volvo XC70 took top honors with the tough-looking Dodge Durango placing second. It was a very diversified field which included players like the BMW X3, the Ford Explorer and Expedition, and the Kia Sorento. Again, city driving was the Volvo’s strong suit, as was its exceedingly comfortable ride and stable handling — even on some rough portions we subjected it to. Its strong yet fuel-efficient turbocharged gasoline engine and renowned European luxury car-typical solid build quality was much appreciated too. Its full-time four-wheel-drive system, although not really tested during our on-road-biased drives, is likewise one of the more sophisticated and effective 4WD systems in the comparo.

Last but not least is the Ultra-Luxury SUV of the Year award which was brought home by the Mercedes-Benz ML 350. The older ML took a beating at the hands of the BMW X5 in most markets but with this all-new 2nd-gen ML-class, much, if not all, of its weaknesses have been ironed out. Still the common-rail turbodiesel powered BMW X5 3.0 came in 2nd, underscoring that model’s many strong suits, not the least of which is its satisfyingly sporty driving dynamics and lengthy list of technically advanced features.

You probably know by the now that the Overall Car of the Year — Philippines is the Mazda6 (chosen from the category winner with the highest numerical score). Interestingly, last year’s overall winner, the Honda Accord 3.0 V6, came from this class, too. Now if this is a reflection of the jurors’ subliminal (or conscious) aspirations or not, I don’t know. In Europe, where more people can afford luxury cars, no single luxury sedan has won in the past 30 years. It has always been hatchbacks, which is the staple of European streets. Without taking anything from the Mazda6’s much-deserved victory, perhaps a rethink of the judging criteria might be in order to make the eventual winner more reflective of the average Filipino buyer’s needs (and not wants). But that’s just my humble opinion.

Another notable result is that of Hyundai, what with a class win and no less than three runner-up finishes. Clearly, the Koreans are getting better and better at building cars. Bring on the next Car of the Year contest!

Boy, do you make us work! Some of your questions and observations have us on our toes. Hopefully, we address them well enough here.

Mr. Leuterio should have exerted more effort in researching for April 19’s piece on Motorshows — credit Victor "Atoy" Llave of A-Toy Bodykits for Ford Escape and Ranger set ups. — 09209079554 (Immediately after he’d read his column in newsprint, Mr. Leuterio did in fact call The STAR to send his apologies for the error which he knew he’d committed.)

I own a 2002 Grand Vitara V6 manual transmission with ABS and standard 16-inch wheels. I want to modify it by using 18-inch wheels. Will it affect my ABS? — Bobby from Palawan (Ideally, it should not. What it is most likely to affect is your vehicle’s ride. Expect it to be a bit more harsh and bumpy since you’ll be using thinner tires to accommodate larger rims in your wheel well.)

Please let me bid farewell and give my salute to J.S. Vergara Transport for the service they gave us Caviteños before they folded-up. Adios JSV! — 09189005665

Please explain what is horsepower and what is torque? And how does it work in a certain vehicle? Thanks! — 09208505446 (That’s a very tough question to answer for such a small space. But we’ll try. Horsepower is a unit of measurement for power, just as the meter is a unit of measurement for length. The horsepower specification of engine tells you how much power the engine can produce. Torque, meanwhile, is turning force of an engine. It is a measure of the ability of an engine to do work. It’s a component of, but not the same as, the horsepower of the engine. More horsepower means more power in the engine. More torque means more force available to be able to use that power.)

Is the Mazda6 really worth buying more than the new Honda Civic? — Miko from Cavite (We think both cars — especially the Mazda’s 2.3L and the Honda’s 2.0L versions — are very competent but are made for two very different sets of users. They are not in the same weight, displacement, price and market range.)

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