Mercedes-Benz S-Class – 2014 Women’s World Car of the Year Awards
Female motoring journalists from 15 countries, including our editor Geraldine Herbert for Ireland, have selected this year’s winners of the Women’s World Car of the Year awards
Judges cast their vote on ten different criteria which remain the same in each category. As expected, elements such as design and function, style and appeal, comfort, storage and drive quality were included. Other elements considered in the voting procedure (and ones that aren’t always found in other car awards) include the ‘wow’ factor, sex appeal and value-for-money, all of which the judges felt to be important to women car buyers. The supreme winner is the car that wins its particular category and collects the most overall points.
Family Car: Audi A3 saloon
Sports Car: Audi S3
Luxury Car: Mercedes-Benz S-Class
SUV: Range Rover Sport
Budget Car: Honda Jazz (also known as) Honda Fit
Green Car: Tesla Model S
Overall Winner: Mercedes-Benz S-Class
The Auckland, New Zealand office of international accountancy firm Grant Thornton received, collated and analysed the secret ballot. Four of the categories produced the closest voting seen in the five-year history of Women’s World Car of the Year. Paul McCormick, the Partner in charge of the process, said it was very interesting this year to see a common trend develop as votes were received.
“This year, with more cars and more judges, the trend towards higher scores in the luxury and green car categories was evident very early in the voting. It was no surprise that the top three cars were in these categories in the final standings. “
The Audi A3 saloon just nudged out the VW Golf Variant/Sportsvan for the Family Car award. The Audi S3 barely pipped the BMW M4 in the Sports Car category. The closest vote of all came in the SUV category with the Range Rover Sport inching slightly ahead of the Porsche Macan. The Budget Car and Green Car segments,however, produced clear winners.
2014 PANEL OF JUDGES
Maggie Barry, Scotland
Sue Baker, England
Sylvia Barrfuldi, Italy
Malin Brand, Iceland
Regina Chan, Canada
Charleen Clarke, South Africa
Marta Garcia Fernandez, Spain
Lauren Fix, USA
LouAnn Hammond, USA
Geraldine Herbert, Ireland
Renuka Kirpilani, India
Jenni Krohn, Finland
Maria Lechleitner, Italy
Jacqui Madelin, New Zealand
Jil McIntosh, Canada
Odiel Mennink, Netherlands
Sandy Myhre, New Zealand
Karla Pincott, Australia
Holly Reich, USA
Alicia Ryzewski, Argentina
For more information check out www.womensworldcoty.com
8th December, 2014
