2016 Women’s World Car Of The Year – Winners

The international launch of the Jaguar F-Pace in Montenegro Pics: G Herbert

The international launch of the Jaguar F-Pace in Montenegro
Images by G Herbert

 

Women motoring writers have their say! Voting is complete to find out the 2016 Women’s World Car of the Year writes Geraldine Herbert

The Supreme Winner of the 2016 Women’s World Car of the Year is:

Jaguar F-PACE

Judges vote initially for the car of their choice in six different categories. The Jaguar F-PACE won the SUV/Crossover category from six other contenders. Judges then voted again from the list of six category winners in Women’s World Car of the Year to choose the Supreme Winner.

“We are delighted that the F-PACE has been voted not only Best SUV/ Crossover but also Supreme Winner in the 2016 Women’s Car of the Year awards,” said Fiona Pargeter, Head of Global PR Communications at Jaguar Land Rover.

“This prestigious title is a true highlight in the continuing F-PACE success story. The combination of beautiful design, everyday usability and unrivalled driving experience set the F-PACE apart from the competition, and is attracting new customers to the Jaguar brand worldwide.”

The Jaguar F-PACE was the first model to be built by Jaguar in the compact luxury crossover SUV class. It was formally announced at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

 

Women’s World Car of the Year 2016 Category winners:

 

Family Car Award:                                 Honda Civic

Budget Car Award:                                 Honda Jazz

SUV/Crossover Award:                        Jaguar F-Pace

Performance Car Award:                     Ford Mustang

Luxury Car Award:                                 Volvo S90

Green Car Award:                                   Toyota Prius         

 

Managing Director of Women’s World Car of the Year, Sandy Myhre, said winning a category is not easy, let alone winning the Supreme Award.

“From the early lists the judges send in there were some strong contenders in one or two categories but mostly only a few percentage points separate the top three cars in each segment. Honda must be congratulated for winning two categories – the Family Car Award for the Honda Civic and the Budget Car Award for the Honda Jazz.”

The voting process is rigorous.  Judges submit their personal short list and this year 294 cars were nominated by 17 judges from 14 countries. A master list is drawn from these choices and judges vote for their preference from the 32 cars in six categories that made the grade. Judges vote again from the list of six category winners to determine the Supreme Winner.

Women’s World Car of the Year is the only car award in the world voted for entirely by women and voting is by secret ballot. The final votes are audited by international accountancy company, Grant Thornton, from their Auckland (New Zealand) office. The company has been associated with Women’s World car since its inception seven years ago and Partner, Paul Kane, said it’s a tight competition.

“Reaching a final decision for each category and choosing an overall winner is difficult. Voting was very close this year and could have swung either way for the Supreme Winner.

“The Performance category was particularly hard-fought between two Fords – the Mustang and the Focus RS – with only one vote separating them.  The stand out was the Toyota Prius with the biggest margin in the Green Car category,” he said.

 

Holly Reich Dream Car Award:                 McLaren 570S

The Dream Car Award is dedicated to the memory of one of our judges, Holly Reich, who passed away in New York on 6th October, 2016.

This is a ‘free’ category where judges nominate their Dream Car – the one they would like to own – and the choices judges submitted this year were wide and varied.   

Holly Reich was one of the ‘early’ judges who joined the jury almost from the start of the awards and revelled in meeting women from around the world as an integral part of Women’s World Car of the Year. She joined other judges in Detroit to drive the new Ford Mustang in 2014 and was one of seven judges in Gothenburg in Sweden in May this year to present the trophy to Volvo for the XC90 winning the 2015 Supreme Award.

Fellow judges unanimously decided to dedicate this award to the memory of Holly Reich -a competent, professional and very popular fellow woman motoring writer. Discussions on the presentation of a trophy to McLaren Automotive are currently under way as are discussions to present the Supreme trophy to Jaguar Land Rover.

 

Geraldine Herbert is Ireland’s representative on the Women’s World Car of the Year jury.

 

For more info on the Women’s World Car of the Year check out the website,  Facebook page or follow them on twitter

 

Geraldine Herbert

17th November, 2016

Author: Geraldine Herbert

Motoring Editor and Columnist for the Sunday Independent and editor of wheelsforwomen. Geraldine is also a regular contributor to Good Housekeeping (UK), EuroNews and to RTÉ, Newstalk, TodayFM, BBC Radio and Vigin Media. You can follow Geraldine on Twitter at @GerHerbert1

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