Women motoring writers from around the world have commenced the voting process to nominate the Women’s World Car of the Year for 2012.
The judges from eleven countries first submitted their own personal short list and more than 300 carswere suggested. These individual choices were then whittled down to form a master list of 32 in termsof popularity. Judges will now allocate points for these cars from a criteria list.
There are four categories in the Women’s World Car of the Year – Family Car, Luxury Car, SportsCar and Economy Car. Points are allocated to each of ten criteria. Unusual in car awards worldwideis that one of those is for Child Friendliness yet statistics show that women drive children in carssignificantly more often than men.
This year has seen an increase in the number of judges voting. Women motoring writers fromArgentina, China and Japan have been added to the voting panel while other judges from Australiaand New Zealand have joined home colleagues on the jury panel.
The 20 women judges will send their secret-ballot votes to international auditors and accountants,Grant Thornton, at their Auckland, New Zealand, office and responses will be collated to produce thefinal awards list. The car with the most points in each category wins that category and the vehiclereceiving the most votes overall in any category will win the Women’s World Car of the Year for 2012supreme award.
The announcement of the winning cars in each category and the supreme winner will be made beforethe end of March. The supreme award trophy and category certificates will be presented to the carcompanies concerned at the Mondial de l’Automobile 2012 – the Paris Motor Show – in September.The supreme trophy will this year be made in The Netherlands. Category-winner certificates will bedesigned at Peartree Studios in Colerne, UK.
The first winner of the Women’s World Car of the Year was the Jaguar XF in 2010 and the trophymade in South Africa was presented at the Jaguar boutique showroom in Knightsbridge, London. In2011 there was a dead-heat between the Citroen DS3 and the BMW 5 Series. The two trophies madein India were presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2011.
Women’s World Car of the Year Limited director, Sandy Myhre from New Zealand, says the officialshort list already shows some stand-outs.
“In past years it’s been quite hard to tell at this stage what cars have a good shot at winning the overalltitle but this year it’s evident that at least four cars are definitely in the running.”
