Winners: 2021 Cars.co.za Consumer Awards
There were 13 category winners for the Car of the Year awards and the recipient of the Brand of the Year title of the 2020/21 programme – supported by WesBank.
The results were announced during the Cars.co.za Consumer Awards TV presentation, which was broadcast on DStv’s Motorsport HD channel on 15 February.
The theme for this year’s #CarsAwards was “Be Part of the Journey – My Car, My Freedom.”
The #CarsAwards was conceived to be South Africa’s definitive automotive awards programme, and the list of vehicles it recognises is meant to guide car buyers to make the best-informed purchasing decisions…
The judging panel evaluates vehicles directly against their peers in specific categories, each of which has particular requirements. What’s more, 50% of the final scores is based on brand-specific after-sales data that incorporate customer feedback from thousands of South African vehicle owners.
Highlights:
- By winning the #CarsAwards Brand of the Year title for a third time, Toyota has become the most prolific winner of the programme’s most prestigious trophy. The Japanese marque was previously tied with Suzuki with two major titles apiece.
- Toyota won five of the 13 vehicle categories of the 2020/21 programme, followed by Volkswagen, which got three trophies. Although Toyota increased its historic tally of category wins to 9, it still trailed Volkswagen’s total number of wins (19).
- Derivatives of the Volkswagen Polo, Golf GTI and T-Cross, as well as the Toyota Fortuner, defended their category victories from the 2019/20 programme. The Golf GTI racked up its 5th category win in the 6-year history of the #CarsAwards, while the Fortuner defended its title for an unprecedented third consecutive year.
- Although Suzuki didn’t win the Budget Car category for a fifth year in a row, a Swift derivative clinched a category win (Entry Level Car) for a third consecutive time. The Polo 1.0 TSI Comfortline also won its category for a third year in a row.
- Land Rover/Range Rover won the Premium SUV category with the new Defender and improved by 12 positions to finish third in the Brand of the Year rankings.
- In no fewer than four of the 13 categories (Budget Car, Family Car, Hot Hatch and Leisure Double Cab) the judges’ favourites did not win, owing to the impact of data from the Cars.co.za
- The narrowest victory margin (0.01%) was in the Compact Family Car category; the largest (7.86%) was in Entry Level Car. Premium SUV had the smallest gap between first and third place (0.69%) and Family Car the biggest (11.79%).
If one counts Land Rover and Range Rover as one (the brands are listed as such in the Brand of the Year rankings), 18 brands were represented in the final round. Toyota and Suzuki led with 5 contenders each, followed by Volkswagen (4), BMW (3) and Volvo (3).
Category winners: 2020/21 #CarsAwards – powered by WesBank
Budget Car – Toyota Starlet 1.4 XR
Compact Hatch – Volkswagen Polo 1.0 TSI Comfortline Auto
Compact Family Car – Volkswagen T-Cross 1.5 TSI 110kW R-Line
Entry Level Car – Suzuki Swift 1.2 GL
Family Car – Toyota RAV4 2.0 AWD GX-R
Adventure SUV – Toyota Fortuner 2.8 GD-6 4×4 VX Auto
Premium SUV – Land Rover Defender D240 HSE
Executive SUV – Volvo XC60 D5 R-Design
Crossover – Toyota C-HR 1.2T Luxury
Premium Crossover – Volvo XC40 T5 AWD R-Design
Hot hatch – Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR
Leisure Double Cab – Toyota Hilux 2.8 GD-6 4×4 Legend Auto
Sports Executive – BMW 330is Edition
Impact of the Cars.co.za Ownership Satisfaction Survey
Fifty per cent of the final scores of the category finalists were determined by the rankings the vehicles’ respective brands achieved in the Cars.co.za Ownership Satisfaction Survey – in partnership with data specialists Lightstone Consumer.
The data was based on owners’ experiences of their vehicles (less than for years old and serviced through franchised outlets) and the survey affected the results in four #CarsAwards categories.
