Just Superb – it’s Car of Year
By Gerry Murphy
The Association of Professional Motoring Press has announced the winners of the APMP Car of the Year Awards 2016. The new Skoda Superb was the overall winner when all the votes were cast by an expert team of jurors.
The Powerscourt Hotel in County Wicklow was the venue for the second annual professional press awards, voted on by Ireland's most widely read motoring journalists. In an exciting year for new car launches, the cream of new machinery was judged using numerous criteria and votes cast.
The jurors from all forms of media including print (national and daily and Sunday newspapers), radio (local and national), TV and online voted for category winners firstly and then used a single vote to nominate their Car Of The Year from the category winners list. The open and transparent voting system is a key part of APMP’s operation.
“Superb is the best value for money large family car you can buy, especially in terms of square footage” said APMP chairman Michael Sheridan.
With each vehicle category, a juror had 25 points to distribute, with 15 points the maximum one vehicle could get and 0 points the minimum. This voting system delivered a list of category winners. From the category winners list each juror had a single vote for their nominated car of the year and a simple majority delivered the overall winners.
There were winners in ten separate categories, with Mazda collecting no fewer than three awards for the Mazda2, MX-5 and CX-3. Other manufacturers to claim awards included Audi (x2), BMW, Land Rover, Skoda and Volkswagen (x2).