The first-ever Women’s World Car of the Year awards have been announced from London. The supreme winner, the car that received the greatest number of votes, was the Jaguar XF. Jaguar XF edged out Audi A6 to win the coveted position.That a luxury car has won the supreme award in the Women’s World Car of the Year is an unexpected result given the ubiquitous ‘shopping basket’ is what many in the car industry consider to be a ‘woman’s’ car. But judges clearly considered the Jaguar XF to be well-constructed, competent, comfortable, a combination of sport and luxury and ideal for women. Judges are women motoring and published writers from around the world.
Volvo XC60 won the Women’s World Family Car of the Year while Honda Accord was awarded as a close runner up in the category. Audi TTS outshined the Mazda MX-5 to win Women’s World Sports Car of the Year award. Volkswagen Golf diesel beat the Ford Fiesta to win the Women’s World Economy Car of the Year award.
The awards were conceived in November last year and stemmed largely from the fact the USA-based World Car of the Year judging panel did not have a single woman judge in 2007. Indeed, the majority of car awards around the world are decided by a vast majority of men yet statistically women will make the final decision in all car purchases in as much as 85% of all sales.
Judging criteria represented the known ‘shopping list’ of women car buyers. This included storage spaces, dashboard friendliness, child friendliness, aesthetic appeal and driveability. There wasn’t the strict requirement to ascertain 0-100 in so many seconds or the Newton metres of torque (horsepower) but judges did, nonetheless, decide how well the car drove. The car’s ‘sex appeal’ was also considered.
Since model specification can differ between countries the decision was made for judges to also consider the overall model range in their voting, rather than one specific model. Cars that qualified had to be sold in at least 10-countries world-wide and available to the marketplace from between September 2008 and September 2009. A shortlist of 21 cars was decided early this year.
Judging was by secret ballot and votes were audited by international accountancy practice, Grant Thornton, from their Auckland, New Zealand, offices. As the voting forms were received it soon became evident that factors such as sex appeal and carbon footprint were assessed more critically and were awarded relatively low scores compared to some other categories.
It is also interesting to note that driveability and comfort rated the highest scores overall.
The judging panel comprised of women auto journalists like that of Caroline Carver from United Kingdom, Regina Chan and Jil McIntosh of Canada, Helene Griffiths of South Africa, LouAnn Hammond of USA, Renuka Kirpalani of India, Sandy Myhre of New Zealand and Liz Swanton of Australia.
