Ford Fiesta wins AMI NZ Autocar Car of the Year

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Ford Fiesta wins AMI Insurance NZ Autocar Car of the Year

The Ford Fiesta has been judged the 2009 Car of the Year at the annual AMI Insurance NZ Autocar Car of the Year Awards.

The Fiesta was awarded 512 points out of a total of 600, comfortably beating the Nissan GT-R by 21 points.

NZ Autocar editor and chief judge, Kyle Cassidy, said the Fiesta was a clear winner with five of the six judges scoring it as their top pick. The Fiesta registered highly across the board, gaining high praise from all the judges in the area of driving dynamics, practicality and value

“The Ford Fiesta is a dynamic little car that re-defines value in the small car class It impressed the judges with its plentiful safety and convenience features, edgy styling and entertaining handling. As one judge commented, it’s ridiculous value and stupendous fun to drive.”

The Ford Fiesta was competing against five other vehicles vying for the AMI Insurance NZ Autocar Car of the Year Award. The award identifies the best new cars released in the preceding 12 months.

Six judges took the cars to Hampton Downs MotorSport Park for the final drive off, to determine the overall winner. Each car received an aggregate score out of 100 and was judged on design, performance, driving dynamics, practicality and value, with the points allocation being weighted accordingly so that vehicles from different categories can be fairly compared. The category winners are selected by the judges from new models launched in New Zealand between November 2008 and November 2009.

The other finalists were the Mazda3 (Compact Car of the Year), the Subaru Legacy (Medium/Large Car of the Year), the Kia Sorento R (SUV of the Year), the Jaguar XF-D (Luxury Car of the Year), and the Nissan GT-R (Performance Car of the Year)

Last year’s winner was the FPV F6.

Full results and judges’ comments about the overall winner and each of the category winners in the 2009 AMI Insurance NZ Autocar Car of the Year, will be published in the January issue of NZ Autocar Magazine on sale 21 December.

ENDS

ABOUT THE JUDGES

Kyle Cassidy
Kyle graduated with a Bachelor of Communications majoring in journalism from AUT Not long after, he landed his first journalism job with NZ Autocar. He started as editorial assistant, progressed to car reviewer and was appointed editor in October 2009. In 2007 Kyle won the Motoring Writers’ Guild award at the AA Motoring Excellence Awards.

Peter Louisson
Peter Louisson is senior editor at NZ Autocar. He joined the magazine in 2002 and has been a judge for Car of the Year since then. In addition to reviewing cars he evaluates motorcycles for NZ Autocar.

Paul Owen
Paul Owen is a six-time Qantas Media Award winner who first started contributing to New Zealand Autocar in 1995. He has written six books including the ‘as told to’ autobiographies of Aaron Slight, Possum Bourne, and Greg Murphy. He was recognized as Motoring Journalist of the Year at the 2007 AA Motoring Excellence Awards.

Dave Moore
Dave Moore is motoring editor for The Press and The Dominion Post and blogs for Stuff on all things automotive. He is a regular columnist for NZ Autocar, and he can be heard every week on NewstalkZB. He was named in the 2008 Qantas Media Awards as best transport columnist.

Laurie Brady
Laurie Brady is a second-time judge in the AMI Insurance NZ Autocar Car of the Year awards. He is the national assessing manager for AMI Insurance, a member of the Vehicle Standards Advisory Committee to Land Transport NZ and is a member of the NZ Insurance Council claims managers and motor technical committees. Laurie has had a life-long interest in the automotive industry. He owns a semi-classic car, a BMW 1150 RT touring bike, and follows motor racing. Before starting with AMI Insurance in 1990, Laurie owned various businesses associated with the motor industry.

Shaun Summerfield
Shaun Summerfield is a sports presenter for TV3 and motoring reporter for Campbell Live. He originally joined TV3 in Christchurch before moving to Auckland in 2002 to take up the role of weekend sports presenter. Shaun was New Zealand Television Sports Journalist of the Year in 2003, and in 2006 & 2008 won the Motorsport NZ award for television.

ABOUT NZ AUTOCAR MAGAZINE
NZ Autocar is New Zealand’s premier new car magazine and has been published for over 15 years. Owned by Fairfax Magazines, the monthly title includes the latest international and local motor industry news, reviews on the latest cars, and columns from the country’s leading motoring writers.

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