The Kia SPortage - Car of the Year 2010 in Scotland. You'd never have guessed from the photo
Time for another raft of motoring awards, this time the Scottish Car of the Year Awards judged by motoring experts from the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers (ASMW).
It sounds from all accounts as if it was a jolly day out north of the border for PRs from across the motoring industry, all travelling to the land of the long thistle for a spot of light refreshment and back-slapping.
Car of the year as far as the Jocks are concerned is the Kia Sportage, the separated at birth twin of the Hyundai ix35. We can see the logic of such a choice even if we don’t necessarily concur. Still, Well done Kia.
As for the rest of the winners they are:
Small Car of the Year: This seems to have been a scrap between the Suzuki Swift and the Citroen DS (by which we assume they mean the Citroen DS3). For some strange reason the Swift took the gong. Not a good decision; the DS3 is the best small car of the year and probably deserved to be Car of the Year
Family Car of the Year: The Skoda Superb was apparently the runaway winner with the Peugeot 3008 in second place. Again, good though the Superb is the Peugeot 3008 is exceptional and should have won.
Executive Car of the Year: Volvo’s S60 pipped the new BMW 5-series. On paper it looks like the right decision, but we haven’t driven either yet so we’ll sit on the fence.
Luxury Car of the Year: the new Jaguar XJ took the winner’s trophy here, beating off competition from the Audi A8. Entirely the right decision. The XJ should also have been fighting it out for Car of the Year with the DS3.
Sporting Car of the Year: SEAT Leon Cupra R took the win from the Peugeot’s RCZ, which is a bit of a shame. The RCZ wins hands-down on style, but could do with a bit more dynamism. Probably the right result.
MPV Car of the Year: The Peugeot 5008 took the title here in a close battle with Ford’s S-Max. Which we completely agree with. The 5008 is a good looking, clever and very good to drive MPV.
Diesel Car of the Year: The BMW 530d took this from the Jaguar XJ. The right two engines were in contention and as far as we’re concerned you can’t get a fag paper between them. The judges must have tossed a coin to get a winner.
Drop Top Car of the Year: Audi R8 Spyder took the award ahead of Nissan’s 370Z. We’re assuming they mean the V10 Spyder, in which case we’d find it hard to argue.
SUV Car of the Year: The Kia Sportage won. Which we wouldn’t, in a month of Sundays, consider to be a proper SUV. All things considered we’d have to vote for the Land Rover Discovery. Now that is a proper SUV. And properly brilliant with the latest 3.0 litre diesel.
Eco Car of the Year: SEAT’s Leon Ecomotive won here, which must have been a hard call with everyone and their dog claiming eco-stardom at the moment. Shove a pin in a list time.
Safety Car of the Year: An odd little category. They gave it to Suzuki’s Swift because it has seven airbags and ESP even though it costs less than a good night out. Not entirely sure we see the logic of a car winning simply because it’s cheap as well as safe.
We’re sure you’ll have as diverse a range of opinions on this as we do. But that’s the joy of awards – they’re open to subjective judgement.
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