The Subaru WRX has won New Zealand Autocar magazine’s Performance Car of the Year award – as the magazine notes changes to its overall awards system.
Autocar liked the ‘overall package’ provided by the WRX.
“The new and thoroughly improved model proves to be even greater value in the scheme of things, being cheaper and yet offering a raft of extras previously unavailable on the WRX, making it more of an all-rounder,” said the magazine.
“It extracts more go from a smaller engine, and travels further on each litre of gas,” said Autocar. “And better yet, the new WRX delivers enhanced dynamics and, as always, feels custom tuned to our roads.”
This week, the company also announced changes to its AMI Insurance Autocar Car of the Year process.
On its Facebook page Autocar explained it was shifting from size classes, to price classes.
“We thought the best way to simplify things in an increasingly busy market was to create new categories based around price rather than size and shape as we have done traditionally. Price, after all, is generally the determining factor in a purchase.”
The classes start with an under $30k category, then a $30k to $45k section, then $45k to $60k, and then $65k to $100k.
The class winners, who will now go head-to-head with the Subaru for the overall award were:
- Under $30k: Honda Jazz
- $30k-$45k: Peugeot 308
- $45k-$60k: Nissan X-Trail
- $60k$100k: Mercedes Benz C-Class
The awards will be presented December 3.
