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Car of the Year 2023

A weak vintage

Today, 12.1.2023, the 60 female jurors (not true, there are far fewer female than male members) of “The Car of the Year” had to cast their votes by 5 pm. Seven cars were up for election, 25 points were to be awarded, a maximum of 10 for a car, zero is also possible, but there must be a first choice – and this must also be justified in writing. Tomorrow, Friday the 13th, the winner will be announced at 12 noon at the 100th Brussels Motor Show. There were seven candidates to choose from (yes, there are eight in this picture, the Toyota bZ4X and the Subaru Solterra are competing together):

15 years radical has now been on the jury – and never before have we found it so difficult to make a choice. It was probably the weakest year in all these years, there was no vehicle this year that really stood out, that you wished should win at all costs. But we are open and honest about that, any time, so we will now work our way through the individual candidates. In addition, we have to write that we have driven each car (with the exception of the Kia Niro) at least once beforehand, that we were allowed to drive at least four laps of the “Circuit de Mettet” in Belgium in the last few days (in adverse conditions, however) – and that we have driven them over a short lap of our own choice, 25 kilometres over Belgian country roads, including a little mental exercise for the navigation system. Now it’s all about points:

We start at the bottom of our ranking, i.e. with the Volkswagen ID.Buzz. Sure, cool design – at least on the outside. Inside, it’s a bit more difficult, especially the materials used don’t convince us – one pouring rain and there are water spots on the seats. MEB is no good for us now in its third year. We don’t really know why we should rate the Buzz better than the ID.3 – because it’s bigger and heavier and has even less range? Or because it still doesn’t charge convincingly, but costs so much? Or because the software is still completely unsuitable, the navigation system doesn’t recognise the shortcut, but misinterprets every second road sign? No way.

The same number of points was awarded to the Renault Austral. It’s a mystery to us how this vehicle made it into the selection of the last 7, a typical SUV, in no way unusual. And as a mild hybrid it is difficult to understand, the complicated gearbox is constantly searching for the right gear and never finds it, then the engine whines constantly at 6000 rpm – and still doesn’t move the car forward decently. On the track, the Austral pushes brutally over the front wheels, something we haven’t experienced in this form for a long time. At least the navigation system found the shortcut and the Google connection works perfectly. But whether the customer really wants that is another question. And no, the Renault is not a bargain.

We gave the Peugeot 408 twice as many points as the VW and the Renault, i.e.: 2. Which was probably solely due to the colour of our test car. And to the fact that the Lion also took the shortcut in the navigation test. But otherwise we lack understanding for this huge pseudo-coupé, whose boot is too small and in which the rear passengers find rather limited space. As a PHEV, the electric range is too short, the petrol tank too small – worst of both worlds, rather unsuitable as a long-distance vehicle (although it looks different). And in our humble opinion, “good value for money” looks quite different. (Yes, we have more pictures, but the Peugeot is our current test car, so a detailed report will follow).

Yes, we gave the all-electric cars significantly more points this year. No, they didn’t offer any real innovations, but the classic internal combustion vehicles/PHEVs were even less so. The Jeep Avenger is kind of cool, pretty on the outside with all the Jeep ingredients (except: 4×4), but rather old-fashioned on the inside, technologically quite outdated. But the pretty city SUV costs just over 30,000 Swiss francs, making it the clear winner among the seven candidates in terms of price/performance. And at the same time, the loser in terms of chassis, a rumbling thing we haven’t experienced in a long time. Moreover, it is rather tired in its forward momentum.

The same cannot be said of the Nissan Ariya, at least as a 4×4 – the Japanese was the roughest machine we could drive this year. Only: on the race track it was somehow not obvious what the car wanted to tell us. Sometimes it would come out of the corner in a fine drift, then it would slide off again somewhere in the middle of nowhere – how and why remained a mystery to us, even though we drove it on the track longer than any other competitor. Yes, the Nissan is heavy and feels heavy. And yes, the Nissan is expensive, it is now premium – and whether the typical Nissan customer will appreciate that remains to be seen. But in terms of interior design, the Ariya is the clear winner this year, by a huge margin.

Probably the biggest surprise this year was the Kia Niro. It drives really well, comfortable on the road, amazingly precise and almost sporty on the track (funny if you just leave the brush, it kind of strangles itself out of the corner). However, the pure electrician lacks a bit of power. The constant beeping is annoying, when driving forward, when reversing, when not driving at all. And sorry, visually the Niro is – nogo.

So in the end, we were left with the Subaru Solterra and the Toyota bZ4X. No, total enthusiasm does not prevail, there are even a few question marks about consumption and charging. But the two Japanese cars look nice, are spacious inside, slightly overdoped as far as safety and other assistants are concerned. And besides, we have more confidence in Toyota than in anyone else, especially in the medium term. In terms of price, both SUVs are at the upper limit, but that also applies to all other electric vehicles (with the exception of Jeep).

We stick to our guns: we would definitely have chosen a different vehicle for #caroftheyear this year. But our two favourites were not available, for whatever reason. But we have other nice cars in our archive. By the way: The winner is the Jeep Avenger!

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