THE MOTOR REPORT is proud to launch its first ever ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Car Awards.
This will be an annual Award, conferred each New Year’s Eve and granted to the car that, in the view of our road testers and writers, wins on a ‘best drive, best value’ comparison.
This year, the inaugural year of the TMR Awards, there are two categories:
• Best Drive Best Value Light / Small Car
• Best Drive Best Value Medium / Large Car
In each category, both a winner and runner-up will be announced. Click through for the criteria a car must meet to achieve this award, and for TMR’s Best Drive Best Value Awards for 2008.
To be in contention for The Motor Report ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Award, a car must:
- Be enjoyable at the wheel
- Have ample power and sharp driving dynamics
- Be well-finished inside and out
- Be comfortable and capable in the driving environment for which it was designed
- Offer sharp value for money
- Be a ‘best buy’ in its category for the totality of the package
- Have been released in the preceding calendar year
So readers, if a car is not good value, if it does not make you feel good when you slide behind the wheel, if it does not bring a smile to your face when driving, then it will not get a look-in to this Award.
What is the ‘Best Value, Best Drive’ light / small car and medium / large car of 2008?
The inaugural winners and runners-up are:
Winner: ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Light / Small Car
– 2008 Mazda2 3-door
Winner: ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Medium / Large Car
– 2008 Falcon XR6 Turbo
Runner-up: ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Light / Small Car
– 2008 Hyundai i30 diesel (auto)
Runner-up: ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Medium / Large Car
– 2008 Honda Accord Euro 2.4-litre
Mazda2 3-door: Best Drive, Best Value 2008 – Light / Small Car
Our comments:
The Mazda2 3-door is a standout winner as the ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Light / Small Car. Starting at $15,750 for the Neo three door, it is simply terrific buying.
The Mazda2, in three door (or five door) is huge fun at the wheel with a zesty free-spinning and economical 1.5 litre engine. It also offers sharp driving dynamics and is comfortable and capable whether punting around town or on the occasional longer country drive.
It is appealingly styled inside and out, and offers surprising interior space. You simply cannot drive it without a smile on your face. As such it is a worthy inaugural winner of The Motor Report’s ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Small Car Award for 2008.
Click: Read our review of the Mazda 2 3-door
It edges out the excellent Hyundai i30 diesel automatic in this category, which also offers fun and efficient driving in an excellent value, stylish package.
Click: Read our review of the Hyundai i30 Diesel Auto
Falcon XR6 Turbo: Best Drive / Best Value 2008 – Medium / Large Car
Our comments:
In the ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Medium / Large Car category, the Falcon XR6 Turbo is also a standout winner. That Ford Australia has been able to provide such a superbly engineered performance car, one that can also carry the family in safety and comfort, is a remarkable achievement.
At $45,490 for the manual, the power of the turbo, the robust balanced handling, and the sheer quality of the drive puts it at the head of the pack, and a clear winner for both dynamics and buying value.
The XR6 Turbo is, quite simply, a ‘tour de force’. It too is a worthy inaugural winner of The Motor Report’s ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Medium / Large Car Award for 2008.
Click: Read our review of the Ford Falcon XR6 Turbo
Also an excellent car, offering surprising levels of refinement, is the runner-up in the Medium / Large car category, the Honda Accord Euro 2.4 litre.
Click: Read our review of the Honda Accord Euro 2.4 litre
Cars you can enjoy
This time of year is traditionally a quiet period for automotive news, but a busy time for car buyers making use of the ‘end-of-calendar-year’ car sales.
It is our hope that The Motor Report ‘Best Drive, Best Value’ Awards, to be announced every New Year’s Eve, will provide some useful information to those looking for a car they will enjoy living with. It is an Award that recognises the heart and soul of the car, and simple value for money.
We hope you agree with our intent, even if you disagree on the winners we have chosen and runners-up. Feel free to add your thoughts.
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The FG is a banger a cracker and a corker. If only a few more aussies would buy them. Good choice for a winner, particularly the XR6T, what amazing value for money.
With all due respect lads, you really haven’t road tested all that many cars.
How can you possibly compare the winners to their competitors if you haven’t driven them…?
It’s a bit of a half-arsed attempt at an award to get attention.
Yo Thomas, sorry to say but that’s not true. We’re a young site, and we spend a week with each car, so it will take a little longer to build up the reviews featured on TMR.
BUT we weren’t born the day the site went live, and some of us bring a mountain of published road testing and track experience to our contribution. (And of course, we can’t ‘paste in’ the reviews, numbering now in the hundreds, we’ve written from our previous employ.)
It is legitimate to carry that experience across in providing a ‘reasonably expert’ view. The reason I say ‘reasonably expert’ is because no-one buys or reviews a car on a purely objective analysis. There is always “heart” in the decision-making, so it is always by necessity somewhat subjective. Our view is just “one call”.
Which is why we invite comments, and why we’re happy to wear the negative ones as well as the positive.
But, for the enthusiast, some things can’t be ignored. That’s why one key criterion for the TMR Best Drive Best Value Awards is the enjoyment - the smile factor - a car provides at the wheel.
We hope, that while you might not agree with our position, you do agree that there is passion in what we do, backed up by years of experience the various contributors bring to the site.
Nothing half-arsed here.
The Insider
Some inteligent choices made by the TMR guys I think. What cars in these classes are better than the two winners ThomasR?
The missus has the Mazda2 3-door and I’m more than happy to drive it myself, fantastic little car and clearly a step above the competition or at least it was when we were shopping a few months ago. Dont think much has changed since.
WTF where is the Sportwagon!!!
Where it should be…not in the winners circle. FG turbo is much better value.
With the exception of the honda i don’t think any of these cars are particularly good once you get a couple years down the track. I hope you like spare parts.
I don’t disagree with the choices made but it would be nice to see a shortlist of contenders for each category. It would make the award seem more heavily contested and let readers know which cars were given due consideration.
FG XR6 is by far the best car made here by FORD. (not including FPV F6) It has the lot . Bang for your buck nothing comes close and the surprising thing is how economical it is when i drive it normally or on a long trip. It has the looks style inside and out and refinement that should be only for much more expensive cars. It puts a smile on my face everytime i drive it. Sportwagon? Unfortunatley it has all the problems of the VE range. Poor fuel economy average performance and driveline refinement horrible interior and handbrake and poor build quality.
Yo Frogger, we had some debate here about publishing the contenders as we felt that the correct focus is on the winners and runners up, and discussions about why one car is on the short list - and another not - could go on forever.
That said, you’ve asked, so following is the 10 contenders we short-listed in each category. We created these two lists by balancing the quality of the drive against the value – that is, the enjoyment at the wheel against ownership cost.
(We reckon this is a better test than some of the other Awards around. It’s not a focus on performance alone, nor is it a focus on ‘quality’ without consideration of the cost of purchase and ownership.)
Those that made the cut to the (longish) short lists were:
Medium/large car:
Falcon FG XR6 Turbo
Falcon FG G6E Turbo
Falcon FG XR8 ute
VE Sportwagon SV6
Mazda6
Honda Accord Euro 2.4
Honda Accord V6
Passat R36
Skoda Octavia RS TDI
Subaru Forester XT
Light/small car
BMW 125i coupe
Hyundai i30 diesel (auto)
Mazda2 (3 door)
Toyota Yaris YRX (2008 update)
Fiat 500
Peugeot 308 XSE HDI
Honda Jazz VTi
Clio RenaultSport 197
Subaru Impreza WRX sedan
Mitsubishi Evolution X
Now before howling: “How can you put the Evolution X and the Honda Jazz on the one list?” - read on.
All short-listed cars were driven by TMR’s road testers and contributing writers within the 2008 calendar year.
We had to make a couple of ‘hard calls’ about cars which seemed to fall in both camps, or neither camp. Like is the EVO X now a medium car? Or small-medium? Which list should it be on? Should the EVO and the WRX be there at all on the ‘Light/small car’ list?
We just made ‘a call’ on it.
But let us know what you think: we know there will be some argument and contrary views about this, and that’s good.
We also know that you can probably all think of cars that you reckon “should be on the list”. In our view though, there is not one car on either list that is not good value for what it offers at the wheel against the price you pay (in purchase and ownership costs).
Sure, some of you might also question the very broad nature of the categories. But, as an enthusiasts’ site, we reckon that an honest assessment of the ‘enjoyment at the wheel factor’ cannot be considered in the absence of consideration about cost.
That’s why the ‘clunkily-styled’ but supremely competent WRX sedan can be beaten by the neat and nifty, and under half its price, Mazda2.
Leaving you with a great feeling every time you’re at the wheel is not always about monstrous kilowatts.
It’s the quality of the drive against the ’sticker price’ value that determined TMR’s BEST DRIVE, BEST VALUE winners and runners up.
And that’s also why you see the Passat R36 up against the Accord Euro. Each are terrific at the wheel, in different ways, both offer good value for what they are, but one holds a considerable showroom price advantage while also offering a hugely satisfying drive.
Trust this helps. We’ll be pleased to hear if you have different views or if you simply want to tell us we’re wombats. We welcome it (I for one quite like the “eats roots and leaves” thing).
We’re all enthusiasts, TMR and our readers - and who has ever met a bunch of true enthusiasts that agreed on matters automotive? (We’re still nursing the bruises from our ‘discussions’ here.)
So, if you don’t mind, I’ll return to the burrow now.
The Insider
And how do you back that claim, my friend?
+1
I think the awards have nailed it, although I’m soon buying a Mitsu Lancer Ralliart, the Mazda2 and Ford FG Range are top notch vehicles I’d be looking at if the Ralliart wasn’t around.
I was considering the Lancer ralliart also, but having owned a lancer before, and the lack of manual option.
Definitely no go. Could go the Evo, but then its not financially acceptable.
FG XR6T it is for me, hope the wait isn’t too long, since there’s no manuals around.
+1. How do you come at that Ellimist? Mazda are also known for their reliability. O/S they have beaten Honda in many reliability awards like JD Power etc etc. My folks have had a Mazda for years with no problems other than normal consumables.
Wheels has just awarded the Accord Euro their COTY. I wonder what happened to the FG Falcon, maybe Ford wasn’t spending enough with News Limited?
forget about the falcon,after all its face lifts,nips and tucks,it is still like the original. maybe ford australia should kidnap the designer of the new ford taurus for a while and he may be able to wake falcons designers out of a deep sleep. recession or not ,they will sell if they are like the taurus.