Wheels COTY 2007
Wheels Magazine 
February, 2008
The 20 nominees for the 45th running of Wheels Car of the Year 2007 were:
» Audi A5
» BMW M3
» BMW X5
» Ford Mondeo
» Honda Civic
» Honda CR-V
» Hyundai i30
» Land Rover Freelander 2
» Lexus LS
» Mazda 2
» Mercedes-Benz C-Class
» Mitsubishi Lancer
» Nissan Dualis
» Skoda Roomster
» Nissan X-Trail
» Subaru Impreza
» Toyota Corolla
» Toyota Kluger
» Toyota Landcruiser
» Volkswagen Eos
We judge looks, poise and performance - in cars. Michael Stahl explains how one winner emerges from 20 hopefuls.
For me, at least, every Wheels COTY contest starts like this: cold-sweaty, clammy-handed fear. Day one, Holden's Lang Lang Proving Ground, this year with no fewer than 46 vehicles representing 20 different models sprinkled across the skid-pad for the group photograph. And I cast my eye over this colossal car park and wonder: how the hell will I ever extract one final vote from this lot?
The class of '07 left few automotive niches unprobed. Econo-sedans and hatches, performance Euro-coupes, quality convertibles, upper-luxury limousines, a wacky Czech watchamacallit, heavy-duty 4WD and every kind of crossed-over, passed-under and wrapped-around SUV there is. And experience tells me that, six days from now, it could be any one of these wildly disparate vehicles that will emerge on top against the COTY criteria.
Some will suffer for their poor packaging, or sub-standard safety equipment. Others will have poor dynamics, or be handicapped by low scores in weight, materials and fuel efficiency. Yet others will fall over on value.
It's daunting, despite having an utterly reliable road map in the five COTY criteria: Function; Technology; Efficiency and Environment; Safety; and Value. But this year brought new difficulties, judges struggling with the core concept of value for money. And they struggled with each other, with a shouting match erupting over one, polarising vehicle.
Then, there were the bloody flies. Victoria was in the grip of a fly plague when the COTY caravan rolled in to town. As COTY judge and amateur entomologist Jonathan Hawley explained it, a convergence of weather factors had created juicily warm cowpats for hatching. Subsequent warm winds carried swarms of the smallest, most persistent, nostril-exploring brand of bush flies across the countryside.
Some of the images from COTY 2007 were of the sky over Lang Lang darkened like Dresden in 1945; of thick, airborne shadows moving behind people like Microsoft mouse trails; of Carey coughing and cursing after swallowing yet another of the disgusting, squishy-bodied little bastards.
Our fly-traps had to flap a lot at Lang Lang during the first, intensive day of vehicle walk-arounds. One judge gives a five-minute presentation on the highlights of the car in question; usually, it's the judge who attended the car's launch during the year. But the presenters only get five minutes of fame. The car gets the 15. And, as all eight judges sat in seats and lifted bonnets and prodded trims and explored storage spaces, you could hear the COTY clock start ticking.
"Rear seat packaging's not that flash in the Audi," said Stevens. "Impressive weight saving in the M3's V8 engine," said Robbo. "The Landcruiser charges an extra 10 grand for the diesel!" said Bulmer. "The Freelander's ESP is calibrated for towing," said Newton. "The-hhckk! Kak! Kuhh-hak! [spit] Fuggen!" said Carey.
Prior to embarking on his diptera diet, Carey had been charged with re-drafting the COTY scoresheet. Until recently, the criteria have been progressively sub-divided on the sheets to better guide judges' thoughts. Where I've always mashed up Efficiency & Environment info like fuel consumption, CO2, kerb weight and so on into one big spit-ball in my head and then awarded a score, the new sheets list a bundle of sub-heads to be totalled and averaged.
This, of course, prompted fear among some judges that when our scoresheets were later collected, we would be marked for wrong answers. But it also allowed the very sensible step of pre-scoring an environmental value, and pre-scoring safety (on a tally of active and passive hardware). Any real-world dynamic (active) deficiencies would, after all, be punished under the Function criteria. It was a smart, objective step.
The driving component dawned on day two, and from the moment we arrived at Lang Lang's security gate, it was clear that Mother Nature had more friends she wanted us to meet. "It's gonna be 30 degrees today," sang the security guard. "Oh, and we've seen a lot of snakes around already; King Browns, Tigers and Copperheads."
Not knowing one snake from another, but recognising instantly that one or all of these three must amount to a slithering dispenser of flesh-melting, bone-powdering zombie toxin, I asked Carey if it was a good idea, on seeing any snake, to start running like a girl.
"You already run like a girl, Stahl."
In getting eight judges to cycle through a total of 46 vehicles in two days, COTY takes a conceptual lead from Henry Ford's production line. It's all tightly rostered, but lets us stash our notepad and hop into our next vehicle, just vacated by the previous judge. The series of tests is detailed here, but this is a typical run-through:
From our Judges Chambers (a tent) on the skid-pad, we drive the few hundred metres to the Noise Road, getting first dynamic impressions of driving position, ergonomic values and general ambience. On the Noise Road itself we note tyre noise, suspension boom and general NVH sophistication.
On the Ride and Handling Circuit we begin on a medium-coarse surface with a hard acceleration up to 100-120km/h, before heavy braking for a 90-degree left-hander. A series of quite fast and flowing lefts and rights, mimicked by a gravel road running parallel on our right, conceal the odd falling camber, inset tram-line crossing and chassis-lightening rise, all of which will fluster any uncertain ESP and ABS system. Another long straight leads to a coarser surface, a series of undulations that expose dozy damping, and a stretch of concrete inset with longitudinal tram tracks.
Halfway through the second lap we divert onto the above mentioned, parallel gravel road, where judges test ESP systems at 60-100km/h. The gravel road continues over an 80km/h cattle-grid, then into a dirt panic-stop from 80km/h. This latter, rather brutal exercise highlights not only the efficacy of braking and ABS gravel calibration, but the integrity of particularly the front suspension and steering.
There's no rest, because the remainder of the outer R&H course is varying-amplitude bumps, tweaks and pot-holes that reveal much about ride quality and body integrity, while also ruthlessly rooting out any interior rattles and squeaks.
One variant of each model is designated a "long loop" car: at this point, it will detour onto the bowl, where one high speed lap gives much feedback on drivetrain smoothness, mechanical and wind noise, and high-speed stability. Returning to the skid pad, we accelerate into a lane-change manoeuvre, a crucible for chassis and ESP shortcomings. Those with switchable ESPs will be tried again without.
Then it's into an 80km/h panic-stop on a wet surface, before retiring to one's Chambers to steal several, precious minutes of note-taking. This is the real stuff of COTY judging; where one can sit at the wheel with a head full of fresh knowledge, a relevant and consistent testing environment, variants driven successively, and expert contributions and counterpoints from fellow judges. There is no better way.
Facts start to shake out quickly and clearly. Like the eye-opening excellence of the base Corolla, and the subsequent discovery that only the cheapest Corolla currently, is the hottest Corolla yet. The Hyundai i30, the VW Eos and the goofy Skoda Roomster were bubbling brilliantly in so many COTY corners. The Subaru Impreza's doughy dynamics were summed up by Carey as "a dunked biscuit." The high-tech Lexus LS sisters couldn't hide their cornering (and luggage-carrying) limitations.
The calibration of ESP for gravel was a recurring theme. It was terrible on Mitsubishi's handsome (but elsewhere handicapped) Lancer and on the Lexus LS, yet astonishingly good on the Mercedes-Benz C-Class and BMW M3. Both German prestige cars, on dirt roads, totally trounced the allegedly off-road Honda CR-V and Toyota Kluger.
We had seen no snakes, mercifully, but judge Sally Dominguez clipped a wallaby on the noise-road in one of the Mondeos. It hopped off into the bushes, which Dominguez thought quite rude. Future judge Sean Poppitt's training embraced trekking into the bush to find the animal, which, he discovered, had conveniently carked.
The rest of the field came to its first crunch on Monday morning, with an intensive round-table at our Stage One base in Cranbourne. Each of the 20 entrants was discussed and dissected - the poorly packaged, and still dynamically hamstrung Audi A5; the relevance of Subaru's all-wheel drive in an age of electronic aids; the diluted Dualis - over two agonising hours. Eventually, judges were asked to list their preferred vehicles to carry through to Stage Two.
Here's how they came through, and why. (In an example of why I oughta be earning five times more money, writing advertising copy. In the nude).
- Ford Mondeo: long-legged Euro middleweight, oozing quality, refinement and value.
- Mazda 2: sophisticated, supreme value package. In losing weight, it has gained gravitas.
- Mercedes-Benz C-Class: raises the bar for compact sedan comfort, dynamic ability and safety.
- Skoda Roomster: economy and space, and a smile on your face.
- BMW M3: we can almost call it Heinz; it's 53 varieties of car. And every one is outstanding.
- BMW X5: definitive design and dynamics for today's luxury SUV...stiff ride aside.
- Honda Civic Type R: as much a triumph in interior packaging as in hard-core hot hatchery.
- Volkswagen Eos: smart, sunny and secure convertible.
With more than half the field now parked and awaiting the trip home on a transporter, we decamp to the gorgeous Mornington Peninsula. Here, an excellent 50-odd-km road loop, expertly identified several years ago, offers a sample-bag of freeway, urban streets, challenging hills, testing twisties and open dual-carriageway that exposes ride subtlety, NVH sophistication, low-speed competence and open-road poise. About all we could add would be autobahn and autocross. The Mornington road loops began on Monday afternoon, taking one full and two half-days. And figure this: for the Monday afternoon and Tuesday, we had blazing sunshine and 38 degrees. Wednesday was bucketing rain and 18 degrees. To the flies, it was napalm.
I shared cars with Hawley. This was a first, as usually Carey is assigned to stand over me. Hawley rode in the back of one of the Skodas, keen to see whether the simple fact of a car's being tall and stupid-looking, with side glass that requires four suction-cup shades per side, actually made it a good thing in which to ride. He chose the one with the panoramic roof. "I feel like a cat in a microwave," he grizzled.
We admired the Volkswagen Eos's little spring-loaded, pop-up windblocker net so much that it broke. We enjoyed the arse off the Civic Type R, before experiencing a horribly awkward ambience in which two middle-aged men must avoid looking at each others' jiggling breasts.
We discussed how the Mondeo was so vastly roomy for a medium-sized car, indeed having the cabin dimensions, wheelbase, overall length and the width of a large car. But it's so brilliantly packaged within the nameplate of a formerly medium-sized car.
On the topic of nameplates, we spent a good C-Class lap analysing the marketing merits and design dialects of its three trim levels: Jurassic, Arrogance and Nouveauriche.
We also debated a very long time on the distinction between suspension noise, which was evident in a low-level booming within the Mercedes-Benz' cabin, and tyre noise, far more in evidence in the Mondeo. That, in turn, branched into an argument over whether it should be 'road noise' or 'tyre noise,' and whether such noise actually emanates from tyres or from the road. We decided it must be tyres - because that makes it the automotive industry's problem, not the government's - and agreed to settle on 'toad noise.'
I bet I get Carey again next year.
So on Wednesday afternoon, we licked our pencils and sat down to the difficult business of whittling these eight, impressive contenders to a final three or four for Stage Three.
"Difficult" understates it. The BMW M3, for example, that drew so many nods when Robbo said, "it's just so exciting, it hurts." It's utterly user-friendly and face-flattening at the same time. But there were grumbles about its on-centre steering feel, the lack of interior differentiation from its donor E92 Coupe, and unexpectedly polar views on its value proposition. It just missed the final three.
As did the goofy Roomster, rating warmly almost across the board; Ed Ged admitted he'd never quite "got" it. Piddly-on-paper engines offered worthy, real-world performance and class-topping transmissions; enjoyable handling and utterly accomplished ride; fantastic rear seat flexibility, but very average-quality seating and still only for five; tons of space, but most of it arranged vertically. And is it a breakthrough concept in packaging - or a small, cheap, plasticky Eastern European car, stretched and spliced to become a larger, more expensive, plasticky Eastern European car?
Delete all but the word "expensive" for the BMW X5, capable and elegant as a luxury SUV should be. But ride issues that had surfaced at Lang Lang had, as suspected, been borne out fully on the Peninsula. Both variants in our possession (3.0 petrol and diesel) had optional Adaptive Drive, whose ride even in Comfort mode was inappropriately stiff. Heavy low-speed steering, too (unrelated to Adaptive Drive) was out of place here. And they're expensive, however you slice it.
The Honda Type R had warmed our hearts, and lower parts. It delivers go-fast fun and feedback at a level that normally comes with room for only two, and no luggage. Yet against any similar-sized hatch, it's a packaging masterpiece. The Honda's engine sings like Maria Callas ... but it doesn't have much to say. And the ride quality has the sophistication of a skateboard. "Too focused," said Robbo. "You'd pester your mate to drive his all the time, but you'd spend your own money on a Golf GTI".
Speaking of Volkswagen, there had been little to dislike about the Eos. Other coupe-convertibles have come along, but each has fallen desperately short in some area - usually rear seat accommodation, or dynamics. The Eos pretty much ticked all the boxes; it was on my list for the final three. But not on enough other peoples'.
The Mondeo had impressed from the off. Blindfolded, you'd know you were in one of the better examples of European prestige mid-sizers that populate the $40-$50K region. Except you'd be in the $30K LX. Add $5K for the Zetec and you can remove the blindfold. Through it went.
The old Mercedes-Benz C-Class might have been directly in the Mondeo's sights. Not the new model. It's such a polished package, a strong safety story, its traditional shortcomings (such as the Kompressor's four-cylinder engine) so evidently addressed and its weakest points (like the lack of rear-seat legroom) being no worse than the best-in-class. In it went.
And the Mazda 2, source of so many smiles, whether just in looking at its fresh, Pixar-esque appeal, conceptually admiring its use of lightweight, high-strength steels, listening to the refinement that's gone into the engine, or enjoying the confident, big-car steering and poise. Despite the Mazda putting one significant shot in its own foot - actually, tyre - there was our final three.
And so, two groups of four judges cycled again through four Mercedes-Benzes, four Mondeos and three Mazda 2s in the four-up ride loop, a more relaxed route along the foreshore and back blocks of the Mornington Peninsula.
Four-ups are absolutely invaluable part of the process. Take just the Mondeo as an example. Stepping straight from the Mondeo LX petrol sedan to the diesel CDi five-door, with each occupant keeping the same seat, showed nuances of ride. As we drove, we traced the subtleties of pitch in part to the diesel's having a heavier engine up front, and tailgate hinge at the rear.
It's unfailingly fascinating, and explains why my favourite COTY moments are these nearing the last.
Everyone's favourite, however, is the very last: Bulmer's hand reaches across the table and scoops up a small fistful of individually-sealed envelopes. He stands, stretches, and walks the three metres to the now sacred COTY final counting room. He pulls the door closed behind him. In a small, shiny rectangle on the door's surface, there is a flicker of movement as an arc of red lettering appears. It reads: ENGAGED.
We gather outside, and await the white smoke.
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