COTY 2008

Li'ldude · COTY 2008

Not the mCOTY, but the more well known version.

The 7 finalists have been annonced and I was just wondering what would get our vote of these 7:

Fiat 500
Ford Mondeo
Kia C'eed
Mazda 2
Mercedes-Benz C-Klasse
Nissan Qashqai
Peugeot 308

No Fabia in there, which is a big shock, aparantly it's 'not attractive enough'...

Unfortunately, I think the 500'll win. Really don't like it.

Can't decide between C'eed and 308...

Dr. Hfuhruhurr

Mazda 2 - it's the only one that shows some new thinking in its class. Of course, it won't win because the Franco-Italian block vote will prevail as usual.

Li'ldude

You better vote for it then...

Matt

Twelfth Monkey

How the fuck does the 308 deserve its place?

Stuntman

I voted Mondeo.

Reasonably attractive, good interior, great handling, acceptable power, reasonable value. Does a better job in its class than the premium rivals, if the Mags are to be believed.

The only one I'd consider owning is the Fiat 500.

Humphrey The Pug

I think the Kia should win as Kia have improved their product immensley in one go, they offer a 7 year warranty and the car betters or at least matches many established marques.

However I would only buy the Fiat 500.

I think the Fiat will win.

PR

Li'ldude

I quite like the Pug...

Dr. Hfuhruhurr

Trouble with the Kia is that (IMO at least) the Hyundai i30 is better. I saw one yesterday and it certainly passed the "if I was given this as a rental car" test.

BeN

Tata Safari.

Oh wait, no. This isn't ours is it?

Mazda 2.

Li'ldude

M.

Nissan Qashqai. Although I wouldn't want one myself I think it was a clever move by Nissan to rethink its C-segment Focus rival after the Almera flopped. It's a concept that has brought new customers to the brand who would have never considered a Nissan. Although the other cars, Peugeot excluded, may be good, they don't offer anything really new.

Twelfth Monkey

I voted for the Mazda as it's smaller and lighter than its predecessor.

I am still trying to think of a single parameter by which the 308 could be considered to advance the automotive art. Anyone?

Racing

I'm sorry but I think the Qashqai is genuinely awful. Russians always loved the Almera so now they buy the Qashqai in droves - I almost wonder if that was why Nissan did it. After all, here in winter a hatch with better ground clearance and chunkier corners is a useful device. However, the plethora of them roaming the streets of Moscow means I've had plenty of time to study them and frankly I don't see how they are any better than a Rover Streetwise. Which was a roundly condemned concept, let alone car.

The Mondeo is also too hideous for words and I can't see that it does anything the old one didn't do, other than look offensive.

The Peugeot manages to be one of the ugliest cars ever made and I'm not aware that it does anything remarkable.

The Mercedes is just unremarkable and rather uninteresting. It's a new C-Class but nothing more interesting than that.

The Kia C'eed I must admit is quite neat. Having seen a few around, it looks to be not a bad thing at all. But that doesn't make it a COTY, it merely means it's a Kia that you might not wear a paper bag over your head while driving.

The Mazda 2 is a car that really slipped under my radar completely. I had to look it up and that's quite rare for me. Look's alright but the sight of one on my driveway wouldn't raise the pulse - what is so advanced about it?

So that left the Fiat 500. In my view, it looks great - yes it's a modern take on the classic Nuova 500 but if you didn't know that, you'd just think it was a funky-looking small car. It's Fiat showing the world that it can do funky and understands how to make products desirable rather than just functional. And to cap it all off, I gather it's well made, more spacious than the bigger MINI and dynamically competent. I think it's got to be the winner of this bunch by a country mile.

PR

Colin

If the 308 wins, it will further discredit this contest... how on earth did it even make the short list?

One day a Korean car will win, but I don't think it will be this year, and Japanese cars rarely do well, either.

Only one choice for me - the Fiat 500.

Twelfth Monkey

I take it that this title has more in common with the Eurovision song contest than choosing a car on merit.

Perhaps I should s(p)oil my paper now...

Racing

Does that make the Peuget 308 the equivalent of an ugly Serbian lesbian then?

Here's a challenge: match each COTY contender to a Eurovision contender stereotype!

Dr. Hfuhruhurr

Peugeot 308 - middle aged orange tanned male French lounge singer

Fiat 500 - cute but rather annoyingly perky Italian girl who sings a bouncy-bouncy Eurodisco song

Ford Mondeo - matronly Belgian balladeer

Mazda 2 - the girl group from Kill Bill I

Kia Cee'd - Korean girl group dressed in schoolgirl style (white blouses, tartan minis, long socks)

Mercedes C Class - German synth duo dressed in shiny jumpsuits

Nissan Quashqai - Bulgarian "folklore" type group in traditional dress

Nice Guy Eddie

I should be ashamed to admit it, but I quite like the Quashqai. I like it's chunkiness. I wouldn't buy one as I assume it would be rather hopeless to drive but there' s just something about it.

I hope the 500 wins though. I would buy one if I needed a station/small car over a mini.

Jasper

Gurney

Tough call for me between the 500 and the Mazda 2. The Mazda has shown what we all thought all along that Mr Chapman was right. And Fiat have shown that you can build something 'small' and yet still achieve 5 star (or even 6?) crash ratings - without a snout like a Pug.

On the basis that it makes me smile I will opt for the Cinq.

Homo erectus

I've gone for the 500 as it's awesome in every way although I think the Mazda 2 is technically a more suitable winner.

As for the 308, it probably advances nothing but it is bigger than the 307 yet weighs no more (unlike the Mazda which weighs less but is...er...smaller than the old one), and a lack of increase in weight is progress of sorts. The interior is really rather special to be honest, it has all the perceived quality of the Germans, yet is about a million times more stylish than your typical Audi/ VW layout. A billion times more than the Focus and Astra. Depends which press you read, some say the chassis is nice-but-dull, others suggest a welcome return to form for Peugeot. As for the styling, well that is subjective but I quite like it.

Roadrunner

It was between the Mazda and the FIAT for me. In the end the Mazda won the vote for being relatively light compared to its rivals. This surely is the way of the future if we are still to be driving cars in 30 years time. COTY should be giving awards to the fresh ideas which are going to shape the cars of the future.

Giant

Surely an award for car of the year should be given to a model thats offers something genuinely new to the car world, be it a completely original feature, design or philosophy. Being slightly better built, slightly better to drive and slightly better packaged really isn't enough. Ergo the mazda wins by default for it's lightweight philosophy, what do the others offer by way of originality?

Off topic I wish the motor press would stop saying that light weight improves ride and handling. This is obviously true for handling but the greater the sprung weight the better a car will ride.

Li'ldude

Racing

Exactly what is new about a lightweight philosophy?

Matt

True indeed, but it would be a victory against the marketing bullshit that each generation needs more space and more power and more, more, more.

Li'ldude

And so, as the motoring press of the world announce that the Fiat 500 is their car of the year, so we, announce that their vote is just...

...30% of the time.

BeN

Mazda 2 won by one vote only though.

But we did get the car in last place correct...

Li'ldude

I like the 308...

Matt

Liking something as an observer and driving it and realising as a package it's a bag of wank is completely different though.

Li'ldude

Well, no-one's driven it and said it's a bag of wank have they?

BeN

No one's driven it. Period.

Li'ldude

Well, no-one here...

D.

I think it got a fairly favourable write-up from Autocar, but only because it didn't really do anything wrong. The problem is that the Focus/Golf/etc do things particularly well.

The 308 interior was praised for it's quality and space though. Autocar seems to of stepped away from the very subjective issue of the looks of a car these days, taking the old cliche 'beauty is in the eye of the beholding' and allowing the readers to make up their own minds. Except with the 308 they did suggest that it was pig ugly!

M.

For showroom appeal I think the Pug hits the Golf where it hurts as the interior is much nicer. Outside the Golf is dull where as at least the Pug is interesting.

Li'ldude

Clarkson's torn the Mazda 2 to bits claiming that it 'Has no driving prowess,' and 'I wouldn't ever drive one.'

Dr. Hfuhruhurr

Must be good, then ...

.