Industry News

CAGI's Car of the Year for 2016 was recently held at One Rockwell East Tower in Makati. Honda's all-new Civic RS Turbo CVT was named the 2016 Car of the Year - Philippines while the Isuzu D-MAX 3.0L 4x2 LS AT took the title as the 2016 Truck of the Year - Philippines.

The Honda Civic RS Turbo CVT was awarded the 2016 Car of the Year - Philippines title, besting 64 other nominees in the car segment. It also won the Best Compact Car category for 2016.

Meanwhile, the Isuzu D-MAX 3.0L 4x2 LS AT not only won the coveted Truck of the Year - Philippines award, but also the Best 2WD Pickup. The Mitsubishi Strada 2.4L GT 4x4 AT, on the other hand, earned the Best 4WD Pickup award.

Robby Consunji
President
Car Awards Group, Inc.

"Putting together a Car of the Year and Truck of the Year requires good financial backing sponsor. It requires good cooperation from the industry. Industry composed of the cars, the car companies and the industry - the motoring journalists. We're very happy to have support from 25 out of the 30 or 36 car brands in the country. We're able to get 72 cars, brand new cars for the past 12 months. We're able to get approximately 20 motoring journalists to have spent at least 5 days for Car of the Year. There were extensive briefing on the part of KPMG and the jurors on how to score, on how to grade, what will be scored. There was three test days. There was a launch day. There was an awarding evening. So there's a lot of time that all the motoring journalists devote for this process. It's, I said, look at the Car of the Year Program. It's an opportunity to get some insights for the brands to understand how much they have penetrated the motoring journalists as a focus-discussion group. Their input, having seen one whole year, many years of cars as it evolves and their input in the ballot as to what is a good quality, I think is reflective of how much of their new technology has come and been delivered as a message to the current set of journalists. My message was, yes there are category wins, they are important. There's an overall Car of the Year, there's an overall Truck of the Year but the category wins are equally important because it shows, and as seen from a consumer that he compares within a category, "Sino pa ba 'yung mga kasama niya?" And then, they choose. But for the car companies, looking at how much they've penetrated and how much they've thought, or how much the journalists have learned about their brands, their technology, their research and the features of he car, I think is reflected. It's a challenge in the industry that says, "If you believe the car was not given enough weight this year, I think then, that it's challenge to them to be able to teach the journalists, as a focus-discussion group, what are those features and why."