World Car of the Year Awards

The World Car of the Year Awards were announced over the weekend at the New York International Auto Show with the BMW 3-Series awarded the 2006 World Car of the Year, the Citroen C4 declared the World Car Design of the Year for 2006, the Porsche Cayman S taking out the 2006 World Performance Car title and the Honda Civic Hybrid scoring the title of World Green Car for 2006. The awards are the most prestigious of all automotive awards because the program is initiated by, organized by, and conducted by, automotive journalists from around the globe. Final voting on a variety of parameters is done by a jury of 46 international automotive journalists with voting tabulated by KPMG. Read on to see the details and the top three placegetters in each category.

WORLD CAR OF THE YEAR 2006

The BMW 3-Series was chosen from an initial entry list of twenty-seven (27) candidates nominated by the World Car jurors.

In selecting the winner a jury of 46 international automotive journalists considered a variety of parameters; then individually reviewed, evaluated, and voted on the World Car of the Year entrants by secret ballot. The international accounting firm KPMG tabulated the ballots to first determine the finalists, and finally the winner.

Jurors observed that there has been considerable proliferation of models from BMW, from entry-level 1-Series hatchbacks to 500 hp M-Series supercars, but the heart of the BMW mystique lies, as it has for decades, with the 3-Series: sound, sensible and sporty sedans, coupes, convertibles and wagons.

Jurors felt that tradeoffs between performance and practicality; between style and seriousness are more perfectly balanced with the 3-Series than is the case with any other make. Variants include all-wheel drive models for difficult winters, ultra-high performance M models, and highly efficient four- and six-cylinder diesels.

Without changes from their basic specifications, the BMW 3 Series does the job as though specifically designed for local conditions.

The top three contenders for the second annual World Car of the Year in addition to the BMW 3-Series were the Mazda MX-5 and the Porsche Cayman S

WORLD CAR DESIGN 2006

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