Australia's Best Cars for 2008

Ford, Hyundai and Mazda have shared limelight in the key passenger-car categories of Australia's Best Car awards for 2008.

Mazda took out both the small-car and mid-size car over $28,000 categories with its Mazda2 and Mazda6, while Hyundai's i30 was the winner of the mid-size car under $28,000 category. Ford beat archrivals Holden and Toyota to take out the large-car gong.

Australia's Best Cars are awarded by the state motoring associations each year. Unlike other awards, Best Cars encompass all cars, not just those released during the year. The awards use a complex database that scores cars against their competitors, based on a rolling average.

The criteria by which the cars are judged are weighted 'Critical', 'High', Medium' or 'Low'. These criteria comprise pricing, depreciation, running costs, fuel consumption, warranty, standard features, safety, security, environment, comfort, space, practicality, ergonomics, quality, performance, ride, handling, braking and smoothness/quietness.

In the Small Car class, the winner was the Mazda2 Neo, which, with a score of 705, placed ahead of the Honda Jazz GLi (679 points) and the Hyundai Getz SX (654 points). The Mazda displaced the Volkswagen Polo TDi, which had won two years running (2006 and 2007).

For Best mid-size car under $28,000, the judges chose the Hyundai i30 SX with 2.0-litre petrol engine. Just seven points separated the petrol i30 from its diesel counterpart, but the spark-ignition car got the nod due to the difference in purchase price. Both variants (763 points for petrol, 756 for diesel), edged out the Honda Civic VTi with 714 points and the Mitsubishi Lancer ES with 706 points. The Honda had been the previous winner in this category for 2006 and 2007.

Best mid-size car over $28,000 was the Mazda6 Classic, a car which scored 764 points to pip the Volkswagen Jetta (757 points for the diesel and 701 points for the turbo petrol) and the Ford Mondeo (738 points for diesel, 712 points for the Zetec petrol). Curiously, the Mondeo TDCi was the champ in this category last year and the Jetta TDi took the gong in 2006.

With 729 points, Ford's FG Falcon XT was judged the best large car -- the LPG version scored 687 points -- ahead of Toyota Aurion AT-X (708 points) and the Honda Accord V6 (673 points). For the past two years, the winner in this category has been the Aurion.

In a surprise result, the Hyundai iMax narrowly defeated rival people-movers, the Honda Odyssey and Mitsubishi Grandis. The diesel variant of the Hyundai scored 719 points to secure the win by four points over the Odyssey Luxury (715 points) and the Grandis VR-X (701 points). In petrol form, the iMax's tally was 694 points. It was a surprise result as 2008 is the first year since 2003 that this category has not been won by the Honda.

Proving that 'sports car' is an expression hard to define, the respective category was won by the BMW 135i coupe with 732 points -- against 725 points for the Volkswagen Golf R32 and 712 points for the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. Volkswagen had kept this award for itself in the two previous years, with the R32 last year and the Golf GTi in 2006.

Audi's TT-S TFSI quattro pipped both the BMW M3 and the company's S5 FSI quattro in the Luxury Sports Car category. With a score of 785 points, the TT-S was 60 points ahead of the M3 (725), which was five points ahead of the S5 (720). Last year, the M3 was the winner and Audi's RS4 quattro won in 2006.

For Best Prestige Car, the Audi A4 TDi topped the category with 791 points (774 for the TFSI version), heading off the Ford Falcon G6E Turbo on 730 and the Lexus IS 250 on 725. Lexus will be feeling let down, since the IS 250 had won this category for the two previous years.

But never mind, Lexus picked up Best Luxury Car with the GS450h -- a hatrick for this car. Scoring 828 points, it kept Audi's A6 TDi quattro (819) and A6 FSI quattro (800) at bay, with the Mercedes-Benz C 320 CDI Avantgarde following up on 748 points.

For Best Recreational Four-Wheel Drive, the judges opted for the Volkswagen Tiguan TDI, which recorded 778 points (754 for the Tiguan TSI), besting the Subaru Forester X on 737 points and the Renault Koleos Dynamique on 727. This category is relatively volatile, with different winners over the last four years, Nissan's X-TRAIL ST winning last year and the previous generation Forester X winning in 2006.

Best Luxury Four-Wheel Drive for 2008 was the BMW X5 3.0d, which also won last year. A score of 753 points (739 for the X5 3.0Si) gave the X5 the advantage over the Audi Q7 TDI (745) and FSI (740), with the Lexus RX400h filling third place with 737 points. The winner in this category for 2006 was the Lexus RX350 Sports Luxury.

For the fourth year in a row, the Land Rover Discovery 3 TDV6 SE has won the Best All-Terrain Four-Wheel Drive with a points score of 737 (699 for the petrol version). In second place was Toyota's Prado GXL (668 for the diesel and 627 for the petrol variant), followed by the Mitsubishi Pajero VRX (664 for the diesel, 643 for the petrol model).

The Carsales Network includes the Best Cars category winners in its 'Recommended Cars' list each year (more here).

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