Behind the scenes: Carsales 2016 Car of the Year

The carsales.com.au Car of the Year award is not only the most important event on the Carsales calendar, but the pinnacle award for Australia's new-vehicle industry bestowed by the nation's number one automotive website and its network of sites including motoring.com.au.

But it is also one of the more difficult assignments to pull together in the calendar year – both logistically and in terms of a result.

This year’s judging cast includes some of the most experienced motoring journalists in the country, with a combined 114 years’ worth of experience among our final eight markers. The board is also a diverse one, with 20 to 50-somethings and a strong showing of the fairer sex contributing their opinions to ensure the final verdict represents a broad sample of the buying population.

Putting together such a broad array of differing backgrounds is bound to lead to robust discussion – all in the spirit of nutting out an eventual winner, of course. That was certainly the case at this year’s running, though an open-minded attitude permeated all of the judges and allowed for plenty of perspective in their opinions.

As outlined in our judging and process piece, there is no easy road for each of our 13 category winners to even make it to the final showdown, since each finalist must also prove itself the best in its respective class.

The actual COTY week commences with each journalist making a static presentation to the group on one or two cars. The exercise is designed to re-acquaint judges with the final cast of vehicles, while reminding presenters of the key marking criteria during judging – value for money, packaging and accommodation, innovation and design, and safety and driveability.

Even from the early stages, there were a few early leaders to rise above the rest.

With its silky blend of surefooted all-wheel drive dynamics and svelte interior, Audi’s A4 set a fine first impression among the judges, with one even exclaiming at the end of the first day: “this is car of the year material”.

Similarly, Mazda’s CX-9 enamoured judges with its clever design and interior packaging, and although cars aren’t directly compared to one another but against the criteria, the Japanese seven-seater no doubt took away from the appeal of the similarly-sized and similarly-minded Audi Q7, whose seven-seat layout was considered second-rate by comparison.

There were also some cars that were dismissed early on, only to finish strongly at the end. Skoda’s humble Fabia immediately comes to mind.

The days were long and, at times, arduous. All in all our judges completed 15,000km worth of testing including highway, urban and inner city driving, sealed and dirt roads and even a stint of road works – a considerable feat given the four-day turnaround.

In between, judges found time to complete video responsibilities, help out the camera crew with rolling video and stills imagery and compile their own succinct notes for further evaluation. Plus keep up on food and fluids.

Of course, between stops there were some obligatory ‘extra’ laps of Wodonga TAFE's Barnawartha circuit aboard the final cohort’s more dynamic offerings – we’re all enthusiasts, after all – to break up the long 15-hour days.

No surprises then that the Ford Focus RS, with its new Drift mode function, and the Porsche 911 were the go-to cars.

Then it came down to the business end of the process – returning to a TAFE classroom to sift through notes, score sheets, debate and reflect.

It is at this point that most of the ‘robust’ discussions take place. Some judges deliberated over whether a vehicle was especially innovative – one of the five key criteria – in terms of shedding weight, others argued the importance of certain safety features and whether they should be fitted as standard.

While there were no obvious agendas at play, different judges had their own personal preferences – some could envisage and understand the appeal of a dual-cab ute as a family car, for example, others loathed the idea.

It was also important that every judge spoke up when they felt the need to, as one small opinion may have changed the perception of other judges. Fortunately this was the case, and the unrivalled benefit of driving the same cars back-to-back over the same roads went a long way to crystallising the opinions on most cars for the overall judging panel.

Both the Focus and 911 scored highly in terms of innovation and driveability, but fell short when it came to safety (the RS comes with a five-star ANCAP rating and the 911 misses out on many advanced safety aids). And while the Ford offers undoubted value for money, one judge was alone in claiming the Porsche's renowned durability also represented outstanding value.

Similarly, the BMW i3 excelled in the areas of innovation and driveability, but fell short when it came to value, packaging and safety, while the Fabia scored well – but not highly – in all five criteria.

After discussing the final pros and cons of each car, it was time to cull the field down to the top five, which led to some fierce debate but in the end the result was clear.

Only two cars ranked among the top-fives of all eight judges – the A4 and Focus RS -- and the CX-9 was a top-five finalist for all but one. Surprisingly, six judges nominated the Fabia among their top five, followed by the i3 (four), Ford Ranger and Audi Q7 (three) and Mazda6 and Audi A3 e-tron (one).

So in the end, our top five finalists were the CX-9, A4, Focus RS, i3 and Fabia.

As the only winner of two award categories again in 2016 – 4x4 Offroad and Tradie – the Ranger was a surprise finisher in the top half of a classy field, but did not score as highly as our final top five.

Likewise, the Q7 caused great debate about the definition of innovation, with one judge claiming its loss of several hundred kilograms represented a significant tech advance, but all agreed the CX-9's similar achievement, even greater efficiency gain and superior packaging for a more affordable price gave it the edge.

With the CX-9, A4 and Fabia emerging as top three favourites, it was then down to a final vote -- a three-to-one point-score to elect the final podium from our overall top five. The room was tense as silence swept over the judges while the count of a silent ballot occurred.

Putting down the last hand-written piece of paper on the table and tallying the votes, managing editor Marton Pettendy swore us all to secrecy before blurting out the final verdict, which went overwhelmingly in favour of the CX-9.

After a long week of testing and deliberating that was fun, exhausting and challenging all at once, all judges came away satisfied  in the knowledge we'd come away with a unanimous result and a worthy carsales.com.au Car of the Year for 2016.

The carsales.com.au Car of the Year winners are:

2016 carsales.com.au Car of the Year category winners:
Best First Car: Skoda Fabia
Best City Car: Audi A3 Sportback e-tron
Best Family Car Under $30K: Skoda Octavia
Best Family Car Over $30K: Mazda6
Best Green Car: BMW i3 ReX
Best Offroad 4×4: Ford Ranger
Best Performance Car Under $100K: Ford Focus RS
Best Performance Car Over $100K: Porsche 911 Carrera S
Best Prestige Car Under $100K: Audi A4
Best Prestige Car Over $100K: Mercedes-Benz S-Class
Best SUV Under $50K: Mazda CX-9
Best SUV Over $50K: Audi Q7
Best Tradie vehicle: Ford Ranger