motoring Recommends Australian manufactured vehicles for the last time

Holden models may figure in motoring.com.au’s list of Motoring Recommends cars in the future but 2017 is the last year the brand has been recognised for the vehicles it manufactures in Australia.

The highly anticipated Motoring Recommends for 2017 list includes two homegrown Holden models and one from Holden Special Vehicles – the Australian-built Commodore Sportwagon, Commodore SS and the Commodore-based HSV GTS – plus the imported Holden Trailblazer.

The last Aussie-built Holden will roll out of the Elizabeth (SA) factory on October 20, just over two weeks after the last Toyota rolls off its Altona (Vic) production line on October 3.

Toyota’s locally-produced Camry didn’t make the cut, but three imported models from the Japanese giant made this year’s honour roll, including the pint-size C-HR, Fortuner off-roader and Australia’s top-selling vehicle, the HiLux ute.

“Holden and Toyota have a number of cars on the market well suited to Australian drivers, from the rev-head looking to impress his friends, a parent purchasing a safe car for his or her new driver, or a family looking for a car for school drops and soccer training. But this is the last year that cars will be manufactured in Australia, and consumers can own a piece of world-class Australiana for the last time,” said motoring.com.au Editor in Chief, Mike Sinclair.

Motoring Recommends aims to make the purchasing process simpler for the everyday Australian which is why since 2012 an annual A-list has been created, tapping into the knowledge of our experts. The list includes the five best vehicles in 13 lifestyle categories which best match buyer expectations.

Last year Australians bought 1,178,133 new vehicles, representing the third all-time sales record in the past four years and the seventh consecutive year the total has surpassed the one million mark. With hundreds of models available on the market from more than 50 automotive brands (the most choice in any market in the world), Australian consumers have access to a dazzling array of new vehicles. This can make the new car purchasing process overwhelming to say the least.

“With the dozens of new or updated cars coming into the market each year, being spoilt for choice isn’t always a great thing. We aim to make the buying process easier for the shoppers by test driving, reviewing and researching hundreds of cars each year. All of this knowledge goes into picking our list of the top cars available in Australia in 2017,” continued Mr Sinclair.

The benchmark for quality is held by the prestige German brands, with Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche taking out 20 nominations between them. Interestingly, Volkswagen Group has overcome the fallout from its ‘Dieselgate’ emissions scandal to take out 17 nominations.

For the tradies, the Ford Ranger is recommended alongside the Mitsubishi Triton, Toyota HiLux, Volkswagen Amarok and Renault Traffic. The cars voted the best for the environment include the BMW i3, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, Tesla Model S and Volvo XC90 hybrid.

BMW was the most awarded brand in 2017. BMW models recommended across a range of categories were the 330e, 5 Series, 7 Series, M2, M3 and X5. The plug-in i3 city-car was nominated in two categories.

“BMW is extremely proud to have achieved the highest number of Motoring Recommends awards in 2017,” said BMW Group Australia CEO, Marc Werner.

“These accolades demonstrate the breadth of BMW’s premium product offering: from green city cars to luxury saloons and from capable SUVs to hard-edged sports vehicles, BMW’s expertise has never been more wide-ranging.

“With a strong new mix of product launching in the next 18 months, our aim is to continue delivering award-winning product in future,” he said.

To be eligible for Motoring Recommends, vehicles must be available to the public and driven by one of our journalists before September 1, 2017.