AutoTrader SA announces qualifying cars for 2020 Car of the Year
The 2020 AutoTrader South African Car of the Year competition has a total of 48 vehicles from 21 manufacturers in partnership with SAGMJ awaiting to be called a semi-finalist.
To qualify, vehicles need to be launched between 1 November 2018 to 31 October 2019, the announcement of the semi-finalists happens 25 November 2019.
The Mercedes-Benz A-Class won the 2019 AutoTrader South African Car of the Year title leaving everyone guessing which car will win South Africa’s most illustrious automotive accolade in 2020.
AutoTrader became the title sponsor for the competition which was organised by the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists (SAGMJ) in 2019. CEO of AutoTrader, George Mienie says he is proud of the fact that AutoTrader plays such a fundamental role in shaping the South African motor industry.
“This competition is already one of the finest in the world and with the changes made in 2019 and further enhancements that will take place in 2020 such as extended consumer voting to finalists stage we expect AutoTrader South African Car of the Year to soar to even greater heights,” he concludes.
The 2020 event is widely expected to be one of the best, which will see the 34-year-old competition continue migrating into a modern and digital era.
SAGMJ chairman, Rubin Van Niekerk says, “We made a number of meaningful changes to the competition last year including the introduction of an online consumer vote (55 000 votes were cast in this process) and the inclusion of five categories. This year we are happy to introduce a further two categories,” he says.
“The seven categories for 2020 are: Family, Leisure, Lifestyle, Premium Car, Premium SUV, Sport, and Urban,” adds Van Niekerk.
Once the semi-finalists have been named, voting for finalists will take place. Thereafter, the test days in March 2020 when 27 of South Africa’s top motoring journalists will put the vehicles through their paces.
The category and overall winners will be announced at an event in April 2020 hosted by AutoTrader.
“I am delighted to reveal that the reach for the 2019 AutoTrader Car of the Year was over 100 million. Each manufacturer enjoyed an average PR reach of 15 million. Furthermore, social impressions for the #AutoTraderCOTY2019 broke all records reaching into the hundreds of millions. In 2020 we aim to build on this as we bring consumers closer to the competition and recognize, reward and inspire excellence in a changing automotive industry,” Mienie concludes.
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