Awards battle heats up
The final nine vehicles vying for gongs in this year’s AA Driven Car Guide NZ Car of the Year contest have been revealed with Lexus and Suzuki gaining two nods apiece.
Suzuki’s Swift is up against the BMW 2-Series Active Tourer and MG4 in the passenger section, while the Japanese marque’s Jimny, pictured, is a contender in the lifestyle/adventure category.
Organisers have renamed the light commercial vehicle class as the lifestyle/adventure section this year as it now includes SUVS with genuine 4WD ability. The other two finalists for this award are the Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton
Two Lexus vehicles – the NX and RX – are in a battle with Tesla’s Model Y to be crowned the safest vehicle of the year, which is based on ANCAP data rather than being judged by the awards panel.
Finalists across six other categories were announced earlier this month and voting for the People’s Choice section, which features the 10 top-selling new vehicles of the year, closed this week.
The winners and the overall AA Driven Car Guide NZ Car of the Year will be announced on November 29.
Awards finalists
Lifestyle/Adventure: Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton, Suzuki Jimny
Passenger: BMW 2-Series Active Tourer, MG4, Suzuki Swift
Safest: Lexus NX, Lexus RX, Tesla Model Y
