It is always a mammoth exercise, and it started the same this year too. But there was an onus on us to make the NDTV Car & Bike Awards better and bigger – like we have every year. This year that took on a special meaning with it being our 10th edition! Yes that was quite a milestone for us, and we did celebrate that in style. And I am proud of our process and indeed the winners!But now let’s get on to the hard facts that truly matter in the end. The winners are decided using a similar judging system as the World Car Awards – with whom we are associated. We also had the largest jury every this year, with 9 jurors for the car category and 6 for the two wheelers. There is a separate jury which votes on the CNB-AAA advertising/marketing/communication categories. (see: Awards jury http://goo.gl/9lX2PW)

It was one of the largest ever pool of nominees we had this year, and we added some categories, like the Premium SUV of the Year category this time. (see: 2015 nominees http://goo.gl/Q082CN)

The Car space first. Only nominees in categories which have cars below the Rs 30 lakh price point were in the running for NDTV Car of the Year (Entry Hatchback, Premium Hatchback, Subcompact Sedan, Compact Sedan, Midsize Sedan, MUV, Compact SUV/Crossover, SUV, Premium SUV and Entry Premium Car of the Year).

The final scores were tabulated across 7 voting parameters (each juror can score each parameter on a scale of 1-10), and the winners were ascertained based on that tally.

	NDTV Car of the Year Finalists	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Juror 6	Juror 7	Juror 8	Juror 9	Total
1	Audi A3	50	58	57	58	58	53	54.5	55	47	490.5
2	Hyundai i20	52	51	54	54	47	53	53.5	61	49	474.5
3	Honda Mobilio	49	36	50	49	53	48	50	50	47	432
4	Mahindra Scorpio	42	42	53	53.5	54	50	46.5	47	41	429
5	Maruti Suzuki Ciaz	45	24	52	52	48	50	51	60	44	426
6	Hyundai Xcent	44	37	49	47.5	43	49	46	55	43	413.5
7	Maruti Suzuki Celerio	38	34.5	47	49.5	53	53	43	50	39	407
8	Hyundai Santa Fe	41	25	51	46	53	41	44.5	60	43	404.5

 

Color	Juror’s Ranking
	Highest Rank
	Second highest
	Third highest

The cars listed above also indicate the segment winners, with the jury opting not to award in the Compact SUV/Crossover and Midsize Sedan segments, as the sole nominees there didn’t seem to do enough to justify an award. I was particularly heartened that our jury took the bold decision to award what it truly considered the best car – with no inhibitions, or thought to how it ‘should be done’. Hence the Audi A3 won on pure merit, and the table above shows, it was a clear winner for 6 of the 9 jurors, and was second highest for 2. The Hyundai i20 was the fierce rival with very high scores from all jurors, getting 4 highest and 4 second highest votes. And the Honda Mobilio was the surprise of the pack, beating strong contenders like the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz and Hyundai Xcent to take the 3rd spot.

But now I want to take you through how these scores were arrived at. And this is where things get interesting. The value of voting across parameters is well manifested in the chart below. Here you can clearly see how a product doesn’t just get an overall score, which may have a juror not think about certain USPs or strengths, but instead provides a very comprehensive picture of each juror’s assessment. Look at the few expected and few surprising positions below.

NDTV Car of the Year Finalists	Overall Merit/USP	Value For Money	Safety	Environment	Significance To Segment	Emotional Appeal	Performance & Handling	Total Score
Audi A3	69	60.5	82	68.5	72.5	65	73	490.5
Hyundai i20	73	70	63	68	73	66.5	61	474.5
Honda Mobilio	62.5	68.5	60	61.5	70	52.5	57	432
Mahindra Scorpio	66.5	67	63	55	67.5	55.5	54.5	429
Maruti Suzuki Ciaz	64	66.5	56.5	60	66	58	55	426
Hyundai Xcent	59.5	73	56	65	67	44	49	413.5
Maruti Suzuki Celerio	64.5	73	44	68.5	72	38	47	407
Hyundai Santa Fe	59	51	70.5	50.5	59	54	60.5	404.5

Color	Juror’s Ranking
	Highest Rank
	Second highest
	Third highest

On Value For Money it is not surprising to see the Maruti-Suzuki Celerio and Hyundai Xcent top the list. But the i20 also scored well here, despite being a fully-loaded premium hatch. On Safety the surprise was the second spot to the Santa Fe with its dual front & curtain airbags, ABS, EBD, Rollover sensor, Stability management and Isofix for child seats, all being noticed and applauded. The Audi A3 of course won the safety, environment and performance & handling parameters with ease. But the Hyundai i20 pipped it in Significance to Segment. That is a crucial area that helps the juror compare the car in question to its own peers rather than other nominees. The i20 also won on emotional appeal, which is why it wasn’t surprising it also went on to win the Design of the Year award.

Now on to the Two Wheelers! Here too it was a mixed bag. It is motorcycles and scooters up to 1000cc that are in consideration here, with the niche high-displacement bikes not in contention. The real fight here came down to 3 players. And all were very strong indeed. It is great to see scooters becoming so relevant again. After we had our first Viewers’ Choice Two Wheeler going to the TVS Jupiter last year, the Honda Activa 125 fared very well in the jury awards this time around. Not only did it win Scooter of the Year, but as you can see tied in 3rd place overall with the very capable KTM RC 200. The RC 390 was a whisker behind in 4th place – just 0.5 points behind! The Harley-Davidson Street 750 was a strong nominee, as the company’s first product made outside the US, and available at a more affordable price point than its usual portfolio. The chart shows how it got a consistent 2nd highest ranking from all but one juror. Eventually only 14 points separated it from the Suzuki Gixxer which got 4 highest ranks.

	NDTV Two-Wheeler of the Year Finalists	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Juror 6	Total Score
1	Suzuki Gixxer	46	53	56.5	55	44	62	316.5
2	Harley-Davidson Street 750	49	52	55.5	55	36	55	302.5
3	Honda Activa 125	51	41	49.5	51	39	52	283.5
3	KTM RC 200	46	43	43.5	54	43	54	283.5
4	KTM RC 390	45	39	47	59	39	54	283
5	TVS Star City+	43	38	39	50	44	62	276

Color	Juror’s Ranking
	Highest Rank
	Second highest
	Third highest

Now a look at the break-up by parameter, and again it is a very interesting picture. Lots of red below for the Suzuki Gixxer indicates that it rated very high on several parameters for the jury. It also just barely missed being number one in Significance to Segment and Performance & Handling. It was also heartening to see how Harley-Davidson’s efforts with its brand new strategy with the Street 750 bore fruit with it topping the Value For Money charts! It also tied with the Gixxer on Safety. Despite the Gixxer and the Street staying ahead of the KTM RC 390 on Emotional Appeal, the latter won the Design of the Year award! And the Honda Activa was in a 3-way tie on Environment with the Gixxer and TVS Star City+ given their high fuel efficiency claims.

NDTV Two-Wheeler of the Year Finalists	Overall Merit/USP	Value For Money	Safety	Environment	Significance To Segment	Emotional Appeal	Performance & Handling	Total Score
Suzuki Gixxer	47.5	40.5	42	42	47.5	48	49	316.5
Harley-Davidson Street 750	47.5	44	42	31	48.5	45	44.5	302.5
Honda Activa 125	44	39	38.5	42	46.5	34	39.5	283.5
KTM RC 200	39.5	39	39.5	34	45	41	45.5	283.5
KTM RC 390	41	33	39	33	43.5	44	49.5	283
TVS Star City+	41	43	36	42	40	35	39	276

Color	Juror’s Ranking
	Highest Rank
	Second highest
	Third highest

The NDTV Car of the Year & Two Wheeler of the Year awards are both just as important to us as the CNB Viewers’ Choice Car & Two Wheeler of the Year. The latter is of course decided through public voting, and both our winners this time had a clear margin of victory. The Hyundai i20 beat the Honda City, while on the bike side the winner was once again the Suzuki Gixxer.

CNB Viewers Choice	CNB VC Car of the Year	CNB VC Two Wheeler of the Year
Winner	Hyundai i20	Suzuki Gixxer
1st Runner-Up	Honda City	Honda Activa 125
2nd Runner-Up	Tata Zest	TVS Star City+
3rd Runner-Up	Maruti Suzuki Ciaz	Bajaj Discover 150F
4th Runner-Up	Honda Mobilio	Vespa S
5th Runner-Up	Fiat Avventura	TVS Scooty Zest
6th Runner-Up	Datsun GO	Mahindra Gusto
7th Runner-Up	–	Hero Splendor iSmart
8th Runner-Up	–	Suzuki Let’s