CHEVROLET Cruze is the 9-th winner in the history
The Moscow 2009 festivity with many international personalities was one of the best in AUTOBEST history
(February 15-th, 2010, Bucharest)
Chevrolet Cruze was voted “AUTOBEST 2010”. With a total of 844 points, the winner overtook Hyundai i20 with only 83 points, making this one of the closest victories in the history of Autobest. Skoda Yeti came third, with a total of 725 points, very close to VW Polo, the fourth place. No less than 12 members of the Jury voted Cruze as the winner, and other 2 gave the first place to Hyundai i20. VW Polo managed to obtain just one no. 1 position. KIA Soul came on 5th, collecting 550 points.
The 9-th edition of AUTOBEST AWARDS festivity took place this year on February 11-th, in a great hall just next door to Kremlin Square, in Moscow,Russia For the ceremony attended more than 100 persons, including the members of the jury, top exectuives from the car industry, international guests, key executives from the Russian auto industry, top-representative journalists from Russia and other countries.
Very important names of the automobiles industry have been present this year to the gala event: Wayne Brannon – Director of Chevrolet Europe, John Fleming, Chairman and CEO Ford of Europe, Ian Slater – Vice-president Communications Ford Europe, Hiroshi Harunari – Managing Director in Mitsubishi Motor Corporation, Paolo Martinelli – FPT Gasoline Engine Platform Vice President, etc.
“We are all very proud of this award because the criteria that you focus on at Autobest are very much in line with what we strive to achieve at Chevrolet, to give customers great looking cars, all the technology they need and great value for money. This evening we’ve heard about some of the many areas that make our industry so exciting: behind each of those disciplines there are real people doing some really hard work and I’d like to mention just a few of the many people behind this beautiful car.
In recent years we’ve established a team of designers and engineers working together in Europe, North America and Asia to meet the needs of customers everywhere. The Chevy Cruze is built in the USA, Korea and right here, in Russia. Thank you Autobest for this award and for celebrating the best that our industry has to offer in this very important part of the world” said Wayne Brannon in receiving the award.
Ilia Seliktar, the Autobest President, stated “The Jury voted for a car we believe is important for our AUTOBEST region. It is about the best buy car we have today. It is about a car manufactured right here in Russia. And yes, is about a car delivering on every promise. Is precisely Chevrolet Cruze.”
“I’m very pleased to be here with you this evening to accept MANBEST 2010. Without the great Ford of Europe team I will not stand here in front of you. I thank all of them for doing a great job in the company. I am always excited to come to AUTOBEST awards. Is a great event, celebrating the achivements of car industry. I also want to congratulate all the winners of this eveneing and the thank the AUTOBEST jury.” John Fleming said receiving “MANBEST 2009” award.
“I’m very pleased to be here with you this evening to accept AUTOBEST’s COMPANYBEST award on behalf of the Hyundai Motor Corporation team” said Denis Petrunin – Hyundai Motors CIS Managing Director, representing Hyundai Motor Corporation, in front of the audience in accepting the “COMPANYBEST 2010” award.
“I want to thank to AUTOBEST Jurors for granting me the DESIGNBEST award for 2009. I’ve been always a designer working for Ford, BMW, Aston Martin and of course Fisker Automotive. I design with no compromise. The cars must be beatiful, great in driving but we also must be resposible and offer cars enverimentelly friendly. I am preparing the Fisker Karma, the world first premium plug-in hybrid.” said Henrik Fisker, in a tv statement directly from California, USA.
“I feel very proud to get such an important prize and I hope in the years to come I’ll be able to justify your trust in me and to be able to make you feel more honored with my future results”, Evgeny Novikov, the winner of SPORTBEST 2009, said.
“I am really delighted to receive this award in name of my company, Volvo. We all know how important is the safety and <<SAFETYBEST 2009>> is a prove that we are continuing to innovate in this field” said Hakan Andersson – VOLVO CARS Quality Director, in receiving the SAFETYBEST 2009 award.
”I am proud to receive the ECOBEST award for the Mitsubishi i-MIEV. We started to deliver the world first electric car to different organizations in Japan and by April this year we go selling the car to everybody. But the i-MIEV project si continuing with new models. We at Mitsubishi Corporation thank AUTOBEST Jury for giving us such an important award. Is a recognition to our work in this field.” stated Hiroshi Harunari – Managing Director Mitsubishi Motor Corporation.
“TECHNOBEST 2008” award went to Fiat Powertrain Technologies and to receive it, during the festivity, was present Mr. Paolo Martinelli – FPT Gasoline Engine Platform Vice President.
The AUTOBEST evening was accompanied with a great artistic performance coming from Pelagea, one the most talented Russian singers, with a modern interpretation of the traditional Russian songs. The Street Jazz dancers accompanied Wayne Brannon to introduce the new Chevy Cruze WTCC. Before the ceremony start, Arfa Project was worming the atmosphere with beautiful music.
But probably the most exciting moment of the gala was the magical moment of AUTOBEST award ceremony. Thanks to the support of people who worked in David Copperfield magician, the organizers managed to make the wrapped car on stage to disappear leaving the audience in stupefaction. David was not in Moscow for “solving” the problem but the organizers managed to bring back the car from the ceiling. “It was the most exciting stage entrance for the winning car in AUTOBEST history”, said Ilia Seliktar, AUTOBEST President
The AUTOBEST Jury would like to thank all the readers from the region for encouraging the project. Also, we would like to thank the PR responsible within the automotive industry for providing all the support in organizing meetings and drive tests of the new products.