AUTOBEST organization celebrated the 11th Anniversary
The Prague 2012 festivity host an impressive festivity with no less than 8 awards.
The 11th edition of AUTOBEST AWARDS festivity took place this year on February 2th, in Clarion Congress Hotel in the magical Prague, one of the most beautiful cities of Europe. “We are here at the eleventh AUTBEST Gala awards in Prague, the incredible capital of Czech Republic and one of the jewels of Europe. We can only thank to our hosts for giving us the opportunity to discover this historical city.” said Ilia Seliktar, AUTOBEST President.
Hyundai Elantra was voted “AUTOBEST 2012”. With a total of 839 points, the winner overtook Ford Focus – no. 2 with 758 points and Chevrolet Aveo coming third with a total of 744 points, very close to no. 2! Fiat Panda – who won the Autobest award for the previous generation seven years ago, came on 4th with 668 points, followed by Toyota Yaris with 591 points. No less than 10 members of the Jury voted Elantra as the winner, other 3 gave the first place to Focus and the rest of no. 1 spot been shared by Aveo and Panda. (for detailed results, see Final Ranking in www.autobest.org )
“I am proud and honored to receive this important award for Hyundai Elantra. We, at Hyundai Motor Europe, are taking very seriously this award, as the first international one for Elantra. Before anything else, at AUTOBEST we appreciate the transparency of the election process. I’ve been in Belgrade for the final 5 test and I personally discovered the passion of all Jury members to test and assess all the cars in the final, following a very clear , transparent process. Thank you Ilia, thank to all the Jury members.” said Allan Rushforth, Senior Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Hyundai Motor Europe in receiving the award.
Ilia Seliktar, the Autobest President, stated “This year, we had a tough competition among 5 cars, all of them extremely performing. But the best buy car of Europe is Hyundai Elantra. I am quick in saying that we discovered at the beginning of the year – almost a month after AUTOBEST announcement – that Elantra convinced American media to receive “North American Car of the Year”. For the first time in the history, we, AUTOBEST region motoring writers and our colleagues from USA and Canada came to the same conclusion. And yes, Hyundai Elantra is the best buy car both in Europe and North America. This is a huge success!.”
“I’m very pleased to be here with you this evening to accept MANBEST 2011. Without the cooperation of the media, we will not be able to communicate our strategies and policies. I want to thank to all Jury members for this great award. I am honoured!” expressed Carl Peter Forster, member of the board of Tata Motors.
“I’m very pleased to be here with you this evening to accept AUTOBEST’s COMPANYBEST award on behalf of the Chevrolet Europe. This is the perfect time to receive such a prestigious award” said Andy Higgins Director of Chevrolet Europe for AUTOBEST region, referring to the Chevrolet Centennial, celebrated last year.
” I feel very honored to have won the SPORTBEST award, because it is a prestigious award given by an experienced, expert jury,” said Jan Kopecký , the winner of SPORTBEST 2011.
“We are very honored to receive this prestigious award. At VW we intend to democratize expensive safety technologies, transferring these to small cars as it is the case with City Emergency Brake for the new up! We can see that other competitors are following us and this is very good for all customers” said Prof Dr Stefan Gies, in receiving the “SAFETYBEST 2011” award.
”We are proud to receive the prestigious ECOBEST 2011 award for the Chevrolet Volt / Opel Ampera. This is the first European award for our first EVer” said Marc Kempe, Communication Director for Chevrolet Europe. Peter Erhardt, Communication manager for AUTOBEST region at Adam Opel AG added: “This is the right award for Opel Ampera. Many thanks to all Jury members.”
“TECHNOBEST 2011” award went to Ford of Europe for the new 1.0L ecoboost engine. “By coincidence, this week we launched the first Focus equipped with this small, but very performing engine. We are very proud to receive this award as a proof that our latest technology in powertrains is recognized as championing the low consumption and very low emissions.” said, Hans Juergen Fuchs, Communication manager at Ford of Europe for AUTOBEST region..
Gerry McGovern was present on a video link with the public in the AUTOBEST Gala awards. He was thanking for “DESIGNBEST 2011” in the name of his design team, Andrew Wheel one of the designers of the new Range Rover Evoque and Frank Klaas, Worldwide communication Director for Jaguar Land Rover walked on stage to take over the award.
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.
