It was an evening of well deserved wins at the Vehicle of the Year 2017 Awards, hosted by insurance industry leader Allianz Malaysia Berhad and www.dsf.my . The Friday night event started off with winners from within the car industry.
Honda Malaysia and Mercedes-Benz Malaysia were the night’s biggest winners with 4 awards each. Two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, the A45 AMG and AMG GT won VOTY Awards in their respective categories, but the staff members were also recognised with two other awards.
Honda Malaysia took home the big one – Vehicle of the Year 2017 – for their amazing, yet affordable Honda Civic 1.8 S. Their Product Planning Team, Internal PR and Vice President also won awards in multiple categories.
Another carmaker that was on a winning streak that night was Volvo Car Malaysia. The newly launched S90 bagged the awards for best Interior Design and Luxury Sedan of 2017 while the XC90 took home the well-deserved title of Luxury SUV of 2017.
Our local carmakers also made us proud with their compact, affordable options. The Proton Saga won itself the well-deserved Compact Sedan of 2017 Award for an extremely capable and well-built product. The new Perodua Axia with its updated 1-litre VVT-i engine was unmistakably the Compact Car of 2017.
Two European makes won in the Crossover and SUV of the Year categories. The locally-assembled Volkswagen Tiguan – with its great packaging and drive qualities as well as the Renault Koleos, which bridges the gap between premium and attainable SUV perfectly.
For clear reasons, Toyota won the award for Best After Sales. Despite having a sizeable volume of cars to deal with, we never hear major complaints from customers. The Toyota Sienta was also judged to be the best Compact MPV for 2017.
A surprise win in the Luxury MPV category was the Weststar Maxus G10 for its unbeatable value at below RM130,000. The hybrid sector was hotly contested but the IONIQ was the undisputed champion, thanks to its attainability and its merits as an all-round performer. Pickup Truck of the Year went to the new Mitsubishi Triton VGT for sticking to its workhorse roots and while providing a best-in-class warranty.
We couldn’t think of a better sportscar than the Porsche 718 Cayman. Loads of fun, yet practical enough as a daily driver with a capable but low displacement motor. Our pick for Executive Sedan of the Year was especially tough. The new BMW 5-Series walked away on top after considering just how much kit was being offered as standard. The car itself is extremely competent. More information on the DSF.my Allianz Vehicle Of The Year awards and why each winner was picked can be found on http://www.dsf.my/category/voty-2017
DSF.my and Allianz Malaysia Berhad Salute the best vehicles and the management teams in Malaysia
- Vehicle Of The Year 2017 – Honda Civic 1.8
- Crossover of the year – Volkswagen Tiguan
- SUV of the year – Renault Koleos
- Luxury sedan of the year – Volvo S90
- Luxury SUV of the year – Volvo XC90
- Luxury MPV of the year – Maxus G10
- Luxury compact of the year – Mercedes A45 AMG
- Hybrid of the year – Hyundai IONIQ
- Compact car of the year – Perodua Axia
- Compact sedan of the year – Proton Saga
- Compact MPV of the year – Toyota Sienta
- Pickup truck of the year – Mitsubishi Triton VGT
- Executive sedan of the year – BMW 5-Series
- Supercar of the year – Mercedes AMG GT
- Sports car of the year – Porsche Cayman
- Internal PR team – Honda Malaysia
- Best drive event organizer – Mercedes Benz Malaysia
- Product planning team – Honda Malaysia
- Best after sales – Toyota Malaysia
- Vehicle Design – Mazda CX3
- Interior Design – Volvo S90
- Diesel Engine of the year – Mazda Skyactiv diesel 2.2cc
- Petrol Engine of the year – Ford 1.5 EcoBoost
- Automotive Lady of 2017 – Elaine Hew, General Manager Marketing Communications, Mercedes Benz Malaysia
- Automotive Gentleman of 2017 – Akkbar Danial, Vice President, Honda Malaysia
