For the first time in the 26-year history of the prestigious competition, and in a year that marks some serious changes in the way the vehicles were judged, there is no South African Car of the Year.
Yes folks, they might as well have changed the name to 'Cars of the Year' because this year two cars scored equally and instead of finding a way to break that tie, the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists declared both the Volkswagen Polo 1.6 TDI Comfortline and the BMW 530d as winners.
When the nail-biting announcement of the WesBank-sponsored competition took place at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand last night, you could have cut the air with a knife, or a chainsaw for that matter. It was a shock to the industry and one that certainly has the potential to remove some of the competition's sparkle once the dust has settled.
A more pleasant departure from yesteryear, however, was that they announced how each finalist ranked:
BMW and VW: 91 points; Ford Figo 1.4 Ambiente: 77; Hyundai Sonata 2.4 GLS Exec: 76; Kia Sportage 2.0 VGT AWD AT: 63; Citroen DS3 THP Sport: 59; Hyundai ix35 2.0 CRDI GLS AWD AT: 48; Opel Astra 1.4T Enjoy Plus: 39; Honda CR-Z: 21; VW Amarok 2.0 BiTDI 4x2 DC: 10.
The new judging process is a bold move and one that seems to carry much merit, but there are a few areas of concern. First, let's look at what it entails:
In previous years, the selected jury would congregate for two and a half days and drive each car over the same pre-selected route while filling in a fat score book. Here, the jury judged each car according to just about every criterion imaginable.
The scores would then be tallied up by an independent auditor and weighted according to a complex value-based criteria and the only disclosure emerging would be the winner.
Now they've shifted to a far more transparent modus operandi.
The new scoring system is based on that of the European Car of the Year and instead of those questionnaires that would make a Varsity exam look like a pamphlet, each jury member is given a total of 25 points to allocate to no more than five of the finalists and no less than three.
This, however, is not before a stringent process of voting and physical testing of eligible vehicles that were launched locally over the preceding year.
The evaluation then takes place at the Gerotek testing facility in Gauteng, where the vehicles were tested under the conditions they were designed for, including off-roading in the case of vehicles such as the VW Amarok.
Another key difference, once the scores were tallied, is that the cloak-and-dagger secrecy surrounding the scoring process is replaced by complete transparency in which a table listing the names of each jury member and the points they allocated to each car are disclosed on the guild's website for all in the industry to see.
Now, there's no denying the merit of transparency but one can't overlook the potential for corruption here when one looks at the many perks that motoring journalists can obtain from car companies.
Needless to say the Guild has its jury-selection work cut out like never before, but here's where another potential glitch emerges because the car companies play a major role in helping select the jury.
The Guild will base this jury selection on lists they obtain from the car companies, stating their most frequent launch attendees and test car borrowers, in order to come up with a list of people who are most familiar with all the cars that were recently launched.
Fair enough, but the potential for corruption is a risk that's hard to ignore and the Guild will need to guard against this with its very life.
As for the fact that two cars have won this year, well, the competition is going to take a lot of flak for that. I can't help but wonder why a back-up plan wasn't in place for something like this. Like a final vote, or adding up the top three scores that the individual jury members gave to those cars.
I'm no expert in that field, but I can't think of any other competition, be it a sporting event or beauty pageant, where a tie is accepted.
Indeed the Guild has made some bold changes to the competition, many of them debatable, but from what I've seen behind the scenes, the enthusiastic team behind it is hell-bent on making it the best competition it possibly can be - but perhaps some solid debate and fine tuning is still needed.
What do you think of the tie and the new judging process?