THE EVALUATION PROCESS

Separating the best from the rest is easier said than done. At the Times Auto Awards we have a very thorough and transparent procedure

WITH A FIRM EMPHASIS ON credibility and integrity, a fool proof evaluation process had been crafted for the jury members of the Times Auto Awards in association with evo India and Fast Bikes India. Two full days had been set aside for the jury to put the four-wheelers and twowheelers through intensive testing and evaluation on the 3.7km long Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) in Chennai.

To keep the playing field level and to remove any ambiguity, vehicles that were not sent for evaluation were summarily disqualified. In effect, this ensured that all jury members evaluated the same vehicles.

Although conducted on a race track to provide the jury with a fully-controlled and safe testing environment, this evaluation process had less to do with outright speed and more to do with the jury member’s area of expertise. As a result, while motorsport enthusiasts concentrated on dynamic abilities and performance, vehicle design experts focused on design. Industry stalwarts looked at engineering, craftsmanship and repairability while other members evaluated the contender for its overall value proposition. In each category, the jury members ranked the contenders in descending order with the winner of each category becoming the contender for the coveted overall Car of the Year and Two-Wheeler of the Year awards, which would be decided on the basis of points allotted to each contender by the jury members.

Needless to say, the winner of the overall Car of the Year award and the Two-Wheeler of the Year award would be the one with the maximum points.

Helping us ensure complete transparency and fairness in our evaluation process was our validator, Metric Global, who did the final collation of all votes and points accorded by each jury member.