The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
XC60 is World Car of the Year
The Volvo XC60 has been named the best car on sale today at the 2018 World Car of the Year awards.
Meanwhile, British marque Range Rover’s new Velar was declared the best looking new car the world has to offer.
The Swedish manufacturer’s midsized SUV has proved hugely popular with the motoring press since it went on sale last year, and was voted winner by 82 motoring journalists from 24 countries.
Hakan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars, said: “I am pleased to see our company’s product investments paying off.
“We are up against some tough competition, but this award for the XC60 shows that Volvo has the right combination of design, connectivity and safety that appeals to customers across the world.”
The SUV, which was also named the highest-rated car for safety by Euro NCAP last year, was also up for an award for car design, but was pipped to that title by the Range Rover Velar.
The British firm’s newest SUV joined the line-up last year to much acclaim, sporting a smart exterior, modern interior and relaxing driving experience.
Its classy look saw it pip the XC60 and Lexus LC coupe to the World Car Design of the Year gong.
Gerry McGovern, chief design officer for Land Rover, said: “We’re honoured that the jury recognised the tireless endeavours of our designers and engineers in delivering a vehicle with compelling design, tailored technology and relevant innovation which come together to create a vehicle of instant desirability.”
Other winners included the Audi A8, named best luxury car, the BMW M5 took the title for top performance car, and the Volkswagen Polo won best urban car. The updated version of the world’s bestselling electric car, the Nissan Leaf, took the eco-friendly award.
Having spent a week with the XC60 when it was launched last year, I can confirm it’s a very worthy winner indeed. In fact, the only threat to its title that springs to mind comes from the same stable in the form of Volvo’s excellent new compact SUV, the XC40.
Meanwhile, it’s emerged millions of drivers forget to renew their MOT on time. A survey commissioned by AA Cars, quizzed 21,000 people on their MOT habits and found that, when extrapolated to reflect the whole population, the data could mean as many as two million Brits have been late renewing their MOT by a week – with half forgetting for up to a month.
The MOT test is no cakewalk – over a third of cars fail their first MOT test, with dangerous faults sadly common. The AA’s data show most drivers with a fault classed as ‘serious’ on their cars were unaware of it before the test, which means the motorists who forget to renew their certificates could be driving cars with undiagnosed serious faults.