Picking the best cars of 2017

Since 2004, the Car Awards Group Inc. (CAGI), a private, nonprofit organization of motoring journalists, has been conducting annual tests of motor vehicles to determine the Car and Truck of the Year in the Philippines.

In the same year, C! Magazine launched its Annual C! Awards honoring the best automobiles, motorcycles and personalities of the country’s auto industry.

CAGI and C! share the same basic objective: to recognize automotive excellence, and thereby help consumers make a well- informed decision when shopping for a new car.

CAGI’s COTY (Car of the Year) and C! Magazine’s annual awards are patterned after the American magazine Motor Trend’s Car, Truck, SUV and Person of the Year Awards, which began in 1949.

Car and Driver, another globally circulated magazine from the United States, has its own annual 10 Best Cars list.

Motor Trend conceptualized the first COTY award, which has generated the World Car of the Year award (selected by 48 motoring journalists from 22 countries), European Car of the Year starting in 1964, International Car of the Year, Asean Car of the Year, and national COTY awards of individual countries like COTY of Japan, of Canada and of South Africa.

Given these premises, let us look at the testing rules and procedures of Motor Trend and Car and Driver by leafing through their January 2017 issues.

Perhaps CAGI and C!, after surmounting their limited logistics and resources, will one day adapt some of these procedures.

Motor Trend divides its testing into three categories: SUV of the Year, Truck of the Year, and Car of the Year.

Motor Trend has used two testing locales for the last 10 years every September: the Hyundai Motor Group desert proving ground in California City, and the real-world environs around the nearby settlement of Tehachapi, north of Edwards Air Base in the high desert near Mojave.

The criteria of Motor Trend for COTY are: advancement in design, engineering excellence, performance of intended function, efficiency, safety and value.

For the 2017 COTY, 11 judges congregated at the Hyundai proving ground in California last September to drive 23 contenders (actually 32, if the significant drivetrain and trim variants are counted) provided by 18 automotive brands.

Cars took turns lapping the giant 6.4-mile oval for a total of 2,254 miles to test high-speed stability, then proceeded to the vehicle dynamics area for figure-eight testing, the straight stability road for acceleration and brake stops, the winding road handling course for driving at racetrack speeds, and the rough-road special surfaces for 528 miles to test ride quality—but not necessarily in that order.

This was followed by two days of looping the 27.6-mile subjective driving route through and around Tehachapi.

Real-world road loop

Motor Trend took the cars to tackle the real-world road loop in Tehachapi, a mix of highway, city and light canyon roads where: 1) low-speed stop-start driving tests transmission calibration, throttle and brake tip-in, low-speed ride, and visibility; 2) broken pavement tests the noise suppression and whether NVH is transmitted  into the vehicle; 3) a sustained climb up a mountain pass tests torque and transmission response, and a sustained descent tests cruise control effectiveness; 4) a canyon road with mid-corner elevation changes induces major transient loads, ideal for testing steering, chassis balance, and body control; 5) on a railroad crossing, a sharp bump at 10 mph tests the suspension effectiveness; 6) on the freeway, pitched and broken concrete induces tire noise quality in a commuting situation and also tests cruise control, passive and active safety systems, semi-autonomous driving and passing power; and 7) an angled rail crossing induces twisting loads for a good assessment of chassis rigidity.

 

In total, the 11 judges evaluated the COTY 2017 field for 7,180 miles, the equivalent of driving from Los Angeles to Istanbul, and jotted 65,000 words in notebooks (312 miles/2,826 words per entrant).

The 23 contenders were winnowed down to nine finalists: the 2017 Volvo S90, Chevrolet Bolt EV, Tesla Model S, Genesis G90, Jaguar XE, Porsche 911, Cadillac CT5, Audi A4, and Chrysler Pacifica.

The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV won the 2017 Motor Trend Car of the Year Golden Calipers and the following accolade: “A roomy, practical, quiet and comfortable compact hatchback, an energy-efficient small car and a benchmark electric vehicle—the marvelously accomplished and endlessly engaging Chevy Bolt EV is all these things … the practical, affordable, fun-to-drive Bolt EV has made electric-powered transport for the masses a reality.

2017 SUV of the Year

Before the COTY tests, Motor Trend conducts its SUV of the Year and Truck of the Year evaluations.

Nineteen international contenders were represented by 30 model variants for the 2017 SUV of the Year testing.

Each contender was evaluated relative to its peers within its segment on six criteria: 1) how much the exterior and interior designs advance or innovate;

2) the vehicle’s relative value considering both price and options; 3) whether it accomplishes a stated or implied function/mission; 4) how efficient the powertrains are, and the relative size of the carbon footprint produced; 5) the active/passive safety equipment, official test results, and the engineering involved; and 6) clever packaging or materials solutions that benefit the consumer.

In Phase 1, each contender underwent the usual instrumental tests to quantify its on-road performance at Motor Trend’s Auto Club Speedway test facility.

Using “mil-spec” GPS, the Vbox data acquisition measured 0-60 and quarter-mile acceleration, 60-0 braking, lateral acceleration, and best lap time through the figure-eight test.

During this three-week period, Motor Trend’s in-house Real MPG lab measured on-road fuel economy to gauge true efficiency using highly sensitive instruments.

In Phase 2, all contenders traveled with the 11 judges to the Honda Proving Center of California in the high desert near Mojave, where they were subjected to two days of an exhaustive back-to-back round-robin of controlled, closed-circuit evaluations.

On the smooth, 7.5-mile oval and a 1-mile offshoot replicating a choppy freeway, merging, wind/road noise at various levels, ride quality, lane keeping warning/assist systems, and adaptive cruise controls if so equipped were tested.

On a 2.2-mile winding road, each SUV’s steering, engine, transmission, suspension and brake system calibration on a variety of rising, falling, on/off-camber, and steady and decreasing-radius corners were evaluated.

Off-road tests were conducted on a loose-gravel road loop and a half-mile course consisting of deep silt, packed dirt, numerous dips and bumps, side inclines, and a steep 50 percent incline/descent.

These exercises included but were not limited to tests of NVH, ride quality, limit handling, off-road ability, semi- and full-autonomous driving features, special surface capability, and high-temperature operation and high-wind susceptibility in the Mojave desert.

This round of evaluations produced a short list of six finalists, which were then driven on a 26.7-mile loop in and around Tehachapi, California, to determine a rank order from sixth place up to the winner.

The six finalists were the 2017 Audi Q7, Mazda CX-9, GMC Arcadia, Jaguar F-Pace, Tesla Model X, and Mercedes GLC.

The SUV of the Year award went to the Mercedes-Benz GLC, the fourth Mercedes SUV to take home a Motor Trend of the Year Award (1998, 2007 and 2013.)

The GLC is built on the platform of the E-Class, and its interior and electronics are from the C-Class.

“The GLC isn’t the sexiest choice for SUV of the Year, but it’s without hesitation the smartest,” Motor Trend wrote. “The GLC is just solid. It aces all six of our criteria without skipping a beat. It manages to combine calming elegance and fist-pumping fun.”

 

(Next: The 2017 Motor Trend Truck of the Year and Car and Driver’s 10 Best Cars of 2017.)