The Philippine Star
August 17, 2011
It’s quite interesting to watch and observe how the voting is shaping up for this year’s search for the motoring public’s most preferred automobile models in each vehicle category and the most popular automobile, the country’s “2011-2012 Automobile of the Year – People’s Choice”.
This year marks the 7th staging of Auto Focus People’s Choice Awards, which is presented by BDO Auto Loan in cooperation with Air21, the official courier and Caltex with Techron with media partner The Philippine STAR and the major participation of Vistamar Beach Resort & Hotel together with AGC.
Try checking out the voting website by logging on to www.autofocus.com.ph and see for yourselves the interesting and sometimes intriguing turn out of votes for each participating model that come from the various voting modes. This year voters can register their choices by electronically voting online (once for every e-mail address during the entire voting period) or at offsite voting centers located at designated Air21 outlets (once daily for every person) or through ballots (with valid dates) cut out from the motoring section of The Philippine STAR, which can be dropped in designated Air21 and Caltex service stations nationwide.
Aside from being easy and convenient, voting can also be fun because each time a vote is cast, the voter stands the chance of winning prizes. When you drop your STAR ballots or cast your electronic vote in Air21 designated outlets, you can draw a possible prize of a coffee mug, mini wall clock, ball pen, etc. It however doesn’t end there, as names of all those who cast their votes in whatever manner including online are automatically included in bi-monthly electronic raffles that give away more prizes that shall be delivered to the winners’ registered addresses by the official courier, Air21.
As of last Monday, August 15, this is how the volatile tally of votes looked like.
In the Sub Compact category, it appears that the Honda Jazz, which was the 2005 Sub Compact of the Year is pulling away with more than one hundred votes lead over the second placer BMW 1 series, which is up by seven votes from the Hyundai Accent, which is running 3rd. Votes from both Jazz and BMW 1 come from online, off site and STAR ballots.
In the Compact category, a neck-to-neck race for votes is going on with leads changing by the day between last year’s Compact of the Year, the Chevy Cruze and the Nissan Sentra with the Hyundai Elantra a far 3rd. Most of the Sentra votes come from online and STAR ballots while those of the Chevy Cruze come from online and offsite voters.
In the Large Sedan group, slight leads are being registered by the present top 3 contenders; namely BMW 7-Series on 1st followed by back-to-back Large Sedan of the Year (2008-2009) Porsche Panamera with Audi A8 on 3rd. We indeed still have a wide open race in this class.
The Sports Car category has a leading model with over a hundred votes lead. The newcomer Chevy Camaro at present comfortably leads the BMW 6-Series Coupe with the Hyundai Genesis, back-to-back Sports car of the Year (2009-2010) struggling on 3rd. The Chevy Camaro votes come from all three voting modes.
In the AUV category, the Toyota Innova, which won AUV of the Year in 2007 appeared for a while like running uncontested until lately with the Isuzu Crosswind, Tri-peat (2008-2009-2010) AUV of the Year closing the gap by the day running 2nd and the Mitsubishi Adventure inching on 3rd. Both the Innova and the Crosswind get their votes from all modes while the Adventure missing out in the off-site voting.
The drama in the Mid Size SUV group is the “tug-of-war” for the lead between the Nissan Murano and the 2009 winner Mitsubishi Montero with last year’s “Automobile of the Year”, Kia Sorento on 3rd but with votes consistently coming in.
In the Large SUV group, it’s the BMW X5 that’s on the lead over the Mitsubishi Pajero with the 3-time category leader (2008-2009-2010) Porsche Cayenne a close 3rd. BMW X5’s strength comes from online and off site votes while the Pajero has significant votes from STAR ballots and likewise online.
In the Full Size Van category, the Hyundai Grand Starex has not given up the lead from Day 1 of the voting. This could very well be their 6th domination of the class having won the title of Full Size Van of the Year for 5 straight years (2006 to 2010). Running second with presently half of the votes of the leader is the Toyota Hiace with the Foton View with a possible maiden appearance in the podium.
Almost a hundred vote-lead is presently being enjoyed by the 2-time title holder (2008 and 2010) Nissan Navarra over 2nd placer Mitsubishi Strada, which won in 2009 with the Toyota Hilux a close 3rd in the Pickup class.
The newly introduced Open category, which lists vehicle models that are not classified in any of the pre-established categories, the Volvo V60 is on the lead with the Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe coming closely behind and the Kia Soul looking like waiting in the fringes. Although votes for the Benz come strong online, Volvo’s evidently stronger offsite voters and STAR ballots make the difference.
In the race for the title of 2011-2012 Auto Focus Automobile of the Year – People’s Choice, here are the Top 5 as of Monday, August 15.
Nissan Teana
Honda Jazz
Chevrolet Cruze
Hyundai Accent
Mitsubishi Montero Sport
End of the voting this year is on September 30 with give-away prizes flowing for all voters.
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