Mercedes’ slogan has long been “The Best of Nothing” and now there’s real life proof to that. The judges of the World Car of the Year Awards have named three Mercedes models as winners for 2015 at this year’s New York Motor Show. The judges are made up of 75 motoring journalists from 22 countries.
The Mercedes-AMG GT, a car I am a huge fan of, was crowned ‘World Performance Car of the Year’ for 2015. Just to recap on the other “performance cars” to come out in the last 12 months: the Porsche 991 GT3, Ferrari 458 Speciale, BMW M3/M4, and the Jag F-Type R Coupe. Sure, most of these are based on car that were originally launched a couple years back. Regardless, they’re also worthy of the title. Still, something about Mercedes-AMG’s second standalone car must be right. The GT is a follow up to the SLS AMG and features a new 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 producing 470bhp or 510bhp in the GT S. The latter is the version we’ll be getting in New Zealand. Previous “World Performance Car” winners include the Ferrari 458, Audi R8, and Porsche 911 GTS.
The GT wasn’t the only Mercedes Coupe to take home a win. The S-Class Coupe, yes the two-door version, took home ‘World Luxury Car of the Year’ pipping the other finalists, which included the BMW i8 and Range Rover Autobiography LWB.
But the biggest win for Mercedes didn’t go to a flagship coupe or a piece of exotica, it actually went to one of their best selling models: the C-Class. The new C-Class is an impressive car and so impressive judges awarded it the best new car released in the last year, beating the Mustang and Passat. Previous winners include the Audi A3/A6, VW Golf/Up!/Polo, and Nissan Leaf.
Mercedes weren’t the only star of the awards, cars from other manufacturers also took home other awards. The funky-styled Citroen C4 Cactus won “Design of the Year”, an award previous won by the BMW i3, Aston Martin Rapide, and Jaguar F-Type. BMW’s hybrid sports car won “World Green Car of the Year” beating Merc’s S500 Plug-in Hybrid and the VW Golf GTE.
Say what you will about Mercedes-Benz’s current line up of cars but they’ve come a long way since those questionable times not too long ago. Sure they’ve expanded into every conceivable niche, and a few inconceivable ones too (GLE Coupe, anyone?) but from the A-Class to the S-Class Maybach and everything else in between, there’s no denying the impressive car bearing the three-pointed star.
To say a four-door sedan was the best car out of the whole year might be a bit of a stretch, even if this new C-Class has grown in size. But the three victories also makes the decision of which Mercedes to buy a whole lot easier. Before now the Mercedes showroom may have looked like a sea of meaningless letters and numbers but thanks to those judges in New York you just have to combine all three winners.
Luckily Mercedes have kindly done in the form of the C63 AMG. It’s a C-Class on the outside but it has the same 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 as the AMG GT. The upcoming Coupe version will be even better, especially if it’s like a smaller, more affordable version of the S-Class Coupe.
What your thoughts on the judges decision? Do you think there were cars more worthy than those selected or are you just happy that at least a Volkswagen-Audi Group car didn’t win this year, for once. Tell us in the comments.
