The Irish Motoring Writer’s Association (IMWA) has crowned the Nissan Juke ‘Irish Car of the Year for 2011’.
At a glittering awards ceremony sponsored by Continental tyres a group of 27 IMWA journalists declared the fun-sized SUV crossover their car of the year (see our review). Juke scored 185 points and claimed top spot by a large margin after ultimately beating off competition from Kia’s Venga (166pts.), BMW 5 Series (158pts.), Skoda Yeti (149pts.) and Opel Astra with 144 points.
The IMWA also selected the following category winners: Juke won Irish Small Car of the Year, BMW’s 5 Series won Irish Executive/Luxury Car of the Year. Peugeot with the seven-seat 5008 and lifted the Irish Family Car of the Year award, Skoda Yeti was crowned Irish Compact Family Car of the Year and Peugeot won again when it’s RCZ took the Irish Performance Car of the Year title.
All category winners and the other contenders are proof that Irish Motorists have a fantastic range of tempting cars to choose from.
It is a given that Juke is a brilliant small car. It is available as a 1.6 litre petrol or 1.5 litre diesel. The compact five-seat Juke sits below the superb Nissan Qashqai with a sub €19K starting price. The 5 series starts at just over €40K and is an excellent machine. The 520d is all the car anyone needs in this day and age. BMW’s aggressive pricing policy has helped deliver very good value from other prestigious brands like Mercedes, for example the E Class is similarly priced. 5008 is a great family seven-seater. It uses the frugal 1.6 litre diesel PSA engine, that is cheap to run and tax, while delivering a spacious and versatile interior.
Yeti has been with us the longest of the category winners and is proof that the VW owned brand Skoda is a quality car maker. Yeti comes in two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive versions. One of the most stunning vehicles on Irish roads is the Peugeot RCZ. The two plus two sports coupe is fun to drive and, with very practical diesel or 1.6 litre 200bhp turbo petrol version, there is an RCZ to suit everyone. All of the category winners deliver more than the sum of their parts and current and prospective owners can be satisfied with the endorsement given by Ireland’s motoring writers.
In order for cars to qualify for adjudication they had to be on sale in dealerships (by the end of October 2010) plus they must have been made available by their Irish distributors to voting members for testing before the preliminary vote. This eliminated some noticeable cars from the competition.
Peugeot’s excellent 3008 was the overall winner last year and now passes on its crown to Juke. Dublin’s Convention Center also saw the Mercedes Benz Vito commercial crowned Continental ‘Irish Van of the Year’ by the nine IMWA van jurors. Vito scored 50 points and beat off competition from Volkswagen’s Transporter (43pts.) and the Nissan NV200 with 36points.
Juke is a great little car and a deserving winner, congratulations Nissan.
Michael Sheridan
