SA Car of the Year: Users' choice revealed

Johannesburg - The 2016 South African car of the year (COTY) winner was announced at a gala event on Tuesday evening (March 8).

The Volvo XC90 has been crowned the 2016 SA Car of the Year.

Wheels24's Car of the Year judge Janine-Lee Van der Post, put all 12 vehicles through their paces in February over two days of comprehensive testing. You can read about the test process here.

Which vehicle came out tops in our homepage poll?

'Savvy buying public'

Ford's stylish Fusion is the 2016 Wheels24 users' Car of the Year with 1932 votes. The Fusion finished in second place in the official SA Car of the Year award.

Ford SA comments: "This year’s field of finalists for COTY is one of the strongest we’ve had in decades with a worthy offering in each segment, making our readers' choice victory something really special. The double positive is that we’re seeing this affinity for the Fusion translating to sales which shows that our model line-up, stand-out technology and most importantly pricing has met well with the savvy buying public. “

The runners-up

Volvo's luxurious XC90 SUV is second (968 votes) and in third place, despite being near the rear of the grid for months, is BMW's i3.

Citroen's quirky Cactus finished in last place with 219 votes.

Wheels24 users'Car of the Year poll:

Ford Fusion 25% - 1932 votes

Volvo XC90 13% 968 votes

BMW i3 10% 791 votes

Land Rover Discovery Sport 10% -  775 votes

Mazda 2 9% - 675 votes

Honda HR-V 6% - 466 votes

Jaguar XE 6% - 458 votes

Opel Adam 5% - 409 votes

Kia Sorento 5% - 378 votes

Opel Corsa 5% - 350 votes

Peugeot 308 3% - 223 votes

Citroen C4 Cactus 3% - 219 votes

SAGMJ chairman, Bernie Hellberg Jnr, talks about the 2016 SA Car of the Year: