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Volkswagen won five of the 11 categories in the 2018 Gumtree Auto Pre-Owned Awards announced on Monday night (8 October 2018). Toyota, Mazda and Audi also enjoyed strong showings with two wins each.
The awards, now in their second year, are unique in South Africa in their recognition of vehicles which deliver resale value, quality, durability, overall performance and economy for pre-owned buyers. Only 2016 models with at least six months of depreciation data were considered and five finalists in each of the 11 categories were extensively judged by an expert panel.
Volkswagen swept the hatchback and sedan categories up to R300 000, winning the ‘Budget City Car’ category with the Take Up!, the’ Light Hatchback’ category with the Polo Vivo, the ‘Medium Sedan’ category with the Jetta, and the ‘Medium Hatchback’ category with the Golf 1.4TSI.
Volkswagen’s fifth winner was the Golf R, which shared top spot in ‘Performance Car under R615 000’ with the Audi S3-S-Tronic. This was the closest contested category with the third-placed BMW 240i a mere 10 points adrift of the joint winners.
Audi scored its second triumph in the ‘Medium-sized Luxury Sedan under R550 000’ category with the A4 2.0TDI S-Tronic which narrowly beat the BMW 330D.
As expected, Toyota dominated in the SUV categories – the Fortuner winning ‘SUVs under R505 000’ and the Hilux taking ‘4x2 Double Cabs under R460 000’.
Mazda’s CX3 won the ‘Cross-overs under R325,000’ in convincing fashion in the only category with a unanimous winner among all 11 judges. Mazda also took the ‘SUVs under R330 000’ with the CX5 2.0 Active model.
Jaguar won the ‘Luxury SUVs under R700 000’ category with the very attractively styled F-Pace.
Three of the 2018 winners were repeating their 2017 triumphs - Volkswagen Golf 1.4TSI Trendline, Volkswagen Golf R and the Mazda CX3 2.0 Individual.
Jeff Osborne, Head of Automotive at Gumtree, said the judges had done an outstanding job: “These awards are going from strength to strength as an important guide for buyers in the marketplace. Twice as many pre-owned vehicles are bought every year in SA than new ones and this is a key way that Gumtree can help everyone navigate that process.”
2018 Gumtree Auto Pre-owned judging panel
Charl Wilken (Wilken Communication Management), Adam Ford (Ignition TV/Buyers’ Guide), Roger McCleery (Radio Today), Lerato Matebese (Business Day Motor News), Michele Lupini (Bakkie and Car), Liana Reiners (AutoLive), Zerildi Pieters (Daily Sun), Matthew Kanniah (Blogger), Alan Rosenmeyer (Motormatters), Sean Nurse (AutoDealer), and Mabuyane Kekana (Kaya FM and Metro FM).
