There are plenty of individual ‘Car of the Year’ awards, given out by almost every automotive magazine in the country, but what makes the Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) Award special is that a significant chunk of the motoring fratemity comes together, supported by J K Tyre, to decide the winner.
The jury for ICOTY Awards consists of senior journalists from India’s leading automotive magazines — Bob Rupani and Gautam Sen of Auto India, Vikrant Singh and Rahul Ghosh of Auto Bild, Aspi Bhathena of Car India, Bertrand D’souza and Shubhabrata Marmar of Overdrive, Girish Karkera and Sriram Narayanan of Top Gear India and BSM’s Srinivas Krishnan, Pablo Chaterji and Rohin Nagrani. There were also a couple of additions to the jury this year — Dhruv Behl of Auto X and Muralidhar Swaminathan of The Hindu Business Line. Among them, they have over 300 years of experience behind the wheel, so you know there’s some solid backing behind these winners!
For the ICOTY Award, the Renault Duster beat the competition from the Hyundai Elantra and the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga. All the contenders were judged on criteria such as design, price, fule efficiency, comfort, safety, performance and driving pleasure, with environmental factors and technological advancement also playing a big role.
The awards were presented at a glittering ceremony in Mumbai last month. While congratulating the winners, Raghupati Singhania, Vice-chairman and Managing Director of JK Tyre & Industries, said, “The ICOTY and IMOTY Awards represent India’s best on wheels. The nominated cars and motorcycles compete under strict and rigorous guidelines, which are a hallmark in the making of the most coveted awards in the auto industry.”
