Honda Accord V6 - car of the year 2008 in Austria

After putting the local big sixes to the sword, the Honda Accord V6 saw off challenges from supercars and luxury limousines to win Drive’s overall Car of the Year award. JOSHUA DOWLING explains how it won.




A fuel-efficient family car has won Drive’s Car of the Year award for 2008: the Honda Accord V6.

It is a watershed decision – and a sign of the times – given that previous winners include high-performance V8s or turbocharged models.

As with any automotive award, not everyone will agree with the outcome, but that is the reason there are 13 category winners, from small cars to large four-wheel-drives, to suit most people’s motoring requirements.

The overall Drive Car of the Year, however, is the vehicle that best meets the award’s criteria. And in the eyes of the nine judges that car is the Honda Accord V6.

It defeated 41 rivals that included exotics such as the new Porsche 911, luxury models such as the Mercedes-Benz S Class and highly regarded hatchbacks such as the baby Mazda2.

Before it could be eligible, the Honda had to win its own class. In a controversial decision it won the large car category where it was up against the new Ford Falcon, the new Holden Commodore wagon, and the class champion for the past two years, the Toyota Aurion.

The Accord V6 won its category with nine unanimous votes, but that doesn’t guarantee a vehicle final victory for the top honour. Indeed, in this year’s contest, six of the 13 categories were settled with unanimous decisions.

There is another very good reason for not automatically nominating the vehicles with the most votes. A unanimous vote could be the result of weak competition and, equally, a narrow class victory could be the result of strong competition.

Believe it or not there is some method to this decision-making madness, which happens in a conference room after five days of non-stop testing of 42 cars that have been driven a combined total of more than 20,000km.

Each car is discussed at length before each of the nine judges casts his or her vote. And there are plenty of frank exchanges.

In an attempt to keep things simple, minimise at least some of the aggro, and to ensure that a model released this year becomes the overall champion, any car that competed in last year's testing and didn't win the major prize is automatically deemed ineligible to win this year, unless it has had a significant update.


The Renault Koleos was quickly dismissed from contention because although it was a worthy class winner, it wasn’t viewed as a watershed car.

The Kia Rondo came close to staying on the whiteboard but it too was rubbed out early. Again, it was a worthy class winner but when compared with the other category leaders it was at a disadvantage. Note to Kia: had side and curtain airbags been standard across the range, the Rondo might have made it past this point.

The Audi A3 is a darling of a convertible, but was deemed too eccentric.

That left the judges with the final four. The Audi A4 was praised for dethroning some pretty hefty competition in the luxury under $60,000 class and was worthy of making it this far in the discussion, but there was a feeling it didn’t set enough new benchmarks. It was next off the whiteboard.

The BMW 135i was a favourite among the judges. At $80,000 it’s expensive for a car the size of a Toyota Corolla, but it’s also a performance-car bargain. It’s half the price of a BMW M3 and yet it misses out on only a fraction of the performance. In some regards the 135i is more driveable and more fun. No wonder it knocked off last year’s champion, the BMW M3, to win its class.

Some thought the BMW 135i may have been a walk-up start to win this year’s award, but alas it was next off the list. For all its attributes, the remaining competition was stronger when compared to the criteria.

That left just two cars on the whiteboard – the Jaguar XF and Honda Accord V6 – and a lengthy discussion before each judge cast their final vote.

The Jaguar XF was praised for its fresh design, innovative interior appointments, smart and user-friendly cabin controls, and sublime driving dynamics. The only criticisms that emerged were limited rear seat space (significant in an executive sedan) and an apparent dead spot on initial power delivery from the diesel engine when moving from rest. Picky? Yes, but we are talking about an award among awards.

The Honda Accord V6, meanwhile, was praised for its incredible value for money when you consider size, equipment and perception of quality (most judges thought it was dearer than it actually was), its powerful yet fuel-efficient engine, and above average driving dynamics for a large sedan.

All contenders – especially the final two – are excellent cars, but in the end the judges voted 8 to 1 for the Accord V6, although even those who voted for it weren’t told of the result until just prior to publication.

The Honda Accord V6’s victory may seem an odd choice to some, but when marked against the criteria it is hard to see how the result could have fallen any other way.

It, of course, wasn’t the only surprise to emerge from the 2008 awards testing.

A Korean car – the Kia Rondo – was among the list of winners for the first time, which proves just how far Korean car makers have advanced. But, technically speaking, there were two Korean cars among the winners, for the Renault Koleos is also made in South Korea. The difference: its parentage comes from France and Japan (the Koleos is the first genuine joint venture between Renault and Nissan).

Among the surprises were some disappointments. The Mazda3 is absolutely a worthy winner of the small car over $20,000 class, but several judges lamented the lack of any serious competition.

That the Mazda3 can still be such a strong player when it is more than five years old – and barely six months before a new model arrives – is a bigger credit to the car than most people probably realise. We can’t wait to test the new model.

The same goes for the Volkswagen Golf GTI. It too is due to be replaced in about a year from now and yet it has still managed to be the performance car champion under $60,000 for the third year in a row. It was a close contest; if only the Falcon XR6 Turbo was a more complete package (ie: had bigger brakes and more standard airbags).

Perhaps the only other big upset apart from the overall winner, though, is the Ford Mondeo. It knocked off two very strong rivals that were new this year: the Honda Accord Euro and Mazda6. In the end, the Mondeo’s price, safety, equipment and space edged out the Japanese pairing.

It may be a small consolation for Ford, which no doubt would have held high hopes for the Falcon. But the Mondeo had many of us asking: why buy a Falcon when the Mondeo is so good?

So this year’s Drive Car of the Year awards mark a significant sign of the times.

Fuel efficiency and safety are in vogue, and the imports have such an edge on local makers thanks to favourable exchange rates and zero import tariffs that it’s impossible to ignore.

All that said, with the global economy in its current state of flux, the status quo won’t last long, and importers will likely lose their cost advantage in the very near future.

The good news is: we get to do all this again next year to see how the best new models from each main category compare. And you know what? We genuinely can’t wait.


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