Car of the Year 2011 Awards announced by Britain's What Car?

Britain's consumer’s guide for cars What Car? announced last night the winners of its Car of the Year 2011 Awards. The celebrations took place at the Grosvenor House on London’s Park Lane as the prices were awarded for the 34th time.

The overall winner is Audi’s A1, being named Car of the Year 2011. The new A1 also won in its class as Best Supermini. Steve Fowler, What Car? editor-in-chief, justifies the two awards: “If ever there has been a car that has hit the nail squarely and firmly on the head, the Audi A1 is it. It’s the right car at the right time: a car that combines desirability and ability alongside frugal financials – the perfect combination.”

Jeremy Hicks, Director of Audi UK, stated: “It’s a tremendous accolade for the Audi A1 to receive the What Car? Car of the Year Award – a title with such a strong and long-standing reputation. We know that the Audi A1 has been exhaustively tested and analysed by the entire What Car? team, and this makes us especially proud to receive this expert recognition.”

Already in the previous year had the A1 convinced the readers of What Car? and was voted most exciting car to be launched. In total, Audi took home three awards this year with the Audi TT winning Best Coupé.

The What Car? readers were this year convinced by the new Range Rover Evoque, which won the most exiting car to be launched in 2011 title. Other British winners were the Land Rover Discovery as Best 4x4, the Jaguar XF taking the Best Executive Car Award for the fourth consecutive year.

The Nissan Leaf won the new Ultra-Low-Carbon-Car Award. In the categories Small Family Car and Security, Volkswagen convinced the jury with its Golf 1.4 TSI 122 Match. Ford took home two trophies for the Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi 140 Zetec for Best Family Car and Best Estate Car and Volvo’s Pedestrian Detection system was awarded in the safety category.

The Seat Alhamra won Best MPV and last year’s Car of the Year, the Peugeot 3008, took home the Crossover Award. With Renault, another French automaker took the Hot Hatchback Award for its Renaultsport 250 Cup.

A premier was the win for Ferrari in the category Best performance Car. The Italians received their first What Car? Award for the Ferrari 458 Italia. Three further awards went to Germany with BMW winning Best Open-Top Car for its Z4 and Best Compact Executive for the 3 Series and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class receiving the Luxury Award.