Kia Rio wins Carsguide Car of the Year Award 2011

[csv8]

Kia Rio wins Carsguide Car of the Year Award 2011
by: Paul Gover From: The Courier-Mail December 16, 2011 12:00am 5
THE budget-beating Kia Rio is the Carsguide car of the year for 2011.

The little South Korean hatch beat a quality field of finalists for this year's most coveted motoring award to become only the second South Korean to claim the crown.

It follows the Hyundai i30, the winner in 2007. Last year's winner was Volkswagen's Polo TSI.

The Rio edged out the Volvo S60 T4 in the closest vote in Carsguide's COTY history, with the Ford Focus finishing third.

Priced from $16,290, the Rio has an official fuel consumption of only 5.6 litres/100km, a five-star ANCAP crash safety rating and sits at the bottom of a Kia range that improves each year, helped by classy design and local engineering input.

"It's a great little car and one we're proud to endorse as the pick of a hugely competitive 2011 field," Carsguide managing editor Ged Bulmer said.

The award is in its 15th year and the judging process involved 10 News Limited experts with more than 200 years of combined experience in reporting and analysing the Australian motor industry.

The first COTY was the Holden Commodore VT in 1987 and Holden is the most successful manufacturer with four wins.

Anastasia Tjombanakis embodies Australia's ever-growing rush from big to small cars. She has just traded the first COTY winner for the new one and the former VT Commodore owner is impressed by her Kia Rio.

"It was a bit different, (in) design and styling. I wanted something a bit snazzy," she said. "It's totally different to the Commodore but I miss the torque of the V6 a bit.

"Apart from that it's a good little car. I've done some country trips in it already and it was good on the open road."

Ms Tjombanakis said her little red manual hatch had an impressive amount of interior space for a small car as well.

"It's really good, very comfortable - my friends comment on how much space it has," she said.