Just got hold of a copy yesterday. Here are the winnaaars...
- Volkswagen Golf GTI - Hot Hatch and Car of the Year
- Peugeot 1007 - Small Car of the Year
- Jaguar S-Type Diesel - Executive Saloon of the year
- Maserati MC12 - Dream Car of the year
- Vauxhall Monaro VXR - Muscle car of the year
- Ferrari F430 - Supercar of the year
- BMW (E60) M5 - Supersaloon of the year
- Aston Martin DB9 - GT of the year
- Citroen C4 - Hatchback of the year
- Toyota Corolla Verso - Family car of the year
- Maserati Quattroporte - Limo of the year
- Land Rover Discovery - Best SUV of the year
Men of the year awards:
- Bernd Pischetsrieder - VW chairman
- G. Upex, R. Woolley, D. Saddington, A. Wheel - Land Rover design team
- Valentino Rossi - 2002, 2003, 2004 Moto GP Champion
- Dan Wheldon - 2004 Indy Racing League Runner-up
- David Richards - ex-BAR team principal, prodrive chairman
- Burt Rutan - winner of the $10m Ansari X-prize,Scaled Composites boss
- Kenichi Nagahiro - Product Leader behind Honda's new diesel
Notable editorial quotes:
"The simple fact of the matter then is that no matter how you cut it, the Golf is either brilliant of excellent in every single area. It's fast, it handles well, it's easy to park, easy to run, socially acceptable anywhere, comfortable and well made to boot." - Clarkson on the Golf GTI
"In an era of spine-breaking BMW's and Audi's, Jaguar hasn't forgotten that execs need cossetting at the end of a hard day." Clarkson on the S-type Jag diesel
"Sorry, but there is no in-depth interview now. I'm too busy trying to wedge my legs against the door as we top 7000rpm and 200kph on a
very short straight. I'm smiling and laughing, but to do anything other than whoop a bit would be an injustice, not to mention a waste of time... If I wasn't convinced by the MC12 before, I just had my blue and white epiphany" - Tom Ford riding shotgun with Maserati boss Martin Leach in the MC12
"To give the other saloons a chance, we essentially had to create a category for the M5, it's just to good. The M5 is, according to the dictionary definition, awesome. It is, in no small terms, a miracle of the modern age of motorcars." - Tom Ford on the new BMW M5
(1 point M5, 0 - cynics, pundits, and merc fanboys)
"Clarkson and the DB9 went on to win by a few scant minutes, but the huge emotional presence of the DB9 didn't really sink in until weeks later, when we were cutting the film together in the edit suite. Other editors, normally cynical about TV, would drop by to watch our editor piece the race together, and then get possessive of the car: "No, put that music on", "Use that shot", "Let the camera linger on the front", and so on. The DB9 had been adopted, it had crawled under everyone's skin and become family. You just couldn't generate that emotion from a 911, or even a Ferrari. The DB9 had started the tace as a promising car, but by the end, it had become a star. That's why it wins." - Andy Wilman on the Aston DB9
"This is a four-seat, four-door Italian supercar, not a hot-rod derived from an existing saloon. It's a unique prospect, something that Ferrari has never done in its entire history, and nothing else is quite like it. The Mercedes CLS? I don't think so. On paper it's the same sort of thing, but in reality it's a clever trick by a maker of sensible saloon cars for diplomats. It (The Maserati) is a beautiful car, and although that shouldn't matter while you're driving it, we all know it does." - James May on the Quattroporte
There you go mateys. Oh, and since I love rubbing this in, I would just like to remind you that
NOT A SINGLE MERCEDES WON and nobody from that company was part of the men of the year list either. They came in as 29th overall (which means product quality, service, resale value, desirability, performance, owner's satisfaction, etc.) out of the 34 manufacturer's in the 2004 Top Gear motoring survey(compared to rival BMW's 9th), and the M-class emerged as the worst car available in Britain (check Top Gear's December issue). Its nice to know that Top Gear recognizes that Mercedes is nothing more than a pretender in the race for automotive perfection.
Top Gear Mag's 6th Annual awards: car of the year, etc...
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