Best cars in Australia today

Choosing a car can be a tricky experience in today’s world of fierce competition and technological complexity. Some people want plenty of style and grunt. Someone else just wants to drive safely and save fuel. The NRMA and six state auto clubs created Australia’s Best Cars, a car awards program that helps you choose a car.

The judges assessed 180 cars during 2015. They first chose a long list of 45 finalists to be fully road tested over 5 days. They investigated each car for running and repair costs, fuel consumption, safety and depreciation and other factors.

There were winners in each of 15 categories and one overall Judges’ Choice, the Mazda CX-3 Maxx.

Judges’ Choice is the stand-out affordable vehicle. It’s the one that that made the biggest contribution to the Australian market in 2015, whether through technology, safety, innovation or fuel efficiency.

Mazda CX-3 Maxx is a 2WD SUV, a fairly new but red-hot segment in the Australian car market. Industry observers forecast that small 2WD SUVs will make up 10% of all car sales by 2020. This particular car scored highly on nearly all criteria. These were depreciation, performance and handling, environment, seating comfort, ergonomics, build and finish, braking, smoothness and quietness.

Some of the other winners were:

• Best Micro Car – Mitsubishi Mirage ES
• Best Light Car – Hyundai Accent Active
• Best Small Car over $35,000 – BMW 1 Series 118i Sportline
• Best Medium Car under $50,000 – KIA Optima GT
• Best Family Wagon – KIA Sorento SLi
• Best Sports Car under $50,000 – Ford Focus ST
• Best AWD SUV under $50,000 – Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium
• Best 4×4 Dual Cab Utes – Toyota HiLux

If you are looking for a car during 2016, you may benefit from the NRMA launch of Best Cars. It’s a new interactive car evaluation site. Buyers can key in their preferred criteria for a car and the site will bring up results to match their criteria. The site will have no commercial bias. It will be the only car evaluation tool that publishes its scores.

Once you have decided on a new car, you can then use the greenslips.com.au Calculator. It helps you find the cheapest price for a greenslip, based on the details of your chosen car and your driving history.