Can you explain the thinking behind the APMP categories?
Who designated the categories for the APMP awards? Specifically, how did the Audi A3 end up as "family" car? What size family is that supposed to hold? How did the Mercedes-Benz C-Class end up as a "large" car? If that's large, what's the E-Class or S-Class? And how did the Outlander end up as "large" SUV? What does that make Land Cruiser, Land Rover Discovery/Sport/Range Rover, Audi Q7, BMW X5 etc?
Peter G (Virginia)Oct 2014 Filed under: choosing new car
Expert answer
Hi Peter,
As I guess you already know, Shane, Dave, Paul and myself from CompleteCar.ie are all on the APMP voting jury for Car of the Year, so we'll take this point by point if that's OK.
The Audi A3 Saloon was the model specifically being looked at, and while it's certainly at the pricey end of things for many families, more and more family buyers are being tempted in by the attractive repayments and resale figures offered by the German 'Big Three' premium brands. As for cabin and boot space, the A3 sits roughly between, for instance, a Golf and a Passat in this instance, and isn't far off the cabin space of the current Audi A4. As a father of two, I've had my family out and about in various A3 models and can confirm that they're perfectly acceptably spacious.
It's a similar case for the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Size-wise, it's pretty much spot on a rival for the Passat or Mondeo. Perhaps it's a little tighter inside, but not by much, and that's the price paid for a less space-efficient rear-wheel drive platform. Again, while it's at the expensive end of things for a family purchase, there are plenty out there defecting from the more traditional 'mass-market' brands such as Ford, Opel and Toyota to get themselves a slice of the premium action. Once again, it's often down to the tempting finance packages on offer.
As for the Outlander, it is, strictly in size terms, somewhat in-between things. Taking the BMW X5 as an example, it's slightly shorter (200mm) overall, but has a similar wheelbase measurement and it's slightly larger than the next BMW down, the X3. We judged that, given its overall exterior dimensions, its large boot space and the availability of a seven-seat version when specified with the diesel engine, that Large SUV was the best fit. A perfect fit? Perhaps not, but given the continual fracturing of the car market into ever smaller and more narrowly defined niches, it is close to impossible to find a perfect market segment for every car on sale without having an award 'for everyone on the audience'. We put the Outlander PHEV into the Large SUV category because we felt it would compete strongly there. Seeing as it took two awards home on the night (its PHEV drivetrain took the APMP Innovation Award) it looks like we were right.
The categorisation was discussed long and hard by the membership and somebody somewhere will always disagree.
Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Adviser@neilmbriscoe