Japan Car of the Year: Honda Fit Wins – As Expected
December 03, 2007

By Peter Nunn

TOKYO -- Like many Car of the Year contests, Japan’s COTY can throw up the occasional unexpected result.

But not this year.

Going into this year’s showdown, many wise souls predicted that the new Honda Fit would win at a canter. And that in the end is exactly what happened.

Honda: A JCOTY Favorite

To be sure, with good design and space, strong driving performance and fine environment scorecard, the new Fit stands as a creditable 2007-2008 Japan Car of the Year victor. A car that Japan can be proud of.

At the same time, it’s an evolutionary rather than revolutionary design and not quite the breakthrough the original Fit was when it appeared back in 2001 (which also won JCOTY by a country mile). Even so, it handsomely saw off all challengers to nail JCOTY.   

The Fit’s victory means that five of the past eight JCOTYs have now been won by Honda, and that’s some record. A testament to Honda’s excellent product development skills? Without doubt.

At the same time, it’s a fact that Honda takes a lot of pride in winning JCOTY and pushes harder, taking the whole thing a lot more seriously, than other major players.

Many journalists like Honda, with its unique, hi-tech culture, racing passion and fun test tracks and while all auto makers arrange events and gatherings to woo/impress jurors, Honda’s budget for this is reputedly more flexible than others. 

Over and above that, certain invisible undercurrents often swirl through JCOTY which can sway a vote this way or that.

An Alternate Award

Japan now has two Cars of the Years. The original, official JCOTY which dates back to 1980, plus the second, ‘independent’ COTY run by a group calling itself the Automotive Researchers and Journalists’ Conference of Japan (RJC).

The RJC came along in the early ‘90s, formed by a band of disaffected JCOTY jurors. It doesn’t have the clout of JCOTY but much to JCOTY’s annoyance, it’s often out first with its own awards which can steal JCOTY’s thunder.

This year, for instance, the RJC named the new Mazda Demio (Mazda2) as its RJC Car of the Year. The new Demio is a stylish, innovative supermini with cutting edge lightweight technology. It’s definitely one of the major Japanese cars this year.   

But call it luck or whatever, any car so crowned by RJC rarely goes on to win JCOTY. It’s not inconceivable that JCOTY jurors deliberately (or subconsciously) go for another car just to be different from the RJC.

Automakers thus have mixed feelings about the whole RJC vs. JCOTY business. On the one hand, if you don’t win one, you maybe have a good chance of winning the other (so doubling your chances of having something to brag about in advertising).

On the other hand, having to deal with two COTY organizations is a pain, and there’s the quietly held view within the industry that, at the end of the day, winning one of these awards doesn’t really mean much, if anything at all, in terms of selling new cars.

So why bother to push for an awards victory? Well, pride has a lot to do with it and in Honda’s case, it’s not so much headquarters but Honda R&D that has the hunger and now the template of knowing how to win JCOTY buttoned down, according to word.

Over its 27-year history, JCOTY has had its fair share of controversies, rumors and counter-rumors, of that there’s no doubt. And there are still those around who feel that a certain victory might be linked in some way to an automaker’s largesse.

JCOTY: Picking the Credible Champion

But if you look down the list of winners, especially over the past few years, JCOTY usually comes up with the right, credible champion in the end.

Lastly, you might have noticed that every car on the list is Japanese. That’s no accident. For many years, JCOTY has only been open to domestically made cars.

Today, though, domestic and imports compete ostensibly an equal footing and the highest place import (if it doesn’t win JCOTY), thus becomes Import of the Year.

It sounds a bit complicated….but that’s what happened with the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class. It finished second this year (with 299 pts), to the 374 pts of the Honda Fit. Third was the new shape Subaru Impreza (273 pts).

Yes, domestics and imports are “ostensibly” on the same page. It’s understandable that the Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans of this world have greater sway and lobbying power than Japan’s minute import brigade (which account for just a 4 per cent market share…).

There are 60 people on the JCOTY panel so “the winning of the mind” (as the saying goes in Japan) won’t necessarily be easy or cheap. For anyone….

Next year, the Nissan GT-R and new Honda Accord will be JCOTY front-runners. Many expect the brilliant, focused and hardcore GT-R to be a shoe-in. But you never know. With JCOTY, as another saying goes, it always pays to expect the unexpected.

2007 Japan Car of the Year: The Points Standings

Honda Fit                                    374
Mercedes-Benz C-Class                 299
Subaru Impreza                            273
Nissan Skyline, coupe                   245
Mazda Demio                               128
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X        60
Peugeot 207                                  46
VW Golf /Touran TSi                      29
Daihatsu Mira                                24
Toyota Mark X ZiO                         22

“Most Fun” prize - Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
“Most Advanced Technology”  -  VW Golf/Touran TSi
“Best Value”   - Daihatsu Mira
 
Japan Car of the Year Past Winners

1980-81:   Mazda Familia  (323)
1981-82:   Toyota Soarer   
1982-83:   Mazda Capella (626)
1983-84:   Honda Civic/Ballade
1984-85:   Toyota MR2 
1985-86:   Honda Accord/Vigor
1986-87:   Nissan Pulsar/Langley
1987-88:   Mitsubishi Galant
1988-89:   Nissan Silvia 
1989-90:   Toyota Celsior (Lexus LS400)
1990-91:   Mitsubishi Diamante
1991-92:   Honda Civic
1992-93:   Nissan March (Micra)
1993-94:   Honda Accord
1994-95:   Mitsubishi FTO
1995-96:   Honda Civic
1996-97:   Mitsubishi Galant
1997-98:   Toyota Prius
1998-99:   Toyota Altezza (Lexus IS)
1999-00:   Toyota Vitz  (Yaris)
2000-01:   Honda Civic
2001-02:   Honda Fit (Jazz)
2002-03:   Honda Accord
2003-04:   Subaru Legacy
2004-05:   Honda Legend
2005-06:   Mazda Roadster (MX-5)
2006-07:   Lexus LS460
2007-08:   Honda Fit

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