2016 MOTOR MANUFACTURER OF THE YEAR (MOTY) AWARD TO BE ANNOUNCED

Steps are well underway to announce the 2016 winners of the 21st annual SAVRALA MOTY (Manufacturer Of The Year), to be announced at a gala ceremony in Johannesburg on 21 October.

South African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (SAVRALA) car rental members are currently completing their second round of voting to nominate their top contenders.

The first round, conducted in March, rewarded the top five manufacturers being Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen. In this group, the top three were separated by only three points which can easily change the overall scores winners when round two is completed.  Similar to previous years, it again highlights the competitiveness and increased focus on customer service by the various manufacturers.

In contrast to many other car surveys, this award is based on customers scoring their automotive suppliers on a series of objective criteria which include B-BBEE levels, value for money (e.g: vehicle resale, maintenance and cost of parts), vehicle security, communication and support. A new feature of the survey introduced last year was the distribution to each manufacturer  the actual scores received by each of the car rental companies. The scoring process by car rental companies is therefore completely transparent to each manufacturer.

Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) has for six consecutive years won the accolade of car rental winner, but last year saw VWSA’s competitors all move together to close the gap on VWSA. It is expected that this year’s final scores will be as close, given that last year’s results and feedback will have highlighted opportunities for improvement for each competing manufacturer.

Last year’s award also saw a mere 0.1 difference in score between Audi SA and Toyota South Africa Motors which swopped podium places, with Audi taking home silver. The Most Improved Award went to BMW SA which leaped to 7th place.

“This year’s MOTY process has entered Round 2 of voting with an online questionnaire distributed to rental members, the results of which will be added to Round 1 to determine the MOTY winners. We will not be surprised if the winning margin is less than a point,” says SAVRALA GM Sandile Ntseoane.

On social media, join the conversation using the hashtag #MOTY16.