Company Vehicle overall Car of the Year

This award goes to the vehicle which our judging panel feels epitomises business transportation, which means it has a lot of boxes to tick in terms of safety, fit-for-purpose application, value as a business asset, total cost of vehicle ownership, and some of the less tangible considerations too.
The vehicle earning this award must also satisfy the requirements of the modern-day fleet user, inasmuch as the car must carry out its nine-to-five or eight-to-six roles from Monday to Friday and some sneaky hours in amongst those, but which must also be able to deliver ‘down-time’ driving considerations.
In short, it must deliver a rewarding experience in a professional and recreational sense because as we all know, balance is everything in today’s business world.
This is not the first time the Mazda6 has taken this title, nor we suspect, will it be the last.
This model is a genuine evolution for a nameplate with a proud award-winning history and – in its current generation – has taken huge leaps forward in design and technology without losing the essence of what it was originally.
To say the Mazda6 changes with the times does it a disservice; this is a car which by design, proactively commits to being ahead of the game in every respect and, as the car so ably demonstrates, Mazda consistently delivers on that promise.
While other manufacturers have chosen to withdraw from the corporate car market, opting to shoot for the low hanging fruit of the automotive tree, ‘follow the crowd’ or been unable to sustain its business car model, Mazda has – and continues – to buck the trend.
The NZ Company Vehicle Car of the Year Overall winner for 2018 then – the Mazda6.

You can see all the category winners in the December- January issue