The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
The Citroen C4 Picasso has been voted Continental Irish Car of the Year for 2014 by the Irish Motoring Writers Association. The winner was revealed at an awards ceremony in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dublin late last week.
The Picasso MPV received 377 votes from the IMWA jurors, ahead of the Volkswagen Golf (364 votes) and the Mazda6 (327 votes). It is the third time that Citroen has taken the overall Continental Irish Car of the Year title, after the Citroen Xsara (1998) and the Citroen C5 (2009).
Members of the IMWA awarded their votes on the basis of key criteria including safety, equipment level, fuel economy, comfort, practicality, ride and road-holding.
The trophy was presented to Frederic Soulier, Managing Director of Citroen Ireland, by Tom Dennigan of Continental Tyres Ireland, who commented: “The Citroen C4 Picasso is an outstanding car and a worthy winner of our main award. It combines excellent driving qualities with a range of truly impressive technologies, and is a credit to everyone connected with Citroen.”
In addition to the overall award, five other category winners were also announced:
- Small Car of the Year – Peugeot 2008
- Compact Family Car of the Year – Citroen C4 Picasso
- Family Car of the Year – Mazda6
- Executive / Luxury Car of the Year – Range Rover
- Performance Car of the Year – Volkswagen Golf GTI
The award for Continental Irish Van of the Year 2014 went to the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.
John Galvin
Motoring editor - The Clare Champion
Former Chairman and voting member of Irish Motoring Writers' Association
