[buzzy_boy]

A petrol-hybrid, monocoque MPV, an impractical, BoF petrol 4 X 4, a fast turbo petrol sedan, and a state-of-the-art EV.

Any one of these vehicles would've been unimaginable for Indian buyers as late as 2019. Shows how much the car industry has changed since the turn of 2020.

Can one hope for a 3-door hot-hatch in 2024, or is it asking too much?

[McLaren_P1]

One request - I’m not sure if the front page can accommodate, but both the COTY and BOTY polls should ideally be visibly linked at the very top of the front page consistently.

I know it’s shown among the list of top topics. But with more topics added regularly, it naturally falls down.

[rajeevsulu]

I voted for the Hycross. My co brother bought one of the first ones delivered in Bengaluru. It is an amazing vehicle. The verna is very close though!
Cheers
Rajeevsulu

[Cool Piscean]

Originally Posted by Carma2017

This is worrying that so few people in a Forum open activity. I would have loved to see complete forum opinion. 4% is nothing. Maybe it shows that none of the contestants inspired any passion of great note in forum members at large.

I would have voted if I had qualified for this, since am a newbie so didnt had the right to vote. My vote would have been for Hycross. Even though I still feel that its overpriced for what it is offering, specially the interiors, but when it comes to comfort, space, fuel efficiency Hycross is the best in the segment.

[dingolphie]

I didn’t vote as the list is really uninspiring.

I am a satisfied Jimmy owner.

That would probably be my vote. But decided to give a miss due to high prices, long waiting periods and cheapo interiors. The industry needs to pull up its collective socks and earn their money instead of milking the public.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by GTO

Proves that there is a strong market for established formulas, even if they don't offer the latest tech.

Such a heartwarming statement and feels good to see our heading is aligned well
Excellent results and quite satisfactory I must add.

[Sen]

I voted for the Verna. Among the list of cars here, for the price, stood for the best value imho, i ckuding the safety aspect these days. Spotty paint quality and braking issues in sibling car variants aside, it looked the best vote on this side of 30 lakhs.

[TejasV]

With HYCROSS being the winner, I cannot find a post that gives the real-world experience with the Hycross GX Petrol for someone looking at the Hycross's space, reliability, ease of use. It is a viable option I believe for people with low running / 10K max per year and on a budget and not too fixated on the gadgets.

To be more specific, at 26 lakhs, the GX limited edition makes a lot of sense as a family car that can be a keeper for 10+ years. Just not sure why there aren't any reviews for the same to decide on. Yes, the mileage reported is 8-9 in the city and 11-12 on the highway but I think that's okay if you have a smaller/more efficient city car as your primary car.

[Prash1407]

+1 to the above post
That makes a very valid sense. All the other petrol 7 seater options are with Turbo Petrol known for bad mileage figures. The GX is a very viable since the difference between GX and VX is atleast 7 Lacs.
Per other posts, Toyota is not able to sell the GX as much it liked to and thus the Anniversary edition was released. If some of the esteemed users can create a new thread which is for the GX edition, It would help a lot of members to decide.

[ex-innova-guy]

Continuing what ph03n!x posted in 2022-

2009 Car of the year: Tata Nano
Total Votes: 1058
Tata Nano got 406 votes (38.37%)
Vehicle sales: Flop. After the initial excitement, sales dropped off. Now discontinued.
T-BHP Official Review

2010 Car of the year: Ford Figo
Total Votes: 979
Ford Figo got 375 votes (38.3%)
Vehicle sales: Hit. Sold a consistently high number (5-6K per month) in the initial 3 years, then tailed off. Was replaced by new generation Figo, which is a sales flop.
T-BHP Official Review

2011 Car of the year: Mahindra XUV5OO
Total Votes: 2626
Mahindra XUV5OO got 1487 votes (56.63%) - the highest winning margin.
Vehicle sales: Super hit. Continued to consistently be the top performer in the segment until a couple of years back. Updated model is (finally) on its way.
T-BHP Official Review

2012 Car of the Year: Renault Duster
Total Votes: 2122
Renault Duster got 1135 votes (53.49%)
Vehicle sales: Super hit - at the time. Defined a segment, and sold huge numbers until competition caught up with it. Now feels badly outdated, and is a slow seller despite facelift, BS6 turbo petrol, and automatic variants being launched.
T-BHP Official Review

2013 Car of the Year: Ford Ecosport
Total Votes: 1362
Ford Ecosport got 696 votes (51.1%)
Vehicle sales: Moderate hit. Unique offering in the compact crossover segment, carved a niche for itself. Good sales numbers despite new competition. Facelift appeared to continue the success, but now it begins its slow decline. Best selling Ford model for a while now.
T-BHP Official Review

2014 Car of the Year: Tata Zest
Total Votes: 2454
Tata Zest got 962 votes (39.2%)
Vehicle sales: Flop. Has not met Tata's expectations, did not pose a threat to the Maruti DZire. Even fleet/taxi operators did not take a shine to this car.
Now discontinued.
T-BHP Official Review

2015 Car of the Year: Renault Kwid
Total Votes: 2363
Renault Kwid got 692 votes (29.28%) - the narrowest winning margin. Hyundai Creta polled 557 votes (23.57%), Maruti-Suzuki Baleno 330 (13.97%), and the Figo-Aspire twins got 293 (12.4%)
Vehicle Sales: Moderate hit. Initial bookings were strong, and Renault upped the game delivering to expectations. However, now selling around 5K per month - which is below expectations. Facelift keeps the interest in this model alive.
T-BHP Official Review
Kwid 1.0 review
Kwid AMT review

2016 Car of the Year: Tata Tiago
Total Votes: 2451
Tata Tiago got 901 votes (36.76%)
Vehicle sales: Hit. Has been (mostly) finding around 5K-7K homes every month.
T-BHP Official Review

2017 Car of the Year: Jeep Compass
Total Votes: 2387
Jeep Compass got 1047 votes (43.86%)
Vehicle Sales: Hit. Like the Renault Duster 6 years back, it has carved out a niche at its price point and was virtually without competition - for a while. With competition catching up, and FCA's lethargy, sales have now begun their slow decline.
T-BHP Official Review

2018 Car of the Year: Mahindra Marazzo
Total Votes: 1964
Mahindra Marazzo got 726 votes (36.97%)
Vehicle Sales: Flop. It started off selling OK numbers, but sales have since fallen and is was underperforming. Fleet operators seem to have propped up the sales numbers.
T-BHP Official Review

2019 Car of the Year: Kia Seltos
Total Votes: 2751
Kia Seltos got 1499 votes (54.49%)
Vehicle Sales: Super Hit. With just this one model in its line-up, Kia went from nothing to the 4th highest selling brand.
T-BHP Official Review

2020 Car of the year: Mahindra Thar
Total Votes: 1932
Mahindra Thar got 794 votes (41.10%)
Vehicle Sales: Hit. M&M is not making enough to meet the demand. 34,829 copies shipped from the factory since deliveries started - averages 2679 per month, and waiting period varies from 4 to 6 weeks to 6 to 8 months depending on the variant/ powertrain/ transmission. This is in spite of a price hike of up to 73k to 1.33 lakhs on the ex-showroom within the first 9 months of launch.
Official Review

2021 Car of the year: Mahindra XUV7OO
Total Votes: 2016
Mahindra XUV7OO got 1267 votes (62.85%), taking over the "highest winning margin" title from the XUV5OO!
Vehicle Sales: Hit. M&M is not making enough to meet the demand. Waiting times have reaching the equivalent of license raj era, resulting in a thread just to discuss the waiting period of this car. All initial reviews have been positive, with delivery timelines seemingly being the biggest problem.
Official Review

2022 Car of the year: Mahindra Scorpio-N
Total Votes: 2263
Mahindra Scorpio-N got 632 votes (27.93%), making this the narrowest winning margin, overtaking the Kwid's 29.28% from 2015.
Vehicle Sales: Hit. Mahindra does not report Scorpio-N numbers separately, but comparing their overall sales from July 2022 (27,862) and later months (Avg 31,602 between Aug - Nov '22), we can guesstimate that M&M is dispatching between 3,000 to 5,000 copies per month (3,740 avg) which is still not enough to meet the demand, giving Scorpio-N the notoriety of having a thread dedicated to discuss wait times (What happened with your Mahindra Scorpio-N Booking?) (on the same lines as XUV7OO).
Official Review

2023 Car of the year: Toyota Innova Hycross
Total Votes: 2210
Toyota Innova Hycross got 701 votes (31.72%).
Vehicle Sales: Hit. The waiting period speaks for itself. Toyota does not report Hycross and Crysta dispatch numbers separately, but found the sales for it from Rushlane. It is selling at an average of 4037 between Feb – November 2023. Most of us already know the waiting time for the hybrid models as well as how Toyota dealerships have stopped accepting bookings for the ZX and ZX (O) variants of the Innova Hycross since April 8, 2023.
Official Review

A look at the manufacturers whose cars made it to T-BHP COTY over the years:

• Toyota has finally made it to the T-BHP COTY! Although it doesn’t offer some of the tech or features like good speakers, the hybrid drivetrain was enough to win it and added bonus of a fuss free ownership. Also, Toyota cars generally depreciate lesser than most rivals.
• Maruti and Hyundai, India's top two with a market share of 54.83% (Nov '23) are yet missing from our COTY! Although Hyundai received a good share of 28.1% combined votes for the Ioniq 5 and Verna. (Note: Didn’t include Exter votes as it wasn’t much).
• Same can’t be said for Maruti, although the Jimny marginally won over the Verna.
• Mahindra is the only manufacturer with a hat-trick COTY until now.
• Tata and Mahindra have combined wins of 8 (out of 15) COTYs, making Indian Manufacturers still the majority winners in T-BHP COTY!

[pheru8b]

Excellent summary! Many thanks.

I find it extremely interesting that the largest volume brands (Maruti and Hyundai) have never won the award.

Is it because BHPians are enthusiasts and (since detailed evaluation parameters are not specified) look for that undefinable x factor in their cars? Or because car purchasing is still a mind over heart decision for most buyers in India?

I wonder... would the results be different, hypothetically, if all contenders were to be evaluated on cost, mileage, driveability, service networks, looks etc. But then, such an evaluation might just take away the charm and simplicity of the award!

[Anirudhneni]

It's very interesting to see the Toyota Innova Hycross win the Team-BHP car of the year. I've been reading the review thread and I only see polarizing views on this car.

There's one set of people who love the car and think it's the best "premium" MPV by Toyota. On the other hand there's a lot of hate on the pricing and Toyota's waiting period/delivery times.

Toyota still managed to sell about 8000 vehicles per month, with waiting times of about 14-15 months, even longer for top end variants. I think Toyota has managed to produce a good premium 7/8 seater SUV and left the competition behind by overpricing their car

[ex-innova-guy]

Originally Posted by Anirudhneni

Toyota still managed to sell about 8000 vehicles per month, with waiting times of about 14-15 months, even longer for top end variants.

Although this is OT, the 8000 vehicles mentioned by you are Crysta + Hycross and waiting period is decreasing.

I think Toyota has managed to produce a good premium 7/8 seater SUV and left the competition behind by overpricing their car

Frankly, they don't have a direct rival and the Hybrid tech + fuss free maintenance and ownership lets them get away with this. And since there is waiting period, the demand is obviously there. If demand is there then why wouldn't the manufacturer want to earn more profit by further overpricing it?

[srinitdas]

Originally Posted by pheru8b

I find it extremely interesting that the largest volume brands (Maruti and Hyundai) have never won the award.

Is it because BHPians are enthusiasts and (since detailed evaluation parameters are not specified) look for that undefinable x factor in their cars? Or because car purchasing is still a mind over heart decision for most buyers in India?

I wonder... would the results be different, hypothetically, if all contenders were to be evaluated on cost, mileage, driveability, service networks, looks etc. But then, such an evaluation might just take away the charm and simplicity of the award!

Car purchase is by and large a budget based decision. Whereas TBHP COTY is a capability based dream car kinda scenario. Not saying that budget is not a concern here.
For example, I did vote for Jimny for its offroad capabilities that I have tested myself. But I would not really purchase it as I am a highway mile muncher kinda guy. My close friend has the Jimny and I do get my offroad fix from time to time. In the same vein, many voters for HyCross may not actually prefer buying it for their daily needs. But they do love the car for what it offers.
So liking a car for its capabilities is different from actually buying a car for its need. Hence, Maruti and Hyundai have not yet produced COTY level cars, but continue to set the sales charts on fire because they serve reliable, affordable and practical (umm, boring?) cars. That is another massive achievement I think. Think of it like Kimi Raikonen. Didn't win too many championships, but was always loved for his consistency.

[NajSaf]

To the BHP Tech Gurus...
Perhaps you can develop a page wherein voting can be done basis radio-buttons such that it becomes easier to vote and you get instant results!