Top Cars: How we chose the best cars of the year, an explainer

Thursday, 25 April 2024

Stuff Top Cars is back, and with it likely comes a string of questions from keen car enthusiasts and curious consumers alike.

In short, our aim is for Top Cars to be New Zealand’s leading and most authoritative annual new-vehicle award, delivering readers a comprehensive picture of the best-of-the-best in the motoring landscape.

We have already announced our 18 finalists. Soon, we will debut a Stuff first — a People’s Choice Award online voting process. Following that, we will announce our six category winners, on our way to crowning our outright pick for Top Car of 2024.

Who are the judges?

Top Cars is led by a three-pronged panel of judges consisting of Cameron Officer, Nile Bijoux, and Matthew Hansen.

Stuff Top Cars is produced in conjunction with Vermeulen Officer Media (VOM), the publishing group behind 66 Magazine. As part of this, seasoned motoring veteran Cameron Officer joins our judging team.

Officer, a co-founder of VOM, will be a familiar face to plenty of car enthusiasts from his days at the helm of Top Gear New Zealand Magazine and his time as motoring editor of the National Business Review. He has also been a motoring contributor with the likes of Air New Zealand’s Kia Ora Magazine and the NZ Herald.

Officer joins the Stuff Motoring team — the youngest motoring editorial group in New Zealand. Reporter Nile Bijoux returns as a Top Cars judge, with 2024 signalling his fourth year with Stuff Motoring and third stanza on the Top Cars panel. Previous to Stuff, Bijoux was a reporter and Car of the Year judge at New Zealand Autocar Magazine, and a content creative at M2 Magazine.

Third off the rank is Stuff Motoring Editor Matthew Hansen. Having joined Stuff in late 2022, Hansen is a former senior motoring journalist and Car of the Year judge at NZ Herald’s Driven, and has also worked as a reporter and car reviewer for New Zealand Autocar Magazine and Auto Media Group.

Which cars were eligible, and which weren’t?

For Top Cars 2024, eligibility criteria was a significant talking point. In the end, we went with an approach that would scoop up a wide net of different cars, whilst also championing new additions to the market.

In order for a vehicle to be considered for Top Cars, it had to be something that was tested by at least two thirds of our judging panel in the previous calendar year. On top of that, cars had to meet a threshold to be classified as being ‘new’ — mild facelifts need not apply.

Our threshold for constituting ‘new’ landed on cars requiring either a new-for-2023 powertrain, EV battery, or an overhauled platform. Some snazzy replacement headlights and a bigger touchscreen inside simply would not cut it.

As an example, the Suzuki S-Cross Hybrid’s new-to-market hybrid powertrain made it eligible. On the flip side, the face-lifted Toyota Corolla Hybrid was not eligible as its changes did not meet our minimum requirements.

All said and done, our list of eligible cars comprised more than 85 vehicles. Each of these was driven for a minimum of three days by our panel of judges over the course of the year. Eligibility cut-off was December 31, 2023, meaning cars released in the last few months will have to wait until Top Cars 2025 to be in with a shot at glory.

What are the categories?

Top Cars 2024 is led by six judged categories, as well as a seventh category where our passionate readership can have their say. These categories are:

• Top Small Car

• Top Family Car (under $60,000)

• Top Family Car (over $60,000)

• Top Light Commercial

• Top Driver’s Car

• Top Luxury Car

• Top Car People’s Choice

The entry-level new-vehicle market, led by the hatchbacks and compact crossovers we know and love, is the source for our Top Small Car finalists — all three of which are hatchbacks.

By far and away, family SUVs were the most prolific segment in our Top Car considerations. As such, we felt it wise to divide the huge group into two categories; Top Family Car under $60,000 and Top Family Car over $60,000.

Almost all of the models under the $60,000 marker are value-focused nameplates, keen to offer a well weighted mix of practicality, technology, and style to families big and small. Most ‘household name’ SUVs landed in this category.

At the other end of the scale, the more premium $60,000 family car segment presented an incredibly broad mashup of fully electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, 7-seaters, and performance-adjacent family wagons. Inevitably of course, our top three finalist group for this category was a wild mix.

Those who don’t frequently keep tabs with the new-vehicle market might consider the Top Light Commercial Vehicle award (for utes and vans) as being a little ‘extra’ in this company. But, commercial vehicles — utes, in particular — are an enormous business in New Zealand. Utes have long been amongst the most popular vehicles locally for decades now, and the current most popular ute (which is also an award finalist) for nine years in a row.

Top Driver’s Car is an easy segment to define. These are the cars that procure the biggest smiles and laughs from those lucky enough to be behind the wheel. It isn’t simply about what can achieve the highest speeds or the quickest 0–100kph times. This is all about cars that rekindle our love of driving.

If the love of being driven is more your speed, the Top Luxury Car award is likely to appeal. This segment is about cars that reset the bar and set the tone for the future of the industry with their pioneering technologies, materials, and build quality — whilst looking a million bucks. Usually figuratively, occasionally literally.

Lastly, we have the Top Cars People’s Choice Award. This will enable our readers to vote for their favourite car amongst all of our 18 finalists. Be on the lookout for more on the People’s Choice Award on Stuff next week.

What makes a Top Car?

Vehicles might be getting more and more complicated by the day, but the metrics for how we judge a Top Car remain more or less unchanged.

A deserving Top Car will be amongst the pointy end of its segment for design, intuitive and functional technologies, and handling. It will be a well built machine that we would have no issues recommending to our friends and family. It will be environmentally conscious, with a strong consideration for emissions and (if applicable) fuel economy.

It may seem a little far-fetched to be comparing two utes, a van, and a selection of electric passenger cars with a mid-engined sports car, a hot hatch, and a near-$300,000 German super sedan.

But, the playing field is level when you consider the most important point. Be it a hatchback, an SUV, a ute, or a performance car, above all else, a Top Car will do the job it is designed to do very, very well.