The venue was Taj Lands End, Bandra, Mumbai. A packed house that it was, experienced the presence of established personalities from the automotive and entertainment fraternity. The event was the launch of India’s first consumers’ choice car-awards by nation’s leading web-based automotive portal, CarWale.com – the CarWale Awards 2008.
Speaking at the occasion Mr. Mohit Dubey, CEO, CarWale.com voiced out his emotions by sharing the quintessential theory behind CarWale Awards. “The other existing car awards honour only the cars that get launched in the preceding year. We thought a bit laterally and reasoned as to why cannot a car that was launched a few years ago still be the best in that segment, or better yet, best overall… Moreover, the judges behind the other awards are usually the established names of the automotive industry, but here, at our Awards, consumers are the judge. Our categories are also not run-of-the-mill kind. The categories were decided after an exhaustive survey and various brainstorming sessions. The response from people who own cars were varied, which helped us decide what categories we would hand out the awards in. We received an overwhelming response with over 1,50,000 votes”, Mr. Dubey said.
This number goes to show the faith consumers put in the concept and reasoning behind CarWale Awards. The event was garnished with much fanfare and presiding over the ceremony was the guest of honour, Mr. Praveen Gandhi, a leading venture-capitalist and India’s first IT entrepreneur, while actors Aman Verma, Geeta Basra and Neetu Chandra made the presence of entertainment industry felt by a good measure. Attendance of the automotive world was inevitable and one could sight established members of various auto manufacturers.
Kick-starting the event and keeping the audience entertained with his witty nature was VJ & actor Cyrus Sahukar who played the role of an anchor to perfection. To add further spice to the already spicy recipe were performances by one of the leading and celebrated rock artiste Garry Lawyer.
CarWale Awards highlighted the intimate relationship shared between the consumer and the manufacturer; forming a link to connect the two. It also served as an opportunity for CarWale.com to connect directly with consumers as well as the automotive industry and build upon a healthy relationship. The genesis and methodology of CarWale Awards was different from other awards. Winners here were decided by the consumers via an online voting system as well as through SMS. By nature, CarWale Awards is consumer-driven, which means that consumers vote for the cars they think are worthy of the title in various categories.
Winners of the categories were presented the awards by representatives from ICICI Bank, UTI Mutual Funds, Tata Green Batteries, Radio One and screen personalities Aman Verma, Geeta Basra and Neetu Chandra.
Categories & Winners are as follows:
• Most Preferred Car for a Small-Family – Maruti Suzuki Alto
• Most Preferred Car for a Large-Family – Toyota Innova
• Most Preferred Car for a Self-Driven Executive – Honda City ZX
• Most Preferred Car for a Chauffeur-Driven Executive – Mercedes-Benz E Class
• Most Preferred Car for Women – Hyundai Santro Xing
• Aspirational Car of the Year – Hyundai i10
• Most Preferred Car for Enthusiasts – Maruti Suzuki Swift
• Most Preferred Car for Off-Roading Activities – Mahindra Scorpio
In addition to this, there was one more category, "Debut of the Year" which was won by Hyundai’s newest small car – i10, which was unanimously decided by the editorial team.
This event would not have achieved such a great feat without the support of our venerated partners like ICICI Bank, Radio One 94.3 FM, UTI Mutual Fund, Zee Business, Aloo Techie and TATA AutoComp GY Batteries Pvt Ltd, hence we take this opportunity to thank them for their undying support. We also express our heartfelt gratitude to our auditors AC Nielsen.
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