Initiated in 2005, the Indian Car of the Year Award (ICOTY) is now the most credible and coveted auto award in India. This year, the award was bagged by Maruti Suzuki’s first compact SUV – the Vitara Brezza.
The Vitara Brezza took away the honours from tough competition like the Toyota Innova Crysta and the Hyundai Tucson, which clinched the second and third spot respectively. Of the total 19 cars launched in India this year, 13 were able to make their way to the jury round. Between which, there was a fierce competition amongst the top six contenders which includes – Ford Endeavour, Hyundai Tuscon, Hyundai Elantra, Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Toyota Innova Crysta and Skoda Superb.
The Vitara Brezza was crowned the winner based on criterions like price, fuel efficiency, styling, comfort, safety, performance, practicality, technical innovation, value for money, and suitability for Indian driving conditions. The selection was made by a team of fifteen Jury members which included expert automotive journalists from different automotive publications in India, who have a combined experience of around 250 years in the auto industry.
Launched in March this year, the Vitara Brezza turn out to be a runaway success for Maruti Suzuki selling over 70,000 units since its launch. It promptly remained amongst the top ten selling cars in India and crossed the sales mark of more than 10,000 units in a month twice.
Powered by a 1.3-litre DDis four pot diesel engine, the Vitara Brezza has a power output of 88bhp and 200Nm of torque. Available only with a five-speed manual transmission so far, the automatic is expected sometime next year. The compact SUV also has an impressive fuel economy of 24.3kmpl. Priced quite competitively, ranging between Rs 7.19 lakh and Rs 9.66 lakh, the Vitara Brezza has now become a force to reckon with.
source”cnbc”