Yes, the Swift and the CBR250R are the 2012 ICOTY and IMOTY!.
On the eve of the 2012 Auto Expo at New Delhi, at a glittering function, the winners of the most prestigious automotive awards were announced. The Indian Car Of The Year 2012 award went to the Maruti Suzuki Swift while the Honda CBR250R was acclaimed as the Indian Motorcycle Of The Year 2012.
The awards were given away by Dr Raghupati Singhania, vice chairman and managing director, JK Tyre & Industries at the event which was attended by the who’s who of the Indian automotive industry, senior government officials, senior executives and racing drivers.
It was not easy to arrive at the winners, considering that there were a record number of contenders this year. When the jury started out with 19 cars and 11 motorcycles, the task was daunting. But whittling down to the final shortlist was easily achieved. From the 19 cars, ten made it to the finals: Hyundai Eon, Honda Brio, Skoda Rapid, Maruti Suzuki Swift, Toyota Etios Liva and Etios, Nissan Sunny, Hyundai Verna, Ford Fiesta and the Mahindra XUV500. As for the bikes, the CBR faced loads of competition from India's newly formed and burgeoning middle-displacement assembled motorcycles — Harley-Davidson's SuperLow, Forty-Eight and Iron 883, the Kawasaki Ninja 650R as well as the three Hyosungs, the GT650R, the GT650N and the ST7. The Indian motorcycles in the mix were Bajaj's Boxer BM150 and Discover 125, the Hero Impulse and of course, the Honda CBR250R.
The ICOTY and IMOTY jury, comprising senior automotive journalists from seven magazines, voted decisively to give the Swift and the CBR250R the top honours. In the top three rankings were the Swift, the Brio and the Eon and among motorcycles, the CBR250R, Impulse and the GT650N.
The automotive magazines that are part of the ICOTY and IMOTY jury are Auto Bild, Auto India, BBC TopGear, Bike India, Business Standard Motoring, Car India and Overdrive.
The Swift has come full circle, as even the last-gen Swift won the 2006 ICOTY, the first to win since the inception of the award. Previous winners include the Honda Civic (2007), Hyundai i10 (2008), Honda City (2009), Tata Nano (2010) and the Ford Figo (2011). Honda repeated its success this year as well, as it won the IMOTY 2011 for the CB Twister. Previous winners include the Kawasaki Ninja 250R (2010), Yamaha YZF-R15 (2009) and the Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi (2008).