Winning is everything

Are you ready for the Business Standard Motoring 2007 Awards?

There is a tradition associated with the oldest automotive awards in the country: the winners have to be announced on the last Saturday of every year in this very page.

And so it shall be! Next Saturday, December 30, 2006, we will proclaim the winners of the six Business Standard Motoring 2007 Awards "" Car Of The Year, Bike Of The Year, Jury Award, Performance Car Of The Year, Import Car Of The Year and Scooter Of The Year.

Obviously, you would like to know who the contestants are. All-new cars and bikes which have been launched in calendar year 2006 automatically qualify for the 2007 awards.

So for the Business Standard Motoring Car Of The Year 2007, we have the Maruti Suzuki Zen Estilo, Chevrolet U-VA, Chevrolet Aveo, Hyundai Verna 1.6 and 1.5 CRDi, Mitsubishi Cedia and Honda Civic. There are three contenders for the Business Standard Motoring Import Car Of The Year 2007 Award "" the Audi Q7, Toyota Camry and the Honda CR-V.

The Business Standard Motoring Jury Award is always given to a significant, path-breaking car, so it could be any of the above. Same with the Performance Car Of The Year Award. Rest assured, you'll be pleasantly surprised when we announce them next Saturday.

The Business Standard Motoring Bike Of The Year 2007 Award will go to one of these four motorcycles: Hero Honda CBZ X-Treme, Yamaha Gladiator, Suzuki Zeus and Honda Shine. As for the Business Standard Motoring Scooter Of The Year, er, we'd rather you hold on till next Saturday.

To arrive at the winners of our Car Of The Year and Bike Of The Year, contestants have to endure not only a rigorous testing regimen, but also have to be rated across 500 points on our extremely comprehensive 21-parameter (20 for bikes) evaluation check-list by the jury. The result? Unequivocal winners.

With the announcement of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class (W124) as the Car Of The Year in 1996 in the Motoring pages of Business Standard, we kicked off the oldest automotive awards in the country.

Previous winners include the Opel Astra (1997 and 1998), Hyundai Santro (1999), Ford Ikon (2000), Maruti Suzuki Alto (2001), Fiat Palio (2002), Mahindra Scorpio (2003), Honda City (2004), Hyundai Getz (2005) and Maruti Suzuki Swift (2006).

The TVS Fiero (2001), Bajaj Pulsar (2002), Yamaha Enticer (2003), Kawasaki Bajaj Wind 125 (2004), Honda Unicorn (2005) and TVS Apache (2006) are all our previous Bikes Of The Year.

So which cars and two-wheelers are going to join this hallowed lineup? Obviously, the most deserving ones, the machines that beat the rest of the competition to win the highly respected but tough to get Business Standard Motoring Awards. Hold on then, and all will be revealed!