TOKYO — Mazda grabbed the headlines at the New York Auto Show last week when its new Mazda2 compact drove off with the prestigious 2008 World Car of the Year award. Call it a surprise result, in more ways than one. For those just tuning in, the Mazda2 is this smart, new-age compact launched in 2007 that’s doing great business for Mazda in Japan, Europe and many other places around the globe.Everywhere, that is, but North America. So, right there, it begs the question, of course: How is it a model like the Mazda2 can win something called World Car of the Year when it’s not sold in the U.S.? It’s a fair question, but here’s the answer. After a global, impartial vote for the ‘best’ new car conducted by a roster of internationally stationed journalists, the Mazda came out on top on points. Simple as that. No less remarkable was the fact that it beat out a host of other major league heavies such as the Audi R8, Cadillac CTS, Ford Mondeo and new Mercedes-Benz C-Class along the way. It was a result few were expecting, including Mazda. But however you slice it, it’s a great coup for the team from Hiroshima and their new 2. In the COTY business, World Car of the Year is still pretty new but steadily gaining in weight and prominence as each year goes by. Set up as a complement to existing COTYs such as North American Car of the Year, World Car of the Year is announced each spring at the New York Show. Inaugural winner in 2005 was the Audi A6. The BMW 3-Series took the laurels in 2006. Champion for 2007 was the Lexus LS460.  

 Even though it’s not sold in the U.S. (and that’s a situation that’s not going to change any time soon) the Mazda surely won WCOTY because of what it represents: a cutting-edge, forward-looking small car with a new kind of message. What jurors and journalists around the world like about the Mazda are its style and smart design (by Ikuo Maeda, who did the RX-8), its efficiency and convenience for a 2008 compact, and not least the fact that it’s a trend-setting lightweight. At a time when new cars seem to be getting ever bigger and heavier, Mazda took the opposite route — cutting weight by some 220 pounds over the previous-generation 2/Demio to keep the car impressively slim and trim. The payoff comes with economy and emissions but the Mazda is also strong dynamically and has a great chassis. In the beginning, though, the Mazda2 (it’s also sold as the Demio in Japan) was simply one of 39 new-car entries initially up for 2008 WCOTY contention. The WCOTY voting process involves a group of 47 World Car jurors working in 24 countries across the world. America, as it happens, has the biggest complement of WCOTY jurors (nine), following by Japan with seven. That WCOTY initial list is then whittled down to arrive at a global Top 10, which this year, in alphabetical order, is as follows: Audi A5 Coupe/Audi S5 Coupe; Audi R8; Cadillac CTS; Ford Mondeo; Ford S-Max; Mazda2/Mazda Demio; Mercedes-Benz C-Class; Nissan Qashqai/Nissan Dualis; Nissan Skyline Coupe/Infiniti G37 Coupe; Volvo C30.  

 WCOTY jurors then vote in a confidential Internet ballot. Each car gets points for Merit (40 percent of the vote); Value (20 percent); Safety (10 percent); Environment (10 percent); Significance (10 percent) and Emotional Appeal (10 percent). Votes are tabulated by the international accounting firm KPMG to arrive at a WCOTY winner, which, like the Oscars, is kept secret right up until the last moment. The Mazda victory, which must have bemused and confused some Americans, was of course greeted with raptures by Mazda in Japan. Mazda, so far as it’s known, made no special effort to win WCOTY. Neither did any other manufacturer. Some U.S. jurors, it’s believed, did drive the car in the U.K. or Europe, but in the end it was the big international vote that swung it, giving the Mazda its second title (it’s already won one of the Japanese COTYs). So, Not For U.S. Sale, yet the Mazda is still one of the ‘smart’ new wave in its class. Compact, affordable, impressively lightweight, good-looking, usefully green and something different, yes, the little Mazda ticks all the right boxes. That’s why it’s a winner![print_link]