Overdrive Awards 2008

The year 2007 has been significant for the Indian automobile industry in terms of new launches and key players making their foray into the domestic market. The Indian consumer had never been pampered with so much of choice, be it in the luxury, economy or lifestyle segments. The industry also witnessed a growing trend towards CBU launches, significantly in the two-wheeler arena as well. All put together the buyer couldn’t have asked for more.

The OVERDRIVE Awards have been the longest running and most prestigious automotive awards in the country, the ninth edition saluting the driving force behind this growth by honouring the excellence in every category of the Indian automotive arena encompassing products, technologies and achievements in diverse spheres.

Apart from giving away the traditional awards, six new categories were introduced this year. The Performance Car and Bike of the Year awards are instituted in a bid to acknowledge the cars and bikes that inspire the enthusiast in us all by offering uncompromising no-holds barred driving/riding thrills.
While earlier international concepts were the preserve of international motor shows, the just concluded Auto Expo has shown that concepts are here to stay as far as the Indian automotive-scape is concerned, previewing new ideas, technologies and mobility concepts. Acknowledging the efforts in this field are the newly introduced Concept Car and Bike of the Year awards.

We’ve also introduced the Safety Award this year on - in an effort to not only highlight efforts undertaken towards making our roads safer but also to make road users and administrators aware of the serious safety issues we’re confronted with thanks to growing vehicular population. The award takes into account measures adopted to make vehicles safer, but the scope is also broad-based and encompasses efforts made by institutions, governmental and non-governmental bodies to make roads safer for vehicle occupants, pedestrians and other road users. Finally, in keeping with the green tinge of our times, we’ve introduced the Green Award, to recognise efforts undertaken in reducing vehicular emissions, improving fuel consumption and reducing the energy that goes into, and the pollution that results out of, car and bike manufacturing.

To be eligible for the OVERDRIVE Awards, a product must have been launched in the previous calendar year. Face-lifted vehicles with mere sticker jobs, or even new engines do not qualify unless the change is significant enough to completely change the price and positioning of the vehicle. With the soaring number of launches last year, the shortlisting and elimination of nominees for the awards was a painstaking process for the jury members.

The OVERDRIVE Awards were staged in collaboration with ITW Chemin and in association with the Mint business journal. Our television partners Aaj Tak publicised and covered the event, while online partners Exchange4media put the spin on the awards online.

The OVERDRIVE Awards are the only Indian automotive awards to enjoy patronage of all three industry bodies, viz, CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) and ACMA (Automotive Component Manufacturers Association
of India).

Judging process

Ensuring impartiality and avoiding ambiguity, the judging process involves a very scientific approach to rate the products. The individual scores are then tallied and validated by Ernst & Young. The jury comprises senior editorial staff from OVERDRIVE and acknowledged experts from the Indian automotive fraternity, including racing champions and technical experts.

Sirish Chandran has been on board at OVERDRIVE for around a decade, being involved in testing cars and bikes. One of the most respected automobile journalists in the country and a true enthusiast at heart, he has hands-on experience of every car and bike introduced in the country.

Bertrand D’souza, and Vijayendra Vikram are the best of automotive journalism talent in the country and are also the leading opinion-makers in this field.

Deepangshu Dev Sarmah has been involved with OVERDRIVE and sister publication Auto Monitor for a long time and boasts a deep knowhow of the industry.

Tutu Dhawan, is a renowned automotive expert based in Delhi and much sought after by for his expert advice. He is a regular OVERDRIVE columnist imparting technical advice.

 

Sticking to its roots and its enthusiast nature, OVERDRIVE has the motorsport brigade in the jury with N Leelakrishnan, seven-time national rally champion and ace tuner, while reigning INRC champion and APRC driver Gaurav Gill has also joined in this year.

The judging process concluded with jury members meeting in Navi Mumbai and discussing and examining the cars and bikes nominated for the awards as they drove/rode each vehicle, and then adjudged these on various parameters.

The judges focused on the following aspects:

Sheer superiority: Given the fast changing dynamics of the market and that every player has upped their game, it was far from being a breeze. Class tells, a fact not lost on the judges in cases of direct comparison. Merits/demerits were evaluated in detail according to how much weightage an aspect should have in the overall score. And cars were evaluated based on how superior they are in their own category instead of across the final shortlist.

Value: This shouldn’t be confused with affordability, since an expensive product (for many) can still offer value for money. For example, in 2005, the Skoda Superb was adjudged Car of the Year.
Overall impact and relevance: Factors such as price and fuel efficiency do weigh on the judges’ minds. In fact affordability is stressed upon as a key final weightage factor.

Once the jury’s task was done, the representatives of our validation partners, Ernst & Young, tallied and validated scores, maintaining complete secrecy and the results were declared only on the evening of January 11, at the grand awards ceremony.

The OVERDRIVE Awards 2008 function was staged at the Victoria Valley, Asiad Tower, Khel Gaon, New Delhi. Besides the Who’s Who of the automotive industry, the invitees and guests from a cross section of society witnessed the best in all categories being felicitated. Beginning with the Motorsport Award, the function drew to a glittering finale with presentation of awards in the four prime categories, Car of the Year, Bike of the Year, SUV/UV of the Year and Scooter of the Year. OVERDRIVE Awards 2008 provided sparkling verdict on the year gone by, and glowing anticipation of things to come...