Blogger Auto Award 2012 (english)

For the very first time, more than two dozen German car bloggers got together and honored cars and their manufacturers with the “German Blogger Auto Award” 2012.

The votes were split into the following categories: tiny-cars, small-cars, compact-class, mid-sized cars, upper mid-sized cars, luxury-class, sports cars, convertibles, SUVs and vans.

It´s an unique project in the German blogging-scene: bloggers got together to jointly create and grant an award in their area of expertise. The result of this open collaboration of car bloggers from the country where the automobile was invented, is an absolutely outstanding, open-minded and pioneering project. Regardless of the economical competitive situation, it was accomplished together across several blogs: spontaneously and subjective, while credible, professional and conscientious.

The Blogger Auto Awards 2012 go to:

Tiny cars

Volkswagen Up! [71 points]
Fiat 500 [ 49 points]
Mini [44 points]

The other places: Fiat Panda (16), Smart fortwo (15), Renault Twingo (13), Toyota Aygo (13), Toyota iQ (8), Ford Ka (5), Opel Agila (0)

Small cars

Audi A1 [54 points]
Alfa Romeo Mito [42 points]
Volkswagen Polo and Kia Rio [each 29 points]

The other places: Nissan Juke (28), Citroen C3/DS3 (25), Opel Corsa (12), Skoda Fabia (9), Seat Ibiza (6), Ford Fiesta (0)

Compact cars

Opel Ampera and BMW 1 series [each 50 points]
Mercedes Benz A/B Class [36 points]

The other places: Alfa Romeo Giulietta (34), Audi A3 (21), VW Beetle (15), Opel Astra (12), VW Golf/Jetta/Plus (11), Ford Focus (3), Skoda Octavia (2)

Mid-sized cars

Audi A4 / A5 / Allroad [49 points]
Mercedes-Benz C-Class [47 points]
BMW 3 Series [42 points]

The other places: Volvo S60/V60 (27), VW Passat/CC (24), Opel Insignia (14), Citroen C5 (12), Skoda Suberb (7), Ford Mondeo (6), Alfa Romeo 159 (6)

Upper mid-sized cars

BMW 5 Series / GT and Audi A6 / A7 [ 43 points]
Mercedes Benz E-Class / CLS [39 points]

The other places: Jaguar XF (34), Citroen C6 (26), Cadillac CTS (18), Lexus GS (16), Infiniti M (9), Volvo V70/XC70 (4), Lancia Thema (2)

luxury cars

Aston Martin Rapide [62 points]
Maserati Quattroporte and Audi A8 [each 31 points]

The other places: Porsche Panamera (29), Bentley Continental (25), Mercedes-Benz S-Class/CL (20), BMW 7er (12), Jaguar XJ (12), VW Phaeton (9), Maybach (3)

sports cars

Porsche 911 Carrera / Turbo [56 points]
Mercedes-Benz SLS [48 points]
Audi R8 and Aston Martin DB9/DBS [each 33 points]

The other places: Ferrari 458 Italia (27), Lamborghini Aventador (15), Ferrari FF (13), Aston Martin Vantage (5), BMW 6ser (3), Bugatti Veyron (1)

Convertibles

Mercedes Benz SLS Roadster [72 points]
Audi R8 Spyder [42 points]
Porsche 911 Cabrio [41 points]

The other places: Ferrari 458 Spider (25), Mercedes SL (19), BMW 6 series Cabrio (12), BMW Z4 (9), Mercedes SLK (8), Audi A5 Cabrio (4), Mercedes E-Class Cabrio (2)

SUVs

Range Rover Evoque [53 points]
Mercedes G-Class[50 points]
Porsche Cayenne [28 points]

The other places: Mercedes-Benz M-Class(23), VW Touareg (18), BMW X5 (13), BMW X6 (13), Audi Q5 (10), Audi Q7 (10), BMW X3 (7)

Vans

Volkswagen Multivan [53 points]
Mercedes-Benz Viano [44 points]
Ford S-Max [37 points]

The other places: VW Caddy Life (29), VW Touran (21), Opel Zafira Tourer (17), VW Sharan (15), Opel Meriva (9), Ford C-Max (6), Ford Galaxy (3)

Brand- Ranking

Audi [14 points]
Mercedes-Benz [13 points]
Volkswagen [8 points]

The other places: BMW (7), Porsche (5), Austin Martin (4), Range Rover (3), Opel (3),
Mini and Maserati (2 each) as well as Kia, Ford, Fiat and Alfa Romeo (1 each)

Significances

The best rating with the highest score of 72 points was won by the Mercedes SLS Roadster in the category convertibles, closely followed by the Volkswagen Up! (71 points) which won in the category “tiny cars”, and two cars with 62 points each, Range Rover Evoque (SUV) and Aston Martin Rapide (luxury cars).

The Blogger Jury

The Jury of 2012 consisted of 27 Bloggers, who are all established in the automobile blogging niche: Marc J. Christiansen (fuenfkommasechs.de), Thomas Gigold (cult7.de), Jan Gleitsmann (auto-geil.de), Bjoern Habegger (mein-auto-blog.de), Markus Winninghoff (willsagen.de), Jens Stratmann (rad-ab.com), David Hofmann (smartpit.de), Ralf Bernert (exclusive-life.de), Marco Stöhr (rad-ab.com), Kai Bösel (motoso.de), Alex Kahl (der-probefahrer.de), Erkan Dörtoluk (uberautos.de/), Can Struck (bycan.de), Markus Jordan (blog.mercedes-benz-passion.com), Enno Reddies (qarsi.de), Don Dahlmann (racingblog.de), Jens Tanz (sandmanns-welt.de), Robert Basic (robertbasic.de), Lisa Schwarz (the-car-addict.com), Stefan Maaß (veight.de), Nicole Y. Männl (auto-diva.de vormals 0511web.de), Jens Wilde (autoblogger.de), Stefan Lemcke (benzinimblut.com), Axel Griesinger (bigblogg.com), Björn Tolksdorf (motor-talk.de) und special guests from the online magazine SpeedHeads.de (Christian Brinkmann and Julian Deuter together with one vote).

On voting for the Blogger Auto Award

The participants assigned three votes in each category (5, 3 and 1 points). The categories were adopted by the vote of the “golden steering wheel” of the “auto, motor and sport” magazine (one of the most popular German car paper magazines). The ten best ranked cars of the “auto, motor and sport”-vote (by the magazine readers) were nominated this year for the Blogger Auto Award.

For the manufacturer-award, each manufacturer got 3 points for a first place, 2 points for a second place and 1 point for a third place.

Beginning in 2012, the Auto Blogger Car Award will be awarded annually!

The following cars were nominated in their categories:

Tiny cars: VW Up!, Mini, Fiat 500, Smart Fortwo, Opel Agila, Ford Ka, Fiat Panda, Toyota iQ, Renault Twingo, Toyota Aygo
Small cars: Audi A1, VW Polo, Alfa Romeo Mito, Opel Corsa, Ford Fiesta, Citroen C3/DS3, Kia Rio, Skoda Fabia, Seat Ibiza, Nissan Juke
Compact-class: BMW 1er, VW Golf/Jetta/Plus, Audi A3, Mercedes-Benz A/B-Klasse, Opel Ampera, VW Beetle, Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Ford Focus, Opel Astra, Skoda Octavia
Mid-sized cars: Audi A4/Allroad/A5, Mercedes-Benz C-Klasse, BMW 3er, VW Passat/CC, Opel Insignia, Skoda Suberb, Ford Mondeo, Volvo S60/V60, Alfa Romeo 159, Citroen C5
Upper mid-sized cars: BMW 5er/GT, Audi A6/A7, Mercedes-Benz E-Klasse/CLS, Jaguar XF, Lexus GS, Volvo V70/XC70, Citroen C6, Lancia Thema, Cadillac CTS, Infiniti M
Luxury class: Porsche Panamera, Audi A8, Mercedes-Benz S-Klasse/CL, BMW 7er, Aston Martin Rapide, VW Phaeton, Maserati Quattroporte, Bentley Continental, Maybach, Jaguar XJ
Sports cars: Porsche 911 Carrera/Turbo, Mercedes-Benz SLS, Audi R8, BMW 6er, Ferrari 458 Italia, Lamborghini Aventador, Aston Martin Vantage, Aston Martin DB9/DBS, Ferrari FF, Bugatti Veyron
Convertibles: Mercedes-Benz SLS Roadster, Audi R8 Spyder, BMW 6er Cabrio, Porsche 911 Cabrio, Audi A5 Cabrio, Ferrari 458 Spider, Mercedes SL, BMW Z4, Mercedes SLK, Mercedes E-Klasse Cabrio
SUVs: Mercedes-Benz M-Klasse, Mercedes-Benz G-Klasse, Porsche Cayenne, BMW X5, Audi Q5, BMW X3, BMW X6, Range Rover Evoque, VW Touareg, Audi Q7
Vans: VW Multivan, VW Sharan, VW Touran, Mercedes-Benz Viano, Ford S-Max, Opel Zafira Tourer, Ford C-Max, Opel Meriva, Ford Galaxy,VW Caddy Life

Simple. Special. New.

Just like the requirements for car manufacturers are changing by politics and society, the media environment around automobile topics has changed fundamentally in the last few years. The driving force of this change is the internet, which not only accelerates and democratizes the generation of content, but also reduces the distance to the consumers to just a simple mouse-click. While traditional media has difficulty adjusting to the new circumstances, bloggers are authentic producers of new forms of media in the digital age.

Germany, the birth place of automobiles, is particularly well-suited to make the next steps of online-journalism by bloggers in this important and interesting topic.
The Blogger Auto Award is the first step of a new collaboration across borders of economical interests.