Skoda’s Enyaq iV takes Irish Examiner ‘car of the year’ award
Overall winner Skoda Enyaq
It’s that time of the year again when the Examiner Motoring gongs are given out.
We look back at the best drives in the past 12 months and review some of the highs and lows of what has been a year of fast-changing and quickly evolving engineering, design and taxation changes.
Without doubt, the new Skoda Octavia is the hands-down winner here. Increasingly sophisticated in terms of both engineering and design, the Czech contender left everything else in the segment for dead.
It’s no wonder the Irish have a love affair with the Octavia and as we have often said in these columns, that is mainly because it offers so much more for so much less.
In the honourable mention department comes the Audi A3 Sportback, which is more an of an estate than anything.
In a market that was not exactly over-run with contenders, the new Mark 8 VW Golf was a clear winner.
Although there was a facelifted Ford Focus and both Peugeot and Opel unveiled the respective new 308 and new Astra, neither of which we will see here until next year, nothing came close to the Golf.
While there will be an electric version, Golfistas will delight that the traditional petrol and diesel variants are the mainstay and some of them are crackers.
The King keeps his crown.
We had some decent contenders here – such as the Golf Clubsport (which is basically a 2WD version of the Golf R with whip-smart performance), the excellent but somewhat underwhelming Skoda Octavia VRs and the cracking Ford Puma ST, but there was only ever going to be one winner here.
The Toyota Yaris GR, which was designed by the Japanese giant’s sporting arm Gazoo Racing (hence the nomenclature), is basically a road-going rally car.
Ok, some might baulk at a €50,000 Yaris, but – hand on a minute here – this thing has 261 bhp on tap from its 1.6 litre three-pot turbo engine, as well as a six-speed manual ‘box and 4WD.
Viciously quick with truly shattering performance and incredible on-road manners, this thing got the blood flowing in jig time. A massively engaging piece of kit and the winner here by some distance.
Not a year ago, our e-car of the year was the then ground-breaking Peugeot e-208 with a range of over 300 km. We loved it because there was a car which provided enough range to make an electric worthwhile. In less than 12 months the Peugeot has become a near dinosaur in the face of a maelstrom of activity from rival manufacturers.
We have all known that Tesla makes excellent electrics and our November test of the Model 3 illustrated just that, but the car is very expensive and has a lot of finicky flaws. Then we had the Kia EV6, which has yet to get a full review in these columns but which we can tell you is stunning looking and in the vanguard of the next wave of electrics with a real-world capability of around 430 km, but not the 500 claimed.
We also saw the second VW electric, the ID.4 and just the third fully electric Mercedes, the EQA. Both were good, but they were completely overshadowed by a contender from an unexpected corner.
The Skoda Enyaq iV took all its running gear from the Volkswagen parts bin (both the ID.3 and ID.4 have the exact same power source) and made the products from Wolfsburg look clumsy, poorly designed and unwieldy. With a claimed range of 500 km the Skoda differed little from its German siblings in many ways, but we found that while the range indicator on some of the above fluctuated wildly, whatever range the Skoda said it had, it delivered.
We tried the Sportline version which also had 4WD thanks to its two electric motors and the equivalent of 365 bhp on tap. That gave sub seven second 0-100 km/h acceleration and a 160 km/h top speed.
But what differentiated the Enyaq iV from the pack was its’ subline exterior and interior design touches. Skoda really excelled with this one and to a certain degree made a lot of people in VW look very silly.
Such as the new Renault Captur and the Mazda CX-30 were the main contenders here this year, but it is the diminutive Mazda that gets the nod.
There are times in this gig when you come across a truly excellent car and are left baffled by the fact nobody seems to know or appreciate what it has to offer. The CX-30 is such a car.
Sure it might have a plethora of opposition which makes it hard to fly its own flag, but this is a well-built, beautifully engineered and designed machine and one which should clock up more sales than it should.
It might be that the Cupra Formentor is the first stand-alone machine we’ve seen from the SEAT sub-brand, but what a first effort. We tried it in VZ form, which means a 310 bhp two litre engine and full-time 4WD provides a firecracker performer.
Stunning looks also added to a formidable package. From the same (sort of) stable, came the SEAT Taracco which is a purposeful, practical and well-equipped package and it impressed hugely without being blindingly brilliant in any particular area.
Then you had things like last year’s winner the Land Rover Defender and the Mercedes GLC, but simply on the basis of what we’ve driven this year, the two Spaniards stood out and the Formentor won by a short head given its natural panache and outstanding design, not to mention its’ performance chops, which probably means it should be in the hot hatch section rather than here, but we had to fit it in as one of the outstanding drives of the year.
There were a couple interesting new contenders here, not least the excellent seven-seat Highlander from Toyota or the new Sorento of Kia, but the one that stood out from the pack – and, boy, does it stand out – was the BMW X7.
Monstrous in every regard – and also bedecked with BMW’s controversial new kidney grille design – the X7 simply exudes opulence. Despite its’ sheer magnitude, this is a car that drives really well and refuses to act like its bus-like proportions suggests it would.
The handing is as sharp as most saloons, while the ride is as close to magic carpet as anything Citroen ever produced. This is what might be termed ‘Patrician Motoring’ at its’ zenith.
Sadly this is a segment that’s dying on its feet as people veer more towards SUV motoring, but there are a few contenders still out there. Sadly we never got to drive the impressive-looking VW Arteon for a number of reasons and had we got our hands on it, it might well have scooped the top prize.
That being so, it was the Mazda 6 that got the nod instead.
An increasingly sophisticated package, the 6 has moved upmarket in recent times and is now in danger of treading into premium waters. And, when put up against rivals such as VW Passat, Ford Mondeo and Peugeot 508, it does indeed look like a cut above the rest.
Continual tweaking of the package has resulted in keeping the Mazda fresh and up-to-the-minute technologically as well as on the engineering front.
There was only one winner here – the new Mercedes S-Class. The seventh generation of the S might struggle for relevance in an increasingly electrified world as we move forward, but this new car underlined everything Mercedes has strived to achieve its upmarket contender – providing a stunning technological bag of tricks aligned with a luxurious driving experience.
Competition from such as BMW, Audi and Lexus might be top drawer, but with this iteration of the S-Class Mercedes underlined why it has always been top of ‘must have’ list for executive drivers.
Bigger and more opulent than ever before, the ‘S’ nevertheless boasts style, elegance and refinement in spades and it rides and drives like any proper luxobarge should. It was – and still is – the class leader by some measure.
Although the arrival of any new ‘M’ car from BMW is a cause for joyous celebration, this year their impact was blunted by an unexpected French contender. We had two M cars this year, the M3 and the M4 and both were exceptional examples of German sports engineering.
Somewhat surprisingly I felt the M4 coupe was the better of the two and thought it the more balanced of the duo, but as you would expect both are complete and utter automotive animals.
A beast of a different colour came in the shape of the new Alpine A110. I know the car has been available elsewhere for some time, but it only filtered into Irish waters this year and what a cracker it is.
Boasting not only stupendous good looks but a 292 bhp 1.8 litre turbo petrol engine, a two-seater mid-engine layout and rear-wheel drive, this was truly the mutt’s nuts.
Beautifully balanced, but with more than a hint of menace from that cracking engine and the seven-speed dual-clutch auto, the car not only lived up to the expectations of its pre-launch hype, but it dialled up even more excitement in the flesh.
In fact, the more hammer you gave it, the more it relished the madness of it all. This is a nailed-on classic and while it might cost you north of eighty grand, it will only ever repay every penny in spades.
On a purely subjective basis, was the electric Skoda Enyaq iV. There was nothing else that excited us on the same basis as the Czech contender.
It distilled all the best technology Skoda was allowed access to from the VW parts bin and, in our view, completely outshone those cars coming from VW itself.
In a segment that is evolving so rapidly that it is hard to keep up with developments, in this year of 2021, it was a zeitgeist car and one which best captured the spirit of the last 12 months.
