How the R2.27m BMW 7 Series became South Africa's Car of the Year

Slow economic growth, a high employment rate and increasing costs of living are among the heavy themes that dominate the South African news cycle.

The new car market has been in a slump. April's figures saw a modest 2.2% increase after eight consecutive months of decline.

Speaking to motor industry leaders earlier this year, there was a cautious sentiment for 2024, with matters such as the looming national elections and ongoing energy supply issues cited.

Against this backdrop, consumers and general observers would be right to raise an eyebrow at the 2024 winner of the South African Guild of Mobility Journalists' (SAGMJ) Car of the Year (COTY) competition sponsored by Old Mutual Insure.

The coveted award went to a contender in the Luxury category, the BMW 7 Series, which carries a basic price of R2,270,000.

Taking stock

Since the confetti has settled after the announcement last week, it is worth discussing matters.

Let me state outright that as a juror and member of the planning committee since 2022, the Teutonic titan was not what I had envisaged as the overall victor.

As a category winner? Unequivocally. The 7 Series is an incredible vehicle that left a more favourable impression than its rival, the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV. It redefines expectations of a super-luxury saloon, but not at the complete sacrifice of core values that made the lineage so vaunted.

The way the BMW stopped, steered, accelerated and cosseted on our test regimen was nothing short of brilliant. Then you have its future-forward technological capabilities fit for the digital age.

But recalling conversations after the main testing event earlier this year, many of my sober-minded colleagues agreed it would be somewhat preposterous to have such an expensive car take the crown — if we wanted the competition to be taken seriously.

Yet it did. To be transparent, my own scores reflected that outcome too. More on this later.

Relevant victors

From my perspective on the day, if there was a BMW product that looked promising for victory, it was the X1 which competed in the Family category.

A dramatic leap over its forebear, the new generation model delivers a wonderful blend of refinement, aesthetic appeal, decent standard equipment and relatively keen pricing, kicking off at R780,000. By no means a budget product, but certainly within a realm of attainability greater than a vehicle costing thrice as much.

Another candidate pictured as a realistic winner was the Suzuki Fronx, which came in second place and on top in the Budget & Compact segment.

Stylistically assertive, with surprisingly grown-up road manners, respectable equipment levels and with a base price of R297,000, it is right in the sweet spot of the average vehicle finance amount taken by car shoppers in the country. That amount is R396,000 according to the TransUnion Vehicle Price Index for Q4 of 2023.

A dark horse prospect was the GWM Ora 03 (Family category) for what it represents in making electric vehicle ownership more as the cheapest of its kind in the country.

R686,950 gets you into the 300 Super Luxury model, replete with features such as semi-autonomous driving assistance. Of course it does not hurt that the Ora is such a cheerful-looking thing, with a wonderful retro charm inside and out.

The BMW M2 ended up taking third place overall and top honours in the Performance arena. It was the only rear-wheel drive, straight-six fighter in the zone and made quite a mark with its heady mix of straight-line acceleration, entertaining dynamics and pumped-up visual character.

Though a hot hatchback like the Toyota GR Corolla or Honda Civic Type R (with sub R1m price-tags at time of testing) would have held wider appeal, the M2 win sits fine, given the nature of the category and the fairly low volumes performance cars account for.

It would have been a different story had the M2 won overall, but then again it does undercut the 7 Series by nearly R800,000 in price.

Past COTY controversies

The SAGMJ COTY competition is no stranger to controversial winners.

Interestingly, this is not the first time a BMW 7 Series scooped the title. In 1988 it was the 735i that clinched it.

In more recent times, the event took flak when Porsche scooped COTY successively for three years when the Boxster, Cayman S and Macan S Diesel won in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Not to say these vehicles may have been undeserving, but the optics might have fueled the perception that the organisation has a partiality to performance cars with premium cachet. The Panamera won the competition in 2018.

Around this time, the SAGMJ itself had also been mired in scandals of its own, which saw some manufacturers distancing themselves from the competition, meaning their products were omitted.

In 2019 the Mercedes-Benz A-Class took it. This was also the year the competition had adopted different categories.

Jaguar's pricey and exclusive electric I-Pace also had commentators scratching their heads as the 2020 winner.

A more relatable mainstream winner came in 2021 when the Peugeot 2008 claimed victory, followed by the Toyota Corolla Cross in 2022.

COTY in current guise

For the 2023 round of the competition, with COTY chairperson Mabuyane Mabuza taking the helm, there was a refreshed drive to form a new planning committee, to secure a headline sponsor and to bring back non-participating manufacturers. This included Audi, BMW, Ford, Suzuki and Volkswagen.

In 2023 the blue oval brand scooped first prize with the double-cab Ranger in Wildtrak V6 guise, carrying a price tag of just under R1m.

It made history as the first bakkie to win the competition, but many agreed it was a justifiable winner: even in lesser trims, the Ranger raised the bar in the pick-up genre, while demonstrating sales volumes that gave credence to its relevance as a product local consumers were buying.

The public's choice

One component to the current SAGMJ COTY is the Motor Enthusiasts Choice award, which is decided by public participation in a vote held through Old Mutual Insure's social media platforms.

This year it was the Mahindra Scorpio-N, which also received the win in the Adventure SUV category.

You have to admit the contrast between the overall winner and the public vote is fascinating.

The Scorpio-N kicks off at R477,199. Versus its rudimentary predecessor, the new model brings a touch of polish to proceedings, offering true ladder-frame off-roader capability in a family SUV package.

Not all about sales volumes

As you may know, the SAGMJ COTY competition is not guided by market popularity alone.

Otherwise it would be the likes of the Toyota Hilux, Volkswagen Polo, Suzuki Swift and Corolla Cross receiving trophies every year.

The competition is limited to new vehicles launched within a 12-month period.

Full SAGMJ members in good standing vote for their list of semi-finalists, which is then further whittled down, resulting in the field of contenders for victory in their respective categories and the ultimate honour.

The juror then tests the vehicles on track and road (and off-road where applicable), assessing them comprehensively, with 1-10 ratings for virtually every aspect, from straight-line performance to economy and perceived value for money, against direct segment rivals.

The jury is composed of 31 members, including motoring journalists and motoring content creators.

After the testing is done and the scores are tallied, the results are audited and the winners are announced.

How the BMW 7 Series pulled it off

Graham Eagle, retired motor industry executive who has held key positions at leading manufacturers, is the honorary scorer for the competition. Eagle has taken on the exhaustive task of compiling the statistics.

"[The jury] found the luxury, refinement and feature levels of the vehicle really impressive but looking at the juror scoring, the fact that BMW managed to include all of this while maintaining traditional BMW dynamic qualities is what gave the car its leading juror score," he said.

"The vehicle scored very well for its share of market segment, where it is a comfortable segment leader, achieving a top three score among all finalists."

"Value for money (VFM), as measured objectively by Lightstone using their spec-adjusted pricing tool, the BMW again surprised with another top three score, this time alongside two much keener priced finalists."

“The 7 Series, given its price and market positioning, didn’t score highly for sales, but its share of market segment was very high as was its value for money score. The Suzuki Fronx in second got a decent juror score for a compact car, but it scored near the top on sales, share and VFM, giving it the highest score in these three metrics.

"The BMW M2 made third, only 0.035 points behind the Suzuki, and had the highest market segment share of all finalists. Since introducing the automated scoring we’d had an electric vehicle, two more modestly priced vehicles, a bakkie and now a luxury car win the past few years."

"It’s a good mix that shows the system works”.

Balancing excellence and relevance

Being of the view that there remains benefit in an industry body that advances the motoring journalism profession — and scope for an awards programme relevant to the South African motoring consumer — my intention is to stay a part of the jury and planning committee for now.

But there is room for reflection, individually and as an organisation.

As mentioned earlier in the story, my own scoring reflected top marks overall for the 7 Series. Keeping personal tabs, calculations showed my top three comprising the 7 Series, Lexus NX and BMW X1, in that order.

Call it "scoring blindness" but the truth is, on the day of testing, hopping out of an entry-level hatchback under R250,000 and into a luxury product that could buy several copies of the former, the starkness between characteristics is always going to be amplified. And reflected in the scores.

This has been a long-standing criticism of COTY, and was perhaps even more severe in the days before categories were implemented.

While one needs to stay mindful of a specific vehicle's peers and assess it in relation to those, that can get tricky in the heat of testing.

There were discussions to include non-competing rivals of vehicles in contention, for jury reference, but the logistical impracticalities are overwhelming.

Among my recommendations for the next COTY includes refining the scoring process, perhaps incorporating a sales volume metric, with a minimum annual figure to be eligible as the ultimate COTY winner. There should be a price cap on the overall winner too.

"Excellence" is the overarching theme extolled in finding the ultimate COTY winner.

Well and good, but as the SAGMJ, this subjective virtue of excellence should not be at the overall expense of relevance.

As a professional body representing motoring in South Africa, surely our moves should be reflective of the wider climate and influenced by actions that enlighten the consumer?

As said before, the 7 Series very easily deserved its category win.

But the overall COTY title ideally needs to go to a car to which most new shoppers can relate.

When we defend high-end winners on the basis of excellence, the competition sounds elitist. And it fuels that idea that motoring journalists are only wowed by flash, power and luxury. Indeed, that is what happened.

Commendably, the SAGMJ does host a refresher training session ahead of physical testing. The syllabus of this might also benefit from a tweak.

Last thing you want is most testers whose good sense go out the window on encountering a vehicle that opens and closes its doors automatically.

I say this as someone who was obviously very impressed by that function on the new 7 Series.