Car Buyers' Guide: 'M' brands dominate car of the year awards

Mercedes C-Class. Photo / NZME

If new passenger car registrations alone are the judge of a vehicle's popularity, then the Toyota Corolla was a clear winner last year with a total figure of 6469 units.

But overall sales figures can be deceiving at times, with heavy discounting to rental and fleet sales helping boost sales significantly for the big players such as Toyota.

For example, if you look at Driven's list of winners for its own Car of the Year awards, it was heavily dominated by brands carrying the "M" and not the "T" badge.

• Mazda3 - Overall winner
• Mercedes-Benz - Medium/large car winner
• Mitsubishi Outlander - PHEV Hybrid Green car winner
• Maserati Ghibli S - Luxury car winner

The Mazda3 was certainly the standout winner with motoring judges last year. No argument from me. It's not just a great all-round vehicle; along with other passenger models in the Mazda stable, it delivers the almost complete package with competitive pricing that includes three years of scheduled servicing.

But let's not discard or forget about the big volume sellers entirely. Proven reliability and good resale values are the other key ingredients come purchase time for the big-volume vehicle buyers.

And it's hard to go past the Toyota badge when you are looking for longevity, reliability, affordability, peace of mind and good resale value combined with a strong network of dealers around the country.

Yes, Toyota and the other big players have certainly ensured our roads will be heavily populated by their products for many years to come, which must be good news for their service, parts and used car outlets.

The other very competitive market segment in the automotive industry is the luxury passenger vehicles, which have, if you look at sales volumes once again, been dominated by BMW for the past three years.

But it was the Maserati Ghibli that took out the Driven luxury title while the Mercedes C-Class impressed a number of New Zealand motoring critics, winning a host of different trophies in 2014. This also included the coveted safest car award based on the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme.

Another trophy could easily have been presented to the Mercedes- Benz C-Class for being the sleeping giant of the industry.

I spent a few days behind the wheel of a two-litre petrol C 250 and there's an awful lot going on behind the scenes with this vehicle.

I counted more than 100 different features on the specification list which meant a little bit of garage time reading through the owner's manual and coming to grips with all the different personalities the vehicle offers.

But the reality is, once you know where everything is, and how it works, the car is not overly complicated at all.

The interior is relaxing enough but the key for me was the simplicity and ease with which I was able to work my way around the controls including the steering column-mounted gear select stork.

On the performance side, the 1991cc, four-cylinder, turbocharged engine produces 155kW of power and 350Nm of torque and has a claimed combined fuel consumption of just 6L/100km making it very environmentally friendly.

As standard the C 250 is priced at $86,900 but it was specced up to $96,370, without including on-road costs.

It will be interesting to watch the sales charts as we head into 2015.

The C-Class has been given the big tick of approval from motoring writers both here and in Australia.

The New Zealand distributors will no doubt be keen to take advantage of all the flattery and increase their market share.

But the real winners going forward are the consumers.