Northern Group Car of the Year 2022: Driving Day
The Northern Group of Motoring Writers has held its first post-pandemic Car of the Year driving day, once again based at the Coniston Hotel near Skipton.
After taking a break from in-person activities and returning to the raw poll format for 2020 and 2021, 2022 offered the chance to resume the driving day first trialled in 2018 — with a few subtle differences.
As usual, the COTY team assembled a longlist of all new cars launched across the previous 12 month period from July 1 to June 30th, which was pared down to a shortlist of cars in each of six different categories: Small, Family, Luxury, SUV, EV, and Fun.
This list was then put to a vote with all Group members eligible to have their say, selecting a first-, second-, and third-place car in each category. The COTY team then added up the votes for the six category winners, inviting the winning car manufacturers to send an example to the Driving Day.
Our final list of six cars was as follows:
- Small: Skoda Fabia
- Family: Dacia Jogger
- Luxury: Audi A8
- SUV: Kia Sportage
- EV: Volvo C40 Recharge
- Fun: Toyota GR86
Unfortunately, due to a software issue affecting the GR86, Toyota was unable to supply a car for the driving day — and as a result won’t be able to defend the crown it won in 2021 with the GR Yaris.
However, all of the other five cars were available for the 14 attending NGMW members to drive over the course of six hours, and select an overall winner in a secret ballot conducted on the day.
NGMW will reveal the 2022 Car of the Year at the SMMT North Test Day later this year, awarding the coveted miner’s lamp to the winning manufacturer’s press team should they be in attendance.
