BMW Already Stacking Up Accolades in 2020
BMW kicked off 2020 by winning 13 industry awards for its 5 Series, 3 Series, and 1 Series vehicles.
The spectrum of awards, including a quartet of category wins in the What Car? Awards 2020, Company Car Today CCT100 Awards, and Great British Fleet Awards, underlines the variety of the BMW model line-up and its class-leading status in multiple segments.
What Car? Awards 2020
BMW’s 3 Series and 5 Series triumphed at the What Car? Awards 2020, winning praise for their usability, ease of ownership and advanced technologies.
The 3 Series won the Safety Award, with the 330e also taking home trophies for Best Plug-in Hybrid Car and Best Executive Car.
Steve Huntingford, Editor, What Car?, said, “The astonishing BMW 330e is not only the best plug-in hybrid you can buy, but the best executive car full stop. It slickly integrates the latest green technology with the long-held wants and needs of people shopping in this class.”
He added that the advanced plug-in hybrid was easy to live with, that it is “of the very highest standard everywhere inside” and is “fantastic to drive, yet well priced and cheap to run”.
The 5 Series reigned supreme in the fiercely-contest Best Luxury Car category. After announcing it as What Car?’s favorite luxury car since the seventh-generation version was launched in 2016, Huntingford added: “not only is it the most comfortable and quietest car in its price bracket, but it also offers a better driving position than any comparable car and its feature-packed, user-friendly infotainment system is light years ahead of everything else”. The model’s frugal running costs also contributed to the win, with What Car? highlighting that it was cheaper than its rivals to run privately, or as a company car.
Great British Fleet Awards
BMW was voted Fleet Manufacturer of the Year at the 2020 Great British Fleet Awards, with Fleet World applauding the commitment of its UK fleet team in making a BMW business purchase easy and straightforward.
Martyn Collins, Editor, Fleet World said, “BMW have upped up the ante in the last year with Rob East and the team having implemented changes to bring sustainable channel management to the company. They’ve also aligned the BMW and MINI brands to complement, rather than compete against each other, all working together to make buying a BMW easier.”
The new 1 Series and 3 Series were also category winners. The 1 Series was named Best Lower Medium Fleet Car, with the 3 Series winning Best Fleet Compact Executive Car and Best New Fleet Car.
Confirming why the 1 Series was victorious, Collins highlighted its impressive interior space and connectivity. He concluded that it was “great to drive and impressively refined”.
He was equally complimentary of the 3 Series, adding: “At Fleet World, we’re big fans of the latest model launched just over a year ago, as it’s such a complete all-rounder, offering more interior space, impressive tech, combined with efficient engines to keep costs down.”
Company Car Today CCT100 Awards
BMW underlined the suitability of its model range for fleets and company drivers after the 1 Series, 3 Series, and 5 Series were all category winners in the Company Car Today CCT100 Awards.
The CCT100 is Company Car Today’s definitive list of the 100 cars that can fulfill any business car requirement, and it was the 3 Series that was voted number one, winning the CCT100 Car of the Year Award. The 3 Series added to its success with the Compact Executive Car of the Year Award.
The awards haul was bolstered with the 1 Series winning the Premium Lower Medium Car of the Year Award and the 5 Series being named Executive Car of the Year.
On awarding BMW, Paul Barker, Editor, said, “It was a big year of change for BMW, with the new 1 Series and 3 Series being launched in 2019, but these awards prove the brand has successfully and brilliantly replaced two fleet favorites with models that are more efficient, cleverer and better all-round than their predecessors, while the 5 Series, a former CCT100 Car of the Year, continues to be the best Executive model by some distance.”
There was further recognition for the 3 Series at the Company Car and Van Awards, the 330e adding to its growing number of trophies by winning the Plug-in Hybrid Car of the Year Award. Company Car and Van editor Andrew Walker praised 330e as “arguably the best plug-in car full stop.”
Photos: BMW