On Tuesday, Cheki Kenya, the leading Car online Marketplace, held its inaugural Cheki Car Awards 2019.
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The first of its kind car awards show ranked cars in selected categories in a bid to enlighten consumers on specifications and help them make better car-buying decisions.
The colourful event was held at the Dusit Hotel in Riverside and attracted a sizeable crowd of car lovers, dealers, companies and media.
Speaking during the Awards events, Cheki Kenya’s Chief Executive Officer, Resian Leteipan said that; “most first-time car owners struggled with deciding which car would best suit their current needs owing to the close similarities between different makes within specific categories of cars”.
Matatu Owners Association, Simon Kimutai thanked the organisers and said the event would go along way in empowering Kenyan consumers.
“Everybody wants a car and it is good that they are able to buy a car that is going to be beneficial to them, so this is empowering to people who are intending to buy vehicles to be able to make a choice by having knowledge.”
Some of Kenya’s respected car columnists and critics sourced from a diverse pool of fields including Betty Kyalo, Leonie Elverfeldt, JM Baraza, Trevor Lamenya and Bobby Mwirigi were handpicked as the judges and spearheaded the panel discussion.
Leonie Elverfeldt, the Managing Director RADP East-Africa revealed that the judges looked at the car’s design, performance of the car, price, cost of ownership and the safety of the car as the criteria used to enter and vote for the winners.
"The first Cheki Awards were a big success with many people attending. It's great to have these Awards from now going forward, to address car topics around Kenya and also educate Kenyans further around automotive" she told BISSA.
Kenya has a thriving motor vehicles industry which sells both new and used vehicles. In recent months, the government has moved with speed to support the local manufacturing industry by halting importation of second-hand vehicles.
Used car sales account for about 80 percent of total vehicle sales in Kenya. To reverse this trend, Kenya set up Mobius motors in 2015 to build locally made cars and the government has also signed agreements with global car manufacturers like German car-maker Volkswagen and French automobile Peugeot to set up local assembly plants in the country.
To arrive at the winners a survey was sent to 300,000 car lovers and enthusiasts where Cheki then collected over 12,000 votes in the different categories.
The votes were in three categories; the general public, car dealers from all over Kenya and a balanced mix of selected expert automotive writers and celebrated car enthusiasts.
And here are the official results of Cheki Car Awards.
Best budget Car - Mazda Demio
Best Family Car - Toyota Alphard
Best Suv Car - Range Rover Sport
Best Hatchback Car - Volkswagen Golf
Best City Car - Honda Fit
Best Luxury Car - Mercedes S350
Best High Performance Car - Subaru Impreza STI
Best Commercial Car - Isuzu N-Series
Best Motorbike - Honda CBR
Best Used Car Dealership - Motorhub
Best New Car Dealership - DT Dobbie
Car of the Year - Toyota Land Cruiser - Toyota Land Cruiser
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