AA Driven Car of the Year: Ford Ranger on top again

The Ford Ranger is the 2022 AA Driven New Zealand Car of the Year.

The Ford Ranger is New Zealand’s best-selling vehicle, and it’s now also the best vehicle, full-stop: It’s been named the overall winner of the AA Driven New Zealand Car of the Year award for 2022.

“The Ranger has established itself as one of the most car-like and user-friendly utes on the market,” says Driven editor Dean Evans.

“This latest round of improvements have made it more multifaceted.

“While the market has shown a strong interest and increasing uptake in electric vehicles, Kiwis have proven their continuing love and need for utes, especially ones that provide the practicality of smart weekday features with weekend abilities.”

The COTY process starts with a list of winners in 10 new-vehicle categories; from there a shortlist of three is drawn up and the judging panel, comprised of experts from Driven and the AA, vote on the overall winner.

From the 10 main classes, the AA Safest Car of the year is the Tesla Model Y, while the People’s Choice, decided by more than 50,000 reader votes, is the Toyota RAV4.

Clean Car categories also align with the Government’s programme, with winners of Hybrid (Toyota Highlander), PHEV (Mitsubishi Outlander) and pure EV (BYD Atto 3) all recognised as standouts.

Other winners include the MG ZS, Kia Sportage and Kia Sorento in the small, medium and large SUV categories, Honda Jazz for Passenger (non-SUV), Chevrolet Corvette for Sports & Performance, BMW iX for Luxury, with the BYD Atto 3, Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Outlander also qualifying into the top three overall.

The full webcast reveal can be viewed at: https://www.driven.co.nz/news/watch-all-the-aa-driven-car-of-the-year-winners-revealed-zooming-with-driven-ep112/.

2022 AA DRIVEN NZ COTY winners

Small SUV: MG ZS

Medium SUV: Kia Sportage

Large SUV: Kia Sorento

Clean Cars, HEV: Toyota Highlander

Clean Cars, PHEV: Mitsubishi Outlander

Clean Cars, BEV: BYD Atto 3

Passenger: Honda Jazz

Sports & Performance: Chevrolet Corvette

Light Commercial Vehicle: Ford Ranger

Luxury: BMW iX

AA Safest: Tesla Model Y

People’s Choice: Toyota RAV4

Overall COTY top three: BYD Atto 3, Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Outlander

Overall COTY winner: Ford Ranger