TMW - Our Medium Car Award goes to..........

MEDIUM CAR - This sector is a fiercely fought one, with the Golf, Focus and Astra being the big hitters.

FORD FOCUS - The face lift and tweaks to the exterior, along with a reworked interior, gives the Focus a fresh stance, but will it be enough to take the award.

VAUXHALL ASTRA - The British built hatch and estate are showing signs of age, but 2015 sees the arrival of a brand new Astra, along with new Corsa and VIVA, 2015 is a huge year for Vauxhall.

MAZDA3 - Like the Mazda2, above, the "3" is a new version of the ever popular car, yet, Mazda has taken the bold step to bring a saloon to the UK, when all the others have dropped saloons, Mazda is having huge success with their version, will it mean saloon versions of other cars, who knows, Mazda are just enjoying high sales.

PEUGEOT 308 - The totally refreshed Peugeot line-up, now has its youngest full range in its history, and it shows, with sales flying high, awards, filling the shelves and profits returning to the brand for the first time in years, however, has the 308 been out too long to take another award ?

CITROEN C4 CACTUS - At long last Citroen has gone back to it's roots with comfortable, quirky cars, the cactus, does away with a number of fripperies to save weight and give better MPG, and low cost taxation, the spartan interior, looks quality, the seats are hugely comfortable, the dealers, well, they need dealing with, as they are the brands biggest let down.

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The medium sector is as fiercely fought as the small car sector, so making a decision here is just as hard, with a number of great looking, and well priced an kitted out cars, so we'll start with the Focus, Ford doesn't seem to make many mistakes these days with their cars, gone are the days of the wildly different cars which followed massive sellers, thinking here of the the MK IV Escort and MK I Sierra, both these cars replaced huge sellers for Ford, and both had difficulties with sales, the Focus however, is now like the Golf, very little changes in the look of the car from the preceding one.

Extra kit and more tech keeps the car fresh, but the looks are starting to age, even with the new model that's due any minute, which then brings us onto the next gen Astra, Vauxhall has a difficult job to make the Astra class leading or at least up there with the best of the rest, the current one, is definitely the best version, so far, so making it better will be a hard task, it too will be an evolution of the current model, not a leap into uncharted territory, so why pick that, well, GM is keeping the car British, and these days, that's a hard task to achieve, it Will have a raft of new power plants, and gearboxes, so the new Astra will be one to watch.

Mazda has, over the last decade seen a complete turn around from a brand that was staid but reliable, but that's all gone, well, the reliability is the same, but the entire range has been transformed, from the Skyactive Technology to the KODO-Soul of motion design touches, the range has grown and now shines above cars of a superior look and feel, and the Mazda3 is definitely one of the shining stars, it has the new family look, and with some great tech behind it, the next gen Mazda3 will be one to watch, as it will be biting at the heels of cars with more sales.

Peugeot is undoubtedly one of the stars of recent times, they currently have the youngest range of cars in its entire history, and each and everyone of those cars are up there with the best, the 308 has been out for a while now, but it is still seen as one of the "benchmark" cars in this segment, it doesn't have the outrageous looks of some, but it is a well thought out design, with some great touches inside.

Removing many of the buttons and switches, in favour of a touch screen, is where all cars are heading, the C4 Cactus is another that has gone down that route, but for Peugeot, the re brand of the company, the total refresh of the range and the many many awards they have been given shows that, no matter what the finances say about the company, the cars are up with the best.

That leaves for this sector the Citroen C4 Cactus, this is a true Citroen, back to what they did best 40 years ago, and that's comfortable, economical, well built and quirky, some will equate quirky as weird, and unusual, but is that not what Citroen used to be about, the original DS, CX, SM, BX, XM and more besides. 

The fun Cactus takes Citroen back to basics, the cars have air-bump technology, that's to say they have a plastic section on each of the doors and front and rear, similar to bubble wrap, only more durable and bump proof, the interiors, like the 308, does away with lots of buttons, instead a touchscreen deals with everything, the auto box has buttons on the dash instead of a lever, and it does away with things that are deemed un-necessary, so as to save weight, and improve CO2 and MPG, We were impressed, we have ordered one, shame that Citroen wont tell us when it will be with us, but that's a story for another post.

THE MOTORING WORLD MEDIUM CAR OF THE YEAR

Goes to.............

A difficult choice for us this one, but the Peugeot 308 is a well deserved winner of our first annual Medium car Award.