Cars from ten Brands have been hailed best in class after round 1 of the UK Car Of The Year 2017 awards.

• Shortlist for UK Car of the Year 2017 announced – 12 cars from 56 entrants
• Winners in categories from small hatch to performance car, as well as luxury
• Hyundai, Toyota, Renault and SEAT all register first-ever wins in the annual awards
• Overall winner to be announced on 24th February 2017

Cars from ten different manufacturers have been hailed best-in-class after the first round of voting in the UK Car of the Year Awards 2017, supported by Cox Automotive, whose UK brands include Manheim and Motors.co.uk. With the winners of the 12 categories now decided, the successful models go on to battle it out for the title of UK Car of the Year 2017.

Winning their first UK Car of the Year Awards were Hyundai, Toyota, Renault and SEAT. In the Best Small Hatch class, the Hyundai IONIQ beat off stiff competition to win, while the latest generation of Toyota’s Prius was voted Best Family Car. 

Renault’s Scénic/Grand Scénic has been named Best MPV, and in the popular category of Best Crossover the SEAT Ateca took the honours.

The UK Car of the Year Awards 2017 proved fruitful for two German manufacturers, as Mercedes-Benz and Porsche claimed two prizes apiece. In the Best Executive Car category, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class took top spot, while the S-Class Cabriolet was hailed as Best Cabriolet. The Porsche pairing of the 718 Cayman and Boxster were voted Best Coupe and Best Sports Car respectively.

After winning the title of Best Luxury Car in 2015 with its Ghost, Rolls-Royce once again triumphed in the category with the Dawn. At the other end of the driving spectrum, Ford reclaimed the Best Performance Car crown with the Focus RS, having previously won the category in 2014 with the Fiesta ST. Best Estate Car was judged to be Volvo’s V90 and the new Large Crossover category was won by the Jaguar F-Pace.

The overall UK Car of the Year 2017 will be announced on 24th February 2017. Previous winners of the award are: BMW i3 (2014); BMW i8 (2015) and Mazda MX-5 (2016).

Full list of UK Car of the Year Awards 2017 category winners:

Best Small Hatch – Hyundai IONIQ

Best Family Car – Toyota Prius

Best Executive Car – Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Best Luxury Car – Rolls-Royce Dawn

Best Estate Car – Volvo V90

Best MPV – Renault Scénic/Grand Scénic

Best Crossover – SEAT Ateca

Best Large Crossover – Jaguar F-Pace

Best Coupe – Porsche 718 Cayman

Best Cabriolet – Mercedes-Benz S-Class Cabriolet

Best Sports Car – Porsche 718 Boxster

Best Performance Car – Ford Focus RS

Porsche concludes the first quarter with a ten percent increase on sales from a year earlier.

• Ten percent increase of worldwide deliveries in the first quarter

Porsche closed the best first quarter in the history of the company with 55,974 new vehicles delivered worldwide in the first three months of 2016.  Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG surpassed the previous year's figure by nearly ten percent. 

For Detlev von Platen, Member of the Executive Board for Sales and Marketing, these figures demonstrate high customer satisfaction and the attraction of the brand. 

He emphasized that happy customers and secure jobs are more important to Porsche than sales volumes. "We do not measure our success by record sales alone," von Platen stated.

Porsche SUV models offered a strong contribution to the successful first quarter. With 21,576 deliveries, the Macan is currently the most popular Porsche model. 

Compared with the same period last year, the youngest member of the Porsche family saw an increase of around 20 percent, closely followed by the Cayenne with 17,598 vehicles (up 8 percent). There was also a notable increase in the demand for the Boxster and Cayman models. 

Despite the approaching model change to the 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman, both mid-engine sports cars recorded two-digit growth rates with 3,029 (up 23 percent) and 2,822 (up 27 percent) deliveries respectively. The 911 remains popular with a total of 7,711 new vehicles delivered.

The US market saw 12,238 deliveries, up 7.1 percent compared to the previous year. Europe maintained the high pace of sales from 2015. The German market is the only one to lag behind. "However, the orders received in Germany are an optimistic sign," noted von Platen.

	1st quarter 2015	1st quarter 2016	Difference (%)
World	51,102	55,974	+ 9.5%
Europe	17,413	17,821	+ 2.3%
Germany	7,029	5,994	- 14.7%
America	13,272	14,168	+ 6.8%
USA	11,430	12,238	+ 7.1%
Asia-Pacific,Africa and Middle East	20,417	23,985	+ 17.5%
China	13,286	16,409	+ 23.5%

USA SALES JANUARY - The Macan and Cayenne saves Porsche at the start of the year, all others are down.

U.S. Porsche dealers sell 4,354 vehicles in January

Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA), importer and distributor in the United States of Porsche 918 Spyder, 911, Boxster and Cayman sports cars, Macan and Cayenne SUVs, and the Panamera four-door sports sedan line-up, today announced January 2016 sales of 4,354 vehicles, up 10.6 percent over January 2015 (3,937). This kicks the year off for PCNA with a record-setting January.

The Macan model line continued to experience high demand in January with 1,469 deliveries, resulting in a sales increase of 84.5 percent compared to the previous January. The Cayenne model line recorded 1,395 deliveries in January while Boxster models saw 243 deliveries, up 25.0 percent and 22.7 percent respectively, when compared with January 2015.

Porsche Approved Certified Pre-Owned vehicle sales in the U.S. were 1,165 for January 2016, an increase of 13.0 percent compared to the same period last year.

Porsche manages to shift over 200,000 cars so far this year to the end of November, for the first time ever.

New record set in November

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG has delivered 209,894 cars worldwide from January to November 2015. This corresponds to a 24% increase in comparison to the same period in 2014. Thus, for the first time in the history of the company, Porsche has handed over to customers more than 200,000 vehicles. 

As early as last year, the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer had set a record with a total of 189,849 deliveries the world over.

“With more than 200,000 Porsche models delivered, we have reached a milestone of our Strategy 2018 well ahead of schedule”, underlines Detlev von Platen, Member of the Executive Board, Sales and Marketing, Porsche AG, thanking the employees: “Porsche employees worldwide have joined forces to contribute to making this success possible. With our future-oriented products, our motivated staff and our powerful sales partners the world over, we are clearly well positioned for the future.”

In November, Porsche delivered a total of 18,110 new cars. The Cayenne is the clear leader here: with 6,579 vehicles delivered in November 2015, the delivery volumes rose 39% compared to the same period last year. The Cayenne has also been a best seller in the period of January to November 2015. All over the world, 68,029 models (a rise of 14%) were handed over to customers.

The strongest single market during the period of January to November 2015 was China: Porsche delivered 54,302 cars there. This corresponds to an increase of 34%. Right behind it was the United States, with 47,819 vehicles delivered (a 9% increase). The European market grew by 30% to 70,509 units sold.

PORSCHE AG Deliveries	November			January to November
	2015	2014	Difference (%)	2015	2014	Difference (%)
World	18,110	17,743	+ 2%	209,894	169,205	+ 24%
Europe	5,668	5,173	+ 10%	70,509	54,455	+ 30%
Germany	2,031	1,977	+ 3%	26,992	22,221	+ 22%
America	5,290	5,481	- 4%	57,397	51,649	+ 11%
U.S.	4,449	4,699	- 5%	47,819	43,732	+ 9%
Asia-Pacific, Africa and Middle East	7,152	7,089	+ 1%	81,988	63,101	+ 30%
China	5,112	4,483	+ 14%	54,302	40,504	+ 34%