SME Company Car of the Year judges
Chair of the judges – the Rt Hon Vince Cable, MP for Twickenham and Secretary of State for business, innovation and skills. Photo: Dave Engell.
SME expert Keith Hawes, managing director of MAGMA Automotive Services, sponsors of the SME Company Car of the Year Awards 2014.
Company car tax expert Colin Tourick, who is the director of Colin Tourick Associates.
SME business car leasing expert Martin Brown, the managing director of Fleet Alliance, the company which won the Small Fleet Leasing Awards, run by Business Car Manager.
Car expert Luke Madden, who is deputy news editor at Auto Express and the road test editor here at Business Car Manager.
SME business car leasing authority Steve Cocks, who is national sales manager at Lex Autolease – the UK’s biggest car leasing company.
THE Vauxhall Insignia has been named SME Company Car of the Year in the 2014 SME Company Car Awards, run by Business Car Manager in association with MAGMA Automotive Services.
A panel of expert judges – chaired by Business Secretary Vince Cable, MP for Twickenham – were impressed with the recently facelifted Insignia’s focus on improving quality, technology and style while further lowering emissions and ensuring the price-tag was as great value as it has ever been.
Picked out for particular praise was the Vauxhall Insignia 2.0 CDTi Design ecoFLEX model, which pairs a generous equipment list with a surprisingly low P11D value and CO2 emissions of just 98g/km. Cheap to run and good to drive, the Insignia seems like a real no-compromise company car.
As well as scooping the overall title, the Vauxhall also picked up first place in the Best SME Large Company Car and Best Company Car for Tax categories.
The Honda Civic 1.6 i-DTEC won Best Company Car to Buy, while the Renault Captur 1.5dCi took home the Best Compact Company Car award and the BMW 520d was awarded Best SME Director’s Car.
Hyundai was awarded Best SME After Sales Programme for its low-cost, timesaving initiatives available exclusively to business customers.
BMW was recognised for its company car-focused approach with a win in the Best Company Car Programme category, and Audi won Best SME Company Car App for its mileage tracker.
Business Secretary Vince Cable chaired an experienced team of judges consisting of Martin Brown, Managing Director of Fleet Alliance and Steve Cocks, national sales manager at Lex Autolease.
Also on the panel was Auto Express’ deputy news editor, Luke Madden, Managing Director at MAGMA Automotive, Keith Hawes, and company car expert Colin Tourick.