The list of eligible vans for the title of Continental Irish Van of the Year awards 2014 has been announced by the nine member jury of the Irish Motoring Writers’ Association (IMWA ).
The winner of the 2014 overall Irish Van of the Year title will be announced at an awards ceremony in Dublin on Thursday November 21.
The eligible vans for this year’s awards are as follows: Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, Nissan NV200, Renault Kangoo, and the Toyota ProAce.
In order to find the winning van and category winners each year, the Continental Irish Van of the Year jury members (including myself ) assess each van that is launched on the Irish market, grading each vehicle on such attributes as: value for money, versatility, build quality, and performance.
“In the tough circumstances of the current commercial vehicle market in Ireland, the overall guidance and reviews of the IMWA van jury are a great help to customers who are looking to renew their van or indeed their company fleet”, said Tom Dennigan of Continental Tyres.
Michael Moroney, Chairman of the IMWA Van Jury said: “In spite of the depressed van market in Ireland, this year’s crop of entrants for the Continental Irish Van of the Year title are an excellent selection of vehicles from the sector and it is a wide open competition for the title”.
The winners of the Continental Irish Van of the Year 2014 category award winners – car-derived van and SUV Commercial – will also be announced in early January 2014. The contenders for the car-derived van category are the Ford Focus van, the Hyundai iPro, the MINI Clubvan, and the Toyota Auris van. The contenders for the commercial SUV section are the Mitsubishi Outlander Comm, SSangYong Korando Commercial, and the SSangYong Korando Sport Pick-Up.
Last year’s Continental Irish Van of the Year title was awarded to the Ford Transit Custom. The car-derived van and commercial SUV category awards went to the Ford Fiesta and the Ford Ranger respectively.
