THE Ford Fiesta has been announced as valuation firm CAP’s used car of the year.
In addition to being Britain’s best-seller for the year to date, the Fiesta fought off numerous competitors to scoop the prize – doing so in what CAP are calling a ‘strong year for the used car market’.
CAP crowned the Fiesta after putting it through a list of stringent criteria – including running costs, ‘trusted reputation’, sustained popularity in the market, and in being ‘a friend to the trade as well as to the consumer’.
The Fiesta, the firm reckons, exemplifies all of those qualities. The ‘acid test’ of a used car’s performance comes down to affordability, CAP says, and models should compare well against its competitors in terms of depreciation if they’re in for a chance of winning.
With the Fiesta coming second only to the Volkswagen Polo in the firm’s calculations, it’s clear the test proved positive. Mark Norman of CAP highlighted the unique nature of the awards.
‘It is always tempting for the motoring media and other industry observers to take the ‘petrol head’ approach when giving awards to cars which excite them but the CAP Used Car of the Year Award recognises the contribution a car really makes to consumers and dealers alike,’ he said.
‘Equally it is simplistic to merely look at the percentage of its new value a car retains and then declare that it is a good used car buy because, most of the time, it only means it’s an expensive used car to buy.
‘The Ford Fiesta is a genuinely great used car for all of the reasons we have outlined. Motorists love it because it does exactly what they want it to. Dealers love it because it provides them with a reliable and fair profit opportunity and the accolade of CAP Used Car of the Year 2012 is well deserved by the Ford Fiesta.’
