The 2011 Women’s World Car of the Year barely made a ripple in the auto industry down under when it was announced in April 2011, but its presentation to joint winners, the BMW 5 Series and Citroen DS3, at the Frankfurt show was big news in markets from Europe to India, where women are a large proportion of buyers yet wary of international awards made by predominantly male juries.

New Zealand journalist and the first president of the NZ Motorsport Media Association, Sandy Myhre (pictured at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show), told me she formed the WWCOTY in 2007 after she and several colleagues noticed that of the 45 judges on the panel for the 2007 World Car of the Year jury, not one was a woman.

She thought it a serious oversight, one which couldn’t be explained by a lack of suitable candidates, given the calibre of some of the world’s female motoring writers. So she contacted eight suitable judges from New Zealand, South Africa, The Netherlands, USA and UK who chose their first winner, Jaguar’s XJ, in 2008.

The panel now contains 18 judges, and Sandy says the biggest problem is language difficulties. “The Argentinian judge sends some delightfully worded emails and the Chinese judge has her own official interpreter. We’re still increasing jury numbers to cover certain countries or regions that currently aren’t covered.”

Given the likes of these ladies, I was honoured to be asked to join them. BMW 5 Series

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But I’ve come round to thinking award convenor and long-time motoring commentator Sandy Myhre had a point when she launched the awards in 2009. Looking at the industry from both the journalism and manufacturer sides, you’d think women don’t drive cars let alone have any passion for them, yet we do.

So why is it that it’s usually assumed we’re there to make the tea, comment on the car’s hue, or ensure the men get to the press conference on time? Bernie Ecclestone may have been the one to say women should be dressed in white “like other domestic appliances” but the attitude still prevails.

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Been having a go on eDrive, a computer-based driver training tool that’s more like a game than a boring theory lesson.

Built by Waikato University Professor Robert Isler, it takes you on a journey from Bluff to the far north, quite literally. He and a group of students wired a car up with computers and cameras, his daughter Nadine hopped into the driver seat, and they used the real world footage for eDrive.

Which means you get sucked in very quickly, scanning the mirrors, flicking your eyes around, distracted only by the fact you can’t see your hands on the wheel and whoops! Where did that passing car come from?

More discussion on the spat between Police Minister Judith Collins and the AA about speed cameras. The AA would like to see drivers warned there’s a camera about; the police prefer to keep them hidden. 

AA motoring affairs general manager Mike Noon accuses police of revenue gathering and you can see why when you hear the number of tickets issued doubled in 2010, the country’s 55 cameras sparked 628,00 infringements last year, and snapped another 200,000 in the first four months of 2011. 

The police still say their aim is to stop you speeding. Frankly, with hidden cameras that doesn’t wash. If you’re speeding past a camera you won’t know you’ve been nabbed until several weeks later; the ticket didn’t stop you at the time and may not stop you in future. 

But I can tell you from extensive drives in the UK that camera alerts do work. Over there the cameras are painted day-glo yellow; and there are warning signs and chevrons on the tarmac leading up to and away from the camera. 

If you can’t see all that you shouldn’t be driving, and when you do, you slow down. You slow down every single time you pass the camera.  Stick them in dangerous areas; outside schools, entering the rural townships that dot our highways, near shopping centres where traffic and pedestrians mix, and you will see slower traffic exactly where you want it. 

You won’t earn much money of course, but then the police say that’s not the point. Which would be easier to believe if they followed the UK example, for hide the camera and you won’t slow traffic anything like as reliably.  For more , click the link.

Talk about just another day at the office – Toyota flew us to Queenstown, supplied a fleet of Hilux utes and led us up the garden path, so to speak. That the garden is visited every ten minutes by the shotover jet and climbs considerably over 1000 metres was merely a bonus designed to show the facelift ute off at its best.

That meant tackling tricky circuits to show how sure-footed Hilux is, and how well it’ll manage tight off camber turns between rocks and logs; how efficiently first gear will hold you back on even the steepest downhills, provided low range is selected; how implacably the Hilux will continue scrambling forward over rocky terrain even with no feet on the pedals; and how unlike a mountain goat any over-fed motor noter is when scrambling about trying to photograph all this derring-do.

Talking to a group of motor noters the other day, all dissing the Insight for its less-than-frugal running when they drove it. But then again, they had no time for VW’s Golf GTI because it’s popular, for SsangYong’s Korando because it’s built to a price (isn’t everything?) or indeed every other car in the lot, for one reason or another. But back to the point! Further discussion proved they’d been trying to drive frugally. I wasn’t, punting the car up and over the Waitakere ranges several times, working the 1.3-litre motor hard on those uphills, and achieved a 4.8l/100km average when I checked it on return – just 0.2 above Honda’s claim.

Typical day of a motoring journalist. Head into town on Suzuki’s likeable GSR750 despite high winds and intermittent hail as it’s due back. Drop in to the very helpful ProGear en route to replace lens filter I broke when dropping camera at Frankfurt BMW i3 and i8 reveal. Passer-by says ‘gosh you’re brave’ as I remount bike – says he rode Wellington to Christchurch on a 250. It’s him that needs his head examined.

GSR keys returned, discover GSXR600 was dropped by another journo at Hampton Downs and damaged – return home on my own ageing BMW instead while frantically trying to work out how to fill GSX deadline. Quick change out of riding gear, and out in Ford’s FPV GT-E despite looming deadlines, as tomorrow it’s replaced by a Mercedes Shuttle which on Friday gives way to a Renault Megane, so will be clocking up the kays over the next few days.

Exhilarating drive over the Piha Road dodging debris, the mighty V8 snorting through that great bonnet nostril and the rear tyres skimming sideways at a hint of throttle – the milk run has rarely been so much fun, but got to get back home as my newspaper deadline looms. Shame my office chair isn’t as inviting as the Ford’s red leather seats…

Plenty of talk about the speed limit past school buses, and how often it’s flouted. Not surprising given few people seem to know there is one. I’ve been asked more than once to lobby for a speed limit past school buses, by folk who are adamant there isn’t one. I reckon such ignorance is just another argument to mandate at least a theory test at each licence renewal to ensure drivers regularly brush up on the road rules.

Yes, it would cost money and yes, that would be unpopular, particularly with politicians who wouldn’t see the benefit until too late for it to assist them to re-election. But a more educated driver is more likely to make good decisions about anything from rules at junctions, to driving while fatigued – to the speed appropriate around school buses.

Oh, and while we’re at it, how come seatbelts aren’t compulsory on those buses? The kids have to wear one in the car en route to the bus stop for a very good reason. Without a seatbelt even a minor impact will kill you. So why are we happy to turn our kids into potential missiles as soon as they get on the bus?

But I’ve come round to thinking award convenor and long-time motoring commentator Sandy Myhre had a point when she launched the awards in 2009. Looking at the industry from both the journalism and manufacturer sides, you’d think women don’t drive cars let alone have any passion for them, yet we do.

So why is it that it’s usually assumed we’re there to make the tea, comment on the car’s hue, or ensure the men get to the press conference on time? Bernie Ecclestone may have been the one to say women should be dressed in white “like other domestic appliances” but the attitude still prevails.

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