More Awards for Ford as Association of Car Fleet Operators Gives Ford 4 out of 7 Top Awards
You’ve probably heard of AFCO (the Association of Car Fleet Operators) well as the name suggests, they know a thing or two about operating vehicles. Each year, ACFO hand out a number of awards for the cars, or innovations they think are the best over the past year.
This years results were announced in Birmingham recently and saw Ford pick up 4 awards out of the 6 car/van related awards available.
The Ford Transit Connect took the award of “Small Van of the Year” for the 9th successive year and you have to say when you look at how many different types, makes and models of light van are around, to win an award 9 years on the trot, is mighty impressive.
Things don’t stop there as the Connects big brother the “Transit” showed it was still on top by winning the award for “Large Van of the Year” for an amazing 15th time in the history of the awards.
Still with Ford, the superb Focus went on to take the award for “The Number One Company Car” which is a highly coveted title and pretty much says it all.
Ford was not finished there, as Ford also picked up the “Fleet Safety Initiative Award” for its Focus Driver Assistance Pack. Costing an extra £750 on a new Focus, the pack which includes loads of added safety features such as Lane Departure Warning, Blind Spot Alert, Lane Keeping Aid, Driver Alert (if sensors detect erratic driving) and City Stop, which monitors the road ahead and puts the cars brakes on if a collision is imminent.
However, Ford cant win everything and the remaining 2 vehicle related awards went to BMW who retained the “environmental initiative” award for its work on low emissions which is known as ‘efficient dynamics’ and will eventually feature across most models in the BMW range. The system includes thinks like Low Rolling Resistance Tyres, Active Aerodynamics, Brake Energy Regeneration, Electric Power Steering and an Optimum Gearshift.
Finally, the award for “Green Vehicle of the Year” went to Volkswagen Golf and the 1.6TDI Blue Motion which can deliver a combined fuel consumption of 74.3mpg and produces CO2 emissions of just 99g/km.
