Brian Joss –
The awards for the all-wheel-drive cars of the year 2015 were dominated by Mercedes-Benz. The readers of Europe’s largest 4×4 magazine “Auto Bild Allrad” voted models bearing the three-pointed star top in five categories. “Never has there been such a triumphant result for a single manufacturer in the 15 years that our readers’ poll has been running. Mercedes-Benz is our readers’ favourite brand without a shadow of a doubt,” said Bernhard Weinbacher, the editor-in-chief of Auto Bild Allrad. Auto Bild Allrad readers were able to vote for their favourites from 176 models spanning ten categories. The result: five victories for the cross-country vehicles, SUVs and all-wheel-drive passenger car models from the star-studded brand.
The G-Class (a 4×4) which made its debut in 1979 and is the forerunner of all present-day Mercedes-Benz SUV models, emerged the clear winner in its category, racking up twice as many votes as its nearest rival. The real surprise of the reader’s poll, however, were the results achieved by the passenger car models with 4MATIC all-wheel drive, which secured three victories for Mercedes-Benz. In the category for all-wheel-drive passenger cars costing over 40 000 Euros Mercedes managed a clean sweep of the top three spots.
