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It might be said that assessing the people movers in this year's awards was
going to be somewhat of a no-brainer, given that there had been virtually
no activity in this segment since last year.
Nevertheless, the nine judges applied the usual testing rigour to the three
final contestants.
We climbed in them, around them, stacked them full of burly blokes, pulled
the seats up and down, drove them on all sorts of terrain and generally
re-checked the vehicles and our scores to see if we had missed anything old
or new.
Despite little fundamental change to any of the contenders, the judges knew
they had to have the discussion (and a little argument) all over again.
But even with revised criteria for innovation, the results come up
unchanged from 2002: another successive Best People Mover gong to Toyota's Avensis
Verso GLX, ahead of Zafira and Odyssey.
As with the winners in most categories, it is consistency that does the
trick for Avensis. It is easily shaded by the Zafira in a couple of Value
For Money criteria but outpoints the Holden in most of the critically
weighted Design and Function areas.
A few of the Toyota's people-mover competitors manage better overall scores
in the 'On The Road' section (performance, ride, handling, braking and
smoothness) but the Toyota scores at least threes and fours and,
importantly, outscores Zafira.
Top 5
 Toyota Avensis Verso GLX, Holden Zafira, Honda Odyssey 2.3 Auto, Mitsubishi Nimbus, Honda Odyssey 3.0 Auto

Previous Results
2007 - Honda Odyssey Luxury
2006 - Honda Odyssey Luxury
2005 - Honda Odyssey Luxury
2004 - Honda Odyssey Luxury
2003 - Toyota Avensis Verso GLX
2002 - Toyota Avensis Verso GLX
2001 - Mitsubishi Nimbus
2000 - Mitsubishi Nimbus
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