Car of the Year judging day in pictures

It’s great to be back!

Our Car of the Year judging days returned with an electric atmosphere

Great cars, great weather and a great turnout marked the return of the Professional Driver Car of the Year judging event this week. The much-loved event couldn’t happen last year, so we were delighted to be able to invite our friends in the industry to the first post-Covid social event of 2021. One thing had changed – we moved from our traditional home of Sandown Park to another Surrey racecourse, Epsom, as Sandown has been pressed into vital service as a Coronavirus vaccination centre.

Our new location was well received, and we’d like to thank the Epsom staff for being so welcoming. And, of course, we’d like to thank everyone who turned up to judge, especially those who travelled long distances, from as far as the West Country, South Wales and Lancashire.

We had a terrific selection of cars, including many of the latest plug-in hybrid and electric models, giving judges a chance to sample the cars that will form the future fleets for the private hire trade.

This year we have seven categories: Chauffeur Car, Executive Car, Luxury SUV, MPV, Estate Car, Private Hire Vehicle and Zero-Emissions Car. Now we’ve got the task of sorting through the scoresheets and working out

which cars you’ve chosen as our cars of the year.

As always, we’ll announce the winners – and our overall Car of the Year – at the Professional Driver QSi Awards dinner on November 25, at the Celtic Manor resort in South Wales.

The QSi Awards are the only awards designed specifically for you, the chauffeur, private hire and taxi operator. We look forward to seeing you there. Entries are open until the end of September, so make sure you’re in with a chance of winning. To enter, or to book a ticket, please go to www. prodrivermags.com/qsi-home

We hope to see you at the QSi Awards, and meanwhile, here’s a gallery of images from the judging days.

“We had a terrific selection of cars, including many of the latest plug-in hybrid and electric models, giving judges a chance to sample the cars that will form the future fleets for the PHV trade...”