Totalcar: COTY jury membership

2012-07-03

For the very first time in the history of motoring journalism, the journalist of a purely online magazine has been selected to join the ranks of the prestigeous Car of the Year committee. Zsolt Csikós, long-time veteran author of the Hungarian online magazine, Totalcar.hu will be among those awarding the Car of the Year award.

It is not only a huge honor for Zsolt, acknowledging his respectful career, but also hugely beneficial for the many readers of Totalcar.hu, as COTY-members will be testing and reviewing new models weeks and months before they are made available for the rest of the media. In short, many exclusive articles are to be expected.

COTY

COTY was founded in 1963, and is an independent, European award. 22 countries delegate over 50 journalists, who after careful consideration, and a two-level voting process, name a new model the Car of the Year. Among many criteria, the two mostly considered are innovation and value for money. COTY chooses its own members, based on the nomination of selected journalists, and the membership is effective until resigantion or the age of 65.

Zsolt Csikós

Zsolt Csikós has been a very active motoring journalist for over 18 years. His repertoire is not limitied to reviewing new cars, but has many articles focusing on vintage cars, motorcycles, repair and maintenance. In addition, he is very comfortable around cameras, as he is responsible for the photography of all his material. His career started in 1994, in the Hungarian magazines 'Autópiac' and 'Autó Magazin', where after some time, he was responsible for international car reviews. From 2001 to 2003 he was the deputy editor in chief of Veterán Autó és Motor, a monthly magazine focusing on vintage cars and motorcycle.

He became a member of the Totalcar-family in 2006, where he continued entertaining and teaching his readers in his unique style. His already great popularity only increased with a series of articles about his road trip to Sweden, with the goal of buying a 1962 Ponton Mercedes. It has been and still is the best-read series in Hungarian motoring journalism, with over 700 000 readers. He is also one of the foundations of 'Belsőség', Totalcar's internal blog, Apart from Totalcar, he regularly publishes in HVG, Magyar Narancs and 168 óra.

Totalcar.hu

Totalcar.hu is Hungary's leading car magazine, with a over 100 000 readers every day (source OPA, 2012 May 1-31, daily unique cookie). With an easily identifiable, unique and free-spoken tone, entertaining, humorous and honest reviews, and a great emphasis on independence, Totalcar and its authors quickly became fan-favourites in the country. Not only the loyalty of it's readers, but also their number is significant on an international scale.

Totalcar's front page is refreshed ten times a day, with car and motorcycle reviews, news and blogposts. But topics are not limited to these, as fact-finding and investigative journalism is also one of the strengths of the magazine. Totalcar also had undineable influence on the Hungarian legislation of traffic, with many of the causes it gave great focus. Among many others, one of the prime examples is the B125-campaign, thanks to which drivers with a passenger car licenses can now, after a short training, drive motorcycles up to 125cc. Also, Totalcar had a hand in the registration of the kilometers driven, this way decreasing the number of frauds in used car sales.

Totalcar is not only limited to the internet, but also has a weekly TV-show. After the broadcast on TV2, each episode is made availble on Totalcar.hu, in HD-quality.

The magazine is not only for entertainment, but provides help and advice for repair and maintenance, legal and car insurance issues, just to name a few. As of today, Totalcar.hu has answered over 13 000 queries received from the readers.

In it's 12-year history, Totalcar.hu did 2500 car reviews, published over 3000 other articles, 600 motorcycle reviews, 17000 news-articles and 180 TV-episodes.