If there's still any doubt about South Korean cars having made inroads into the psyche of Pinoy motorists, the results of the 2009 Auto Focus People's Choice Awards should lay them to rest.

For the second year in a row, a vehicle from South Korea was voted AFPC Car of the Year.

Last year, it was the Kia Carens, a minivan.  This year the AFPC Car of the Year is the 2009 Hyundai Grand Starex, the full size van that should really be credited with making Korean vehicles acceptable to Filipino motorists.

Remember when the Starex rolled off the lots of the gray market.  Back then South Korean vehicles were looked upon as second class citizens in the market.  But then word-of-mouth about the reliability of the Starex, its comfortable ride and handling, the fully loaded interiors spread. And it looked good on the road.

Pretty soon every family wanted to have one. And Korean vehicles got street cred. South Korean vehicles got the people's vote in four of the 12 "Model of the Year" categories.

Aside from the Starex, other Korean vehicles that got the most votes in respective categories were the Hyundai Genesis Coupe, sports car;  the Kia Carens, minivan; and the Hyundai Tucson, compact SUV.

Korean cars also figured as runnerup in three other categories: the Hyundai i10 in the subcompact sedan category won by the Honda City; the Kia Carnival in the full-size van category won by Starex, and the Hyundai Santa Fe in the midsize SUV category which was won by the Mitsubishi Montero Sport.

Japanese cars still hold sway in the Philippines with six vehicles from the Land of the Rising Sun making it as the model of the year.

Aside from those already mentioned, the Honda Civic is the model of the year in the compact sedan category, outvoting the Mitsubishi Lancer EX. The Toyota Camry won the mid-size sedan category outpointing the Honda Accord.

Two European cars made it to the winner's circle. The Porsche Panamera besting the Lexus LS460 in the large sedan category and the Porsche Cayenne outvoting the Isuzu Alterra in the large SUV category.

Now on its fifth iteration, this year's AFPC awards organized by Sunshine Television had over 140 different vehicles in the ballot list. The balloting was held on-line through the Auto Focus website over a three month period from July 1 to September 30, 2009.

The public was asked to vote for their favorite car in the 12 categories.  The vehicle with the most number of votes overall was named the car of the year. 

STV said that apart from on-line voting on the Auto Focus website, the people also sent ballots published in the Philippine Star, Top Gear, and Speed. Car enthusiasts also texted in their votes to the Magic 89.9.

The race for the votes went down the wire as the period of the balloting ended, said AFPC awards committee chairman Gerry Aquino.

He cited the subcompact category which the Honda City won by edging out the Hyundai i10, and the midsize sedan category which Toyota Camry won over the Honda Accord by just 16 votes.

“These were indeed photo finishes if you could call them that. In these two categories, it was touch and go for either model down to the last hour of the count.”

We expect the Korean cars to gain even more ground in the future AFPC awards.