End of another year, and another round of Car of the Year awards have been announced.

The main award, Wheels' magazine Car of the Year will be announced on January 22, 2008. However, many other awards have already been announced.

The first award was the Carsguide Car of the Year: Hyundai i30 wins Car of the Year | motoring news | carsguide.com.au.
This was surprisingly won by the Hyundai i30 CRDi. The VW Golf GT TSi was 2nd, the Mazda2 was 3rd, the Mitsubishi Lancer VR was 4th, the Mercedes C280 Avantegarde was 5th, the Holden VE Ute SV6 was 6th, Ford Mondeo Zetec was 7th, Subaru Impreza RS was 8th, BMW X5 3.0d was 9th, and BMW 335i sedan was 10th.

The next award announced was the Drive Car of the Year: Car of the Year 2007 - Drive.com.au.
The was won by the BMW M3, with the Ford Mondeo in 2nd, Lexus LS460 in 3rd, Mazda2 in 4th.

Then came the Best Cars Award, as judged by the Automobile Clubs of Australia (ie: NRMA, RACV, etc): 2007 Australia's Best Cars - NRMA Motoring & Services.
They don't chose a single car as their Car of the Year, but rather nominate the best car on the market in each class - in their view of course. Winners included: VW Polo TDI (Best Small Car); Honda Civic VTi (Best mid-size car under $28,000); Ford Mondeo TDCi (best mid-size car over $28,000); Toyota Aurion (Best Large Car); Honda Odyssey (Best People Mover); VW Golf R32 (Best sports car); BMW M3 (Best Luxury Car); Lexus IS250 (Best Prestige Car); Lexus LS450h (Best Luxury Car); Nissan X-Trail (best recreational 4WD); BMW X5 Diesel (Best Luxury 4WD); Land Rover Discovery 3 SE TDV6 (best All -Terrain 4WD).

Then we had Motor Magazine's Performance Car of the Year. They don't have a website, and since I'm in NZ I haven't been able to buy the January issue with the results just yet (its not out here yet). However, thanks to fordaustraliaforums, the result was: Porsche 911 GT3 1st; Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera 2nd; Audi R8 3rd; Porsche Boxster 4th and BMW M3 5th.

There have also been several awards announced in New Zealand.
The Mecedes C-Class won the National Business Review Car of the Year (note: the National Business Review is the leading finance newspaper in NZ). The Ford Mondeo was nominated as the New Zealand Herald Car of the Year (the NZ Herald is the best selling daily newspaper in NZ): Ford lives up to the buzz - 15 Dec 2007 - Motoring News - New Zealand Herald.

One of the leading monthly car magazines - NZ Autocar - has also announced its Car of the Year: Small makes it big in Car of The Year - New Zealand's source for motoring news on Stuff.co.nz.
The was won by the Mazda2, with the Holden VE Ute 2nd, Subaru Impreza 3rd, Ford Mondeo 4th, Mecedes C-Class 5th, BMW X5 6th, Lexus LS460 7th, Toyota Highlander (Kluger in Australia) 8th.

There will be more awards to be announced in New Zealand. The NZ Motoring Writers Guild will anounce its award, and Driver Magazine will also have an award.

The one thing that stands out from above is that the awards are all over the place. No two awards seem to be able to agree on the best cars released in 2007. The Mazda2 seems to be the car that does most consistently well - though it missed out on winning its class in the Best Cars Award.
The Mercedes C-Class seems to keep finishing about 5th. And the Ford Mondeo seems to be one of those cars that is either liked (finishing 2nd in the Drive award and winning the NZ Herald award) or disliked (finishing well down in the Carsguide award).

Part of the problem of course is defining exactly what a "Car of the Year" should be. Should it be the "best" car on the market regardless of price? In which case the Lexus LS460 and BMW M3 come to the fore. Should it be the most innovative car released in the year? The best value? The best selling? And should the award be limited to only cars released during a calender year, or be open to any car on the market?

Its worth noting that the Drive Car of the Year - the BMW M3 - was a very popular choice on the Drive blogs. The Drive judges clearly went with a car than can in many ways be regarded as "the best" car on the market - combining as it does huge performance with practicality and luxury.

Its also worth noting that both Carsguide and Drive had a "readers choice" Car of the Year. The Commodore VE Ute won that award on Carsguide and the Drive award went to the Holden Commodore VE Berlina.