European Car of the Year Short List with the 8 Finalists Revealed, Think You Can Pick the Winner?

After announcing the 34 nominees (38 if you include re-badged models like the Seat Toledo and Subaru BRZ) in late September, the organizing committee of the European edition of the Car of the Year award has now released the short list with the 8 finalists.

Normally, the short list includes 7 models, but due to the fact that two cars tied in the same position during the voting process, the committee increased the number of finalists to eight, just as it did in the 2007 edition of the award.

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Mazda CX-5 Beats Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ, Wins Japan Car of the Year Award

With less than a month remaining until the end of the year, all kinds of “Car of the Year” awards will inadvertently start to pop up. Some, of course, are much more important than others are; and the Japan COTY title belongs to the former category. In 2011, the winner was the Nissan Leaf, which had also been awarded the World and European COTY titles.

This year, Mazda won the crown with its CX-5 compact crossover getting 363 votes, 45 more than the second-placed Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ “twins”. BMW’s 3-Series was third, while it’s interesting to note that the top 10 was evenly split between Japanese and European models.

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The 34 Nominees for the 2013 European Car of the Year Award – Which One do You Think will Win?

The process of electing the 2013 Car of the Year (COTY) for Europe has officially commenced with the release of the provisional list of candidates.

In order to be eligible, a car must have been released during the past 12 months; is available in at least five European countries; has a projected annual sales figure of no less than 5,000 units and is a new model and not just a new edition.

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Ford's 1.0-liter EcoBoost Scoops 2012 International Engine of the Year Award

The big winner of the 2012 International Engine of the Year awards is Ford and it's 1.0-liter EcoBoost powerplant, which beat last year's winner, the Fiat 0.9-liter TwinAir, while also achieving the highest score ever with 401 points.

This is the first time that the Blue Oval has won International Engine of the Year in the 13-year history of the awards. And that's not all as the Detroit carmaker's small displacement petrol engine also received two other awards, namely “Best New Engine” and “Best Engine Under 1.0-litre”.

Dean Slavnich, chairman of the International Engine of the Year awards and editor of Engine Technology International magazine, commented:

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Chevy Volt and Opel Ampera win 2012 European Car of the Year Award

The Chevrolet Volt and its sister model, the Ampera, which is sold as under both the Opel and Vauxhall nameplates, have won the 2012 European Car of the Year (COTY) Award with 330 points.

Coming into second place was the Volkswagen Up! city car with 281 points while the new generation of the Ford Focus finished third with 256 points.

The other cars that made it to the final round of the competition were the Range Rover Evoque (186 points), Fiat Panda (156 points), Citroen DS5 (144 points) and the Toyota Yaris (122 points).

The competition brought together votes from 59 automotive journalists in 23 European countries.

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