Carsguide car of the year

Everybody has an opinion and each can be as valid as the next. That is what makes selecting a Car Of The Year such an exciting, and taxing, exercise.

For Carsguide, the process starts with each of the motoring editors and senior motoring writers from around Australia selecting their top 10 cars of the year.

Those choices are based on years of experience, in the case of our eight experts that is well in excess of a century of accumulated knowledge, applied to driving as many as 100 models in the past year.

The first round of selections (which included 37 cars this year) are scored and the top 10 become the finalists. With the 10 finalists brought together for three days of extensive back-to-back comparisons, the judges have the opportunity to revisit each of the cars on the same surfaces and conditions before ranking the final 10 from best to not-so-best.

The top car in each judge’s list is awarded 10 points, the second nine, the third eight points and on down to a single point for the 10th car.

Those points are then tallied to provide a possible score out of 80 and reveal the winner.

This year’s judging panel consisted of Carsguide national motoring editor Paul Gover, Kevin Hepworth (Daily Telegraph), Neil Dowling (Sunday Times), Stuart Martin (Adelaide Advertiser), Neil McDonald (Herald Sun), Keith Didham (Hobart Mercury), Mark Hinchliffe (Courier-Mail) and Karla Pincott (carsguide.com.au). 

For the stories, video and photos visit the official carsguide car of the year 2008 website.