Vote for your top car of 2022

We’re now exactly two weeks away from announcing the 2022 carsales Car of the Year, proudly presented by Bingle – on Wednesday, November 16.

Before then, however, it’s your turn to have your say, via the 2022 carsales Car of the Year People’s Choice award, voting for which opens today (November 2) and closes in nine days on November 11.

We revealed our list of 30 contenders on October 11, and on October 20 we published our list of 10 finalists plus two wildcards.

As is tradition, it’s now your turn to nominate your top new car of 2022, so see how to vote below and get to it!

Australia’s top automotive consumer award is back to full strength in 2022 after two COVID-affected events, but as usual RedBook is doing the heavy lifting when it comes to crunching the industry’s best consumer-focused ownership and running costs data.

This year we’ve ramped up the cost of ownership component of our judging from 40 to 50 per cent, with the votes from our 10 judges accounting for the other half of the decision.

As usual, there will be only one winner, plus two Highly Commended models, and while our top 12 cars are an eclectic group in 2022, we expect ownership and judging scores to be tight.

The diverse collection of new models in contention for this year’s award include nine SUVs that raise the bar in Australia’s top-selling segment, five cutting-edge electric cars, light and small hatchbacks and a mid-size luxury sedan.

Importantly, five cars combine both the EV and SUV genres, and these all-new dedicated electric SUVs come in all sizes, from the small BYD Atto 3 to the mid-size Genesis GV60, Kia EV6 and Tesla Model Y, to the large BMW iX.

That means our 12 COTY candidates come from around the world, including countries as disparate as China, Germany, Japan, Spain, Thailand, South Korea and the US.

And among the non-electrified SUVs is the new Australian-developed Ford Everest and the all-new Cupra Formentor (which is also available in plug-in hybrid form, although we’re testing the turbo-petrol VZx here) from the latest Volkswagen Group brand to arrive Down Under.

See the full list of cars and how to vote below, but as reminder the carsales Car of the Year award applies to the entire model range and our eligibility criteria remains as follows:

• All-new or substantially upgraded model
• Series-production model on sale this year
• Available for testing by October 31
• Priced below $250,000 (at least one variant)
• Fitted with autonomous emergency braking and a reversing camera as standard across the range

Each step of the carsales COTY determination process is adjudicated by a combination of expert opinion and exhaustive cost of ownership rankings – including resale values – supplied to carsales exclusively by Australia’s number-one automotive valuation authority, RedBook.

RedBook cost of ownership calculations are based on the entry-level variant of the 100-plus new models released in Australia over the past 12 months. This ensures our 30 contenders and 12 finalists are the cream of the crop according to both RedBook and carsales experts.

The two exceptions are the Volkswagen Polo Style – the only manual in the field, so the more popular auto was chosen – and the Toyota Corolla Cross Atmos AWD Hybrid, because the base GX 2WD variant was unavailable for testing and will be less popular anyway.

Each vehicle was scored and then ranked in the below noted six areas as part of RedBook’s cost of ownership calculation methodology:

Price: Compared to other models in the same market segment
Depreciation: Average retail (non-private) value of a ‘good’ three-year-old example with 45,000km under its belt
Running costs: Fuel, tyres, insurance and finance over three years
Aftersales: Service costs, warranty and roadside assistance
New technology: Score based on nine safety features designed to protect occupants and other road users
Bonus points: Selected stand-out features standard across the range

So vote now for your 2022 carsales Car of the Year People’s Choice winner via the poll below.

Once again, voting closes on November 11 and we’ll announce the winner on November 14 – two days before we name the carsales Car of the Year for 2022, proudly presented by Bingle, on November 16.

Voting has now closed.