Wheels Car of the Year 2009

The winner of this year's Wheels Car of the Year will be announced tonight and the winner will have triumphed over the biggest field ever assembled by the magazine. After 47 continuous years, the Wheels COTY prize is considered one of the most important in the local industry and is much sought after by all the manufacturers.

This year 22 models were selected for the judging process, and from those, 57 variants of the models were brought together for the testing phase.

Nissan leads the field with four models heading to judgement (370Z, GT-R, Maxima and Murano), with Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Subaru each earning two chances. The competition is stiff this year, with big-name contenders including the Volkswagen Golf, Volvo XC60, Holden Cruze and Toyota Prius.

Each year the best new models are selected and then run through a series of tests, both at Holden's Proving Grounds and on the open road by a team of experts assembled by Wheels.

To account for the wide variety of machinery, each car is judged against five-point criteria, instead of against the competition. The criteria are function, technology, efficiency/environment, safety and value.

Once the judges have tested each and every variant, a small group of finalists is selected for further evaluation before the winner is announced.

This year's Wheels COTY field is:

Alfa Romeo MiTo
Audi Q5
BMW 7 Series
Ford Fiesta
Honda Odyssey
Holden Cruze
Kia Cerato
Kia Sorento
Lexus RX
Mazda3
Mercedes-Benz E-Class Sedan
Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe
Nissan 370Z
Nissan GT-R
Nissan Maxima
Nissan Murano
Skoda Superb
Subaru Liberty/Outback
Subaru Liberty Exiga
Toyota Prius
Volkswagen Golf
Volvo XC60

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