2008 World Car of the Year finalists announced

Posted Wed Jan 30 2008 7:31 AM by Alex Kaufmann

Not to be outdone by the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards held at this month’s Detroit Auto Show, the organizers of April’s New York Auto Show have started to pool together the finalists for its annual World Car of the Year awards. This is only the third time the event is being run and just like last year and the one that preceded it some of the choices for the finalists are a little dubious.

Once again the vehicles are divided up into ‘Best Car’ and ‘Best Performance Car’ segments, with each category containing ten vehicles picked from an original list of 39 entrants. Judging the event in April will be a team comprised of 47 automotive journalists from across 23 countries, and to be eligible cars must be in production and sold in at least five countries on two continents. Follow the jump to see the list of finalists for this year’s awards.

World Car - Top Ten Finalists in alphabetical order:

Audi A5/S5

Audi R8

Cadillac CTS

Ford Mondeo

Ford S-Max

Mazda2 Demio

Mercedes-Benz C-Class

Nissan Qashqai/Dualis

Nissan Skyline Coupe/Infiniti G37 Coupe

Volvo C30

World Performance Car - Top Ten Finalists in alphabetical order:

Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster

Audi R8

Audi S5

BMW M3

Honda Civic Type R

Maserati GranTurismo

Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG

Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG

Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG Black Series

Renault Clio F1 Team R27

Reader Comments

Wed Jan 30 2008 8:21 AM
chris says

does that mean that new york doesnt think the skyline is a performance car? and the R8 is just barely but still not really a performance car?

id like to see the voters purposely screw things up by giving the R8 top honours.... both times.
Wed Jan 30 2008 8:31 AM
SuperSkyline89 says

That would be funny.

But the Nissan Skyline in the World Car list isn't the new GT-R. It's what the Infiniti G37 is called in Japan. It doesn't really fit into World Performance Car territory. But then again, the Civic Type R really doesn't either.
Wed Jan 30 2008 8:49 AM
Alan says

S63? Not sure if that's a performance car, it's a fast limo that's for sure
Wed Jan 30 2008 12:18 PM
chris says

skyline, thanks for pointing that out.... missed that one.
Wed Jan 30 2008 8:16 PM
NaBUru38 says

Six Germans in the performance car list... They could have swapped one Audi or Mercedes for a second Italian or Japanese car to make it fair.

And only two cars of the regular car list are designed for the North American market: the Skyline/G and the CTS. Those got no chances, as well as the Audis (not mainstream). I'd pick the Mazda 2, the Volvo C30 or the Ford S-Max.

MotorAuthority