Overall World Car of the Year was the Volkswagen Polo Mark V, adding that title to the European 2010 Car of the Year award which it secured last November.
The runners-up slots were occupied by the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and, perhaps surprisingly given its well documented problems, the Toyota Prius.
Each of the ten finalists were assessed on merit, value, safety, environment, significance and emotional appeal. It was a close result, with the Polo achieving a weighted score of 761.1 points, just fourteen ahead of the E-Class.
The World Performance Car title went to the Audi R8 V10. The 518 bhp supercar, which shares its engine and chassis with the Lamborghini Gallardo, emerged as the clear winner. Second and third places were taken by the Porsche 911 GT3 and Ferrari California respectively.
After the diminutive Fiat 500 won the World Car Design of the Year in 2009, it seems the jurors wanted to bestow that accolade on something a bit bigger in 2010, because the most votes went to the Chevrolet Camaro.
Although all of the cars from the main WCOTY category were originally eligible for this award, a shortlist of four was drawn up by a panel of design experts prior to the ballot taking place. Alongside the Camaro, the Citroen C3 Picasso, Kia Soul and Toyota Prius were the other finalists.
The final prize on offer was World Green Car. In a similar way to the design award, a shortlist was drawn up by ‘green’ experts. This comprised the Ford Fusion Hybrid, Honda Insight, Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid, Toyota Prius and Volkswagen BlueMotion (Golf, Passat, Polo).
It was the last car (or should that be family of cars?) on the list that became the eventual winner, the jurors clearly impressed by the efficiency of the BlueMotion common-rail diesel engines. But isn’t it a cop-out to not give the award to a single model?
There probably won’t be any complaints about that from Volkswagen Group though, especially as this year it managed to win in three out of the four WCOTY categories.
