About the awards

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Carsguide's prestigious car of the year awards covering the length and breadth of the country is bigger and better than ever.

The award categories this year are:

• 2009 Carsguide Car of the Year
• 2009 Carsguide Best Green Car
• 2009 Carsguide People's Choice

Motoring editors and senior writers from Sydney's The Daily Telegraph, Melbourne's Herald Sun, Brisbane's The Courier-Mail, Adelaide's The Advertiser, Hobart's Mercury, Perth's Sunday Times and carsguide.com.au website have rolled up their sleeves and dug into the year's new car releases to find Australia's best new car overall and the best green car for 2009.

Carsguide Car of the Year Award

Throughout the year an exhaustive search and culling process of every car launched in Australia was conducted to find our ten car of the year finalists.

Judged on criteria ranging across styling, safety, innovation, value, functionality, build quality and performance, the finalists are scored in a variety of situations including two days of road driving and a full day's examination on Wakefield Park race track in Goulburn, NSW

The process starts with each judge selecting their top ten 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 are scored and the top ten become the finalists.

With the 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 ten from best to not-so-best.

The top car in each judge's list is awarded ten 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.

Carsguide best green car award

The five 2009 Carsguide Best Green Car finalists are selected by our judges from a diverse field of nominees encompassing turbo-charged diesel cars, petrol-electric hybrids and small petrol models. The Green Car finalists are scored based on their efficiency, economy and emissions.

Carsguide People's Choice Award

The Carsguide People's Choice Award lets the public, the Australian people and beyond, choose who they think is the best car from the field of Carsguide Car of the Year finalists. By voting for your favourite car you can win a year's FREE fuel.

Honour Roll

2008

• Carsguide Car of the Year: Ford Falcon GE6 Turbo
• Carsguide Best Green Car: Audi A3 1.9 TDi e
• Carsguide People's Choice: Ford Falcon GE6 Turbo

2007

• Carsguide Car of the Year: Hyundai i30 CRDi
• Carsguide Best Green Car: Hyundai i30 CRDi
• Carsguide Reader's Choice: Holden's SV6 Ute

2006

The Carsguide Car of the Year was the Holden V8 Calais V

2005

Carsguide Car of the Year: Suzuki Swift

2004

Carsguide Car of the Year: Ford Territory

2003

Carsguide Car of the Year: Honda Accord Euro

2002

Carsguide Car of the Year: Ford Falcon BA

2001

Carsguide Car of the Year: Holden Monaro

2000

Carsguide Car of the Year: Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan

1999

Carsguide Car of the Year: Toyota Echo

1998

Carsguide Car of the Year: Holden Astra

1997

Carsguide Car of the Year: Holden Commodore VT