COTY '07 behind the scenes

We are rolling up to the end of a huge year in the car world.

And nothing is bigger than our choice for carsguide Car of the Year (COTY).

The voting panel is made up of motoring editors from around Australia, who must first narrow the field from about 50 potential contenders to a short list of 10 worthy hopefuls.

Then it is time for back-to-back testing in a gruelling three-day test in all sorts of conditions, from racetrack hot laps to a long stretch of gnarled and dusty gravel road.

Picking a Car of the Year sounds easy; just go for the best car you drove during the year.

But it is more complicated. Every car must be judged on its merits and against a set of conditions and criteria, with value at the top of the list. That means a Porsche or a Mercedes will be a contender, but not an automatic winner.

Setting the list of finalists is the first job and every car in this year's contest had to be launched locally between1 November, 2006 and 1 November, 2007, regardless of price.

In each case the car had to be all-new or substantially upgraded, which means significant engineering changes, not just a body makeover.

But there has been one change this year because the judges could not narrow the field to 10. There was a tie in preliminary voting and that meant 11 cars went to the face-off, which began in Sydney and was based in the country town of Goulburn, the site of the compact and testing Wakefield Park racetrack.

Once judging began, the voting panel including carsguide editors from the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph and Courier Mail; relied on the criteria to focus their work.

These run from value and safety to styling, innovation, functionality, build quality and performance. In every case they were measured against their COTY rivals, but also against the known pacesetters in their showroom classes. So were 10 criteria were to be scored. After highway, country, gravel and suburban road running, as well as the track laps, each judge then rated their choices.

The results will not be known for two weeks, once the judges' scores are totalled and checked.

We will announce the winner on 23 November, 2007.

Check back for regular updates on COTY 2007 at carsguide.com.au/car-of-the-year