Hot battle for World COTY

They are battling for the biggest prize in global motoring and head the 10-car field for the 2012 World Car of the Year award, which will be announced in April at the New York motor show.

The top-10 lineup covers every area of motoring, from city runabouts to advanced hybrids, with a separate fast-car field competing for the World Performance Car award.

The top-10 fields were set during voting by the 66 World COTY judges - including Carsguide - from Asia, Europe, North and South America. The results were tabulated by international accounting firm KPMG before being announced.

Judges must now rate each vehicle based on their overall merit, value, safety, environmental responsibility, emotional appeal and significance.

The World COTY award has been made since 2005, when the Audi A6 was the inaugural winner. It was followed by the BMW 3 Series, Lexus LS460, Mazda2, Volkswagen Golf, Volkswagen Polo and Nissan Leaf.

The  Performance Car award has only been running since 2006 when the Porsche Cayman S took the prize.

The full fields for the World COTY contests are:

2012 World Car of the Year	2012 World Peformance Car
Audi A6 Sedan/Avant Audi Q3 BMW 1 Series BMW 3 Series Chevrolet Volt/Opel/Vauxhall Ampera Citroen DS5 Ford Focus Land Rover Evoque Porsche 911 Volkswagen Up!	Audi RS 3 Sportback BMW 1 Series M Coupé BMW M5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Ferrari FF Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 McLaren MP4-12C Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG Mercedes-Benz C-63 Coupe AMG Black Series Porsche 911.