''Wheels'' Car of the Year (commonly abbreviated to COTY) is an annual automotive ''

Car of the Year Car of the Year (COTY) is a common abbreviation for numerous automotive awards. The "Car of the Year" phrase is considered to have been introduced by ''Motor Trend'' magazine in 1949 when the new publication named Cadillac as Motor Trend Car of th ...

'' award presented by ''Wheels'' magazine. The publisher claims that it is the world's oldest continuous motoring award of its kind. The award is given to the best newly released vehicle each year.

History

Since 1963, ''Wheels'' has awarded the title of Car of the Year. In its inaugural year, the French

Renault 8 The Renault 8 (Renault R8 until 1964) and Renault 10 are two rear-engined, rear-wheel drive small family cars produced by the French manufacturer Renault in the 1960s and early 1970s. The 8 was launched in 1962, and the 10, a more upmarket ver ...

became the inaugural COTY winner, which was built in many countries including Australia. The original intention of COTY was to promote excellence in the Australian

car manufacturing The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % such a ...

industry, dominated at the time by

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

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and

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. With the fuel crisis in the 1970s, European makers also based in Australia, such as

Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...

and

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, began closing their local assembly plants. With a shrinking local manufacturing base and reliability and quality issues that affected Australian-made cars, Wheels changed the basis of the award to include imported cars. At first, this was condemned by the local industry, unions and media, however, the approach permitted local products to be judged on a global basis. This, in turn, is claimed to have contributed towards a more competitive local industry and sees each winner heavily advertised as a COTY winner. The award is given on an annual basis, except in 1972, 1979 and 1986 when, under the stewardship of the then-editor Peter Robinson, no newly released car in those years was considered worthy of the award. The withholding of the award in 1972 and 1979 twice coincided with the release of a new Ford Falcon (the XA and XD series). On the second occasion, as the Falcon (XD) was a sales success and leading candidate for the 1980 COTY award, the then deputy manager of

Ford Australia Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited (known by its trading name Ford Australia) is the Australian subsidiary of United States-based automaker Ford Motor Company. It was founded in Geelong, Victoria, in 1925 as an outpost of Ford Motor Comp ...

, Edsel Ford II, took out a 1-page advertisement in Wheels magazine, depicting the Falcon and other contenders as lemons and stating "There are times when being a lemon is not a bitter experience at all". This was both in answer to the award's withdrawal against the Falcon and Wheels' cover for March 1980, which was a four-wheeled lemon under the title "NO CAR OF THE YEAR". The first imported car to win the award was the Japanese

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for 1977. In 1982, the award was shared for the first time between

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cars and, in 1991, between completely different types of cars. Over the years, the COTY criteria has been further refined and, for 2004, it was amended to allow any

Sport Utility Vehicle A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

(SUV) to be eligible for the first time, permitting the Australian-made Ford Territory to take the title. For 2011, the

Honda CR-Z The Honda CR-Z is a sport compact hybrid electric automobile manufactured by Honda and marketed as a "sport hybrid coupe." The CR-Z combines a hybrid gasoline-electric powertrain with traditional sports car elements, including a 2+2 seating arran ...

instead became the first

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to win the award. Starting from 2015, the temporal basis of how the award is branded has been changed such that, the award now carries the year of when the winner was announced, instead of the preceding year when testing took place. Consequently, what would have been the 2015 COTY winner is instead be the winner for 2016 and so forth.

COTY winners

To date, in chronological order, the award winners (by name including series where available) have been the following: ;Notes

Multiple wins

Most awarded vehicles

Multiple awards by manufacturer

Includes award won by the S-Class predecessor—the Mercedes-Benz 380 SE (W126).

References