12-NOV-2007: The Countdown Begins !


November 8, 2007 – Toronto, Canada

Now in their fourth year, the World Car of the Year awards have become one of the most prestigious and credible programs of their type in the world.

The 2008 World Car of the Year will be announced at the New York International Auto Show on March 20, 2008 during press days.    The 2008 World Performance Car, World Green Car and World Car Design of the Year will also be declared at this time.

Toni Melfi, Head of Communication, AUDI AG, recently commented: "Having won the inaugural World Car of the Year award in 2005 as well as two category awards in 2007, Audi is uniquely positioned to comment on their value. 

As a global automotive brand, Audi seeks to be successful at the national, continental and worldwide level.  So the question of how to transfer our brand's success from established markets to newer markets is a very important one to us.  National awards are of course very valuable in that particular country.  But global awards are relevant for every nation on every continent. 

So we take our participation in the World Car of the Year awards seriously.  The high quality of the journalists who are selected as WCOTY jurors and the independent nature of these awards only add to their credibility and usability around the world."

The World Car award winners are determined by an international jury of 47 leading automotive journalists from 23 countries.  All hold significant stature within their own regions and countries from Asia and the Far East, Europe, North America, South America, Australia and New Zealnd, thus providing a balance of perspective.

Each juror is appointed by the World Car Steering Committee comprised of co-chairs Peter Lyon (Japan) and Gerry Malloy (Canada) plus directors Dan Carney (USA), Matt Davis (Italy) and John McCormick (USA).   Jurors are selected based on his or her expertise, experience, credibility and influence.  They must drive and evaluate new vehicles on a regular basis as part of their professional work.  Each juror typically test drives over one hundred new vehicles every year, and collectively, their opinions reach many millions of potential vehicle buyers.

The jurors individually review, evaluate, and vote on the entrants in four categories by secret ballot in two separate rounds of voting.   All ballots are then tabulated by the international accounting firm KPMG until the awards are  presented at the New York International Auto Show.

The inaugural 2005 World Car of the Year was the Audi A6, followed by the BMW 3-Series in 2006 and the Lexus LS460 in 2007.   

For more information about the World Car of the Year Awards please visit our web site at www.wcoty.com, or email our office via our executive manager:  beth@wcoty.com.

ABOUT THE WORLD CAR AWARDS: 

The World Car awards were inaugurated in 2003, and officially launched in January 2004, to reflect the reality of the global marketplace, as well as to recognize and reward automotive excellence on a global scale, and to create consumer awareness of that recognition. These awards are intended to complement, not compete with existing national and regional Car of the Year programs.

The awards are administered by a non-profit association, under the guidance of a Steering Committee of distinguished automotive journalists from Asia, Europe, and North America.  There is no affiliation with, nor are the awards in any way influenced by any publication, auto show, automaker, or other commercial enterprise.