The 2022 Drive Car of the Year awards start now!
Twenty categories, 21 worthy winners, and one overall champion. Don’t miss Australia’s biggest new car awards program rolling out from March 1 to 11 here at Drive.com.au.
The 2022 Drive Car of the Year, Australia’s most comprehensive new car awards program, kicks off Tuesday March 1, 2022 with the announcement of the first of 20 consumer-focused category awards designed to help Australians buy smarter.
Over the next two weeks, Drive will announce the Best Medium SUV, Best Small Car, Best Dual Cab Ute, Best EV under $100,000 and 16 other worthy winners, culminating on Friday March 11, 2022 with the overall champion, the 2022 Drive Car of the Year.
Whether it’s practical cars, go-anywhere SUVs, sexy sports cars, or electrifying EVs, the 2022 Drive Car of the Year awards will highlight the best and brightest new cars that fit the bill for every new-car-buying Australian.
2022 marks the 16th annual Drive Car of the Year awards, one of the longest-running and most authoritative consumer automotive awards in Australia.
This year’s awards program has evolved to reflect changing buyer tastes and market trends. There are five new categories, all tailored to meet the expanding breadth of consumer expectations.
Best Large Off-Road SUV and Best Off-Road Dual-Cab Ute give attention to vehicles designed with greater off-road skills compared to other vehicles in their respective sales categories. The Nissan Navara Warrior and Ford Ranger Raptor are two examples of where car manufacturers have taken everyday utes and created new variants with heightened off-road capabilities.
Last year’s two sports car categories – Best Sports Car under $100K and Best Sports Car over $100K – have been revamped and renamed to better reflect buyer preferences rather than an arbitrary financial line: Best Hot Hatch and Best Sports Coupe.
The fifth new category, Best First Car, relies on real-world evaluation and extensive data gathering to identify the safest, most affordable and most capable new car for first car buyers. Everything from resale prices to insurance costs and servicing fees is factored into the equation. Cars must also meet stringent safety standards to be considered eligible, including a five-star ANCAP rating and fitment of autonomous emergency braking and blind-spot monitoring.
In addition to five new categories, two category awards were withheld this year due to a lack of new model activity in their segments. Judges felt that awarding a winner in a category without sufficient challengers would go against Drive Car of the Year’s aim to empower consumers with the right buying advice.
The Drive Car of the Year judging panel consists of 10 men and women from the Drive Editorial Team, making it the most authoritative automotive awards panel with a combined 200+ years’ industry experience.
Every one of the more than 500 new vehicles on sale in Australia today is considered for Drive Car of the Year. Judges spend 12 months testing every new vehicle launched in the calendar year before whittling that field down to three or four finalists per category.
Last year’s category winner gets an automatic entry to Finals Week. Challengers must earn their ticket by firstly being significantly updated or all-new and on sale by December 31, 2021. Secondly, the vehicle must be rated among the best in its class during regular road testing throughout the year.
Any new vehicles launched immediately prior to, or just after, Drive Car of the Year’s Finals Week, and which therefore may not have been thoroughly road-tested, are considered on their merits – only if the manufacturer can supply test cars representative of Australian market specification – no prototypes or international market examples are permitted.
From there, the 72 finalists enter three further weeks of evaluation, known collectively as Finals Week. One week is dedicated to off-road-capable vehicles and utes, a second week to electric vehicles, and the third week to mainstream passenger cars and SUVs. Testing includes static inspection, real-world drive loops, emergency swerve and braking procedures, plus special tests tailored for off-road vehicles and utes.
This is why Drive Car of the Year is the toughest and most thorough testing regime of any automotive award in Australia.
During Finals Week, every finalist is evaluated for what it is – how well does the vehicle fulfil its functional promise? – and is also measured against criteria important to Australian consumers: affordability, safety, efficiency, practicality, technology and drivability.
Once this is all done, the judges discuss their findings in an intense – and sometimes heated – debate, before withdrawing to cast their votes in solitude.
Will the Toyota RAV4 make it three Medium SUV wins in a row? Will the Kia Sorento again triumph in Best Large SUV, and can the Isuzu D-Max back up its Dual Cab Ute win in 2021 despite coming under pricing pressure from its rivals?
Stay tuned to Drive.com.au over the next two weeks as we reveal all the winners, and tell you why they won.
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