World Car Awards 2014 announced

The prestigious World Car of the Year Awards are in their 10th year, and the brand that had won the title in the inaugural year for the awards, has triumphed again. The jury comprises 69 of the world's most experienced and skilled motoring journalists, and I've been fortunate to have been a part of the group for 4 years.

This year the jury has voted for the Audi A3 as the winner. It has beaten out stiff competition from the Mazda3 and BMW 4 Series, which were the other two finalists. The newly crowned winner - the A3 will make its Indian debut this year too. (Audi A3 image gallery)

BMW i3 image gallery

In the other sub categories, there was much competition too. The g-tron avatar of the Audi A3 was also a front runner in the Green Car category, along with the BMW i3 and Volkswagen XL1. But here it was BMW that has bagged this one for the new i3 plug-in hybrid city slicker, that is a whole different car when it comes to even the materials and manufacturing process at the Bavarian company.

In fact the i3 has been such a milestone launch for BMW, and perhaps in some ways the industry too, that it also figured in the shortlist for the World Car Design of the Year category. And guess what? It beat the new generation Mercedes-Benz C-Class and the Mazda3.

Porsche 911 GT3 image gallery

In the World Performance Car category the final three had the very hot Ferrari 458 Speciale... Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and Porsche's super hot 911 GT3. And for the 3rd year running its the Porsche thats bagged the award! It was the Cayman/Boxster that won this category last year, and the 911 that had it in 2012. Porsche had also won this award in 2005 - the first year for the awards.

This was also the year that saw the debut of an all-new award category - the World Luxury Car of the Year. It had 10 nominees, and of these the jury votes decided the top three of course. They were the the new generation of the Bentley Flying Spur, Land Rover's Range Rover Sport, and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. The Rolls-Royce Wraith not being in the top three ad surprised a few, but eventually it didn't matter, because the S-Class sped ahead anyway! And so it was Mercedes-Benz that has snapped up this first-ever trophy.

Mercedes S-Class image gallery

The awards were handed out in New York City at the Jacob Javits centre - the venue for the New York International Auto Show. Jurors drive as many of the nominated products as they can, before the first round of voting at the start of the new year, that decides the top ten in each category. There is then a second round of voting in February, and the top three are declared at the Geneva Motor Show. It is at the New York Show that the winners in all categories are then announced, at the awards ceremony.