The 2009 World Car of the Year Finally Revealed!

World Car of the Year for 2009:

It has been announced! The World Car of the Year for 2009 is the Volkswagen Golf VI! The announcement was made at the New York Motor Show, where they announced the Golf victorious over the new Ford Fiesta and Toyota iQ.

In reacting to the news Stefan Jacoby, President/CEO of Volkswagen of America, Inc. said: “It is a tremendous honour for Volkswagen to have its global best selling model, the Golf, named the 2009 World Car of the Year. This is a great way to kick-off the new Golf here in America. We’re excited for the arrival of the sixth generation Golf, which will be in Volkswagen showrooms later this year. Simply put, we believe this is the best Golf ever.”

Former winners for this competition include the Mazda2 for 2008 and the Lexus LS460 in 2007.

World Design Car of the Year for 2009:

The Fiat 500 has been awarded with the 2009 World Car Design of the Year at the New York Auto Show. The winner was decided after a group of judges cast their votes. The top free finalists were all European models and they included the Citroen C5 and C5 Tourer, the Jaguar XF and the Fiat 500.

Winners from other years in this category included the Audi R8 in 2008, the Audi TT in 2007 and the Citroen C4 in 2006.

World Performance Car of the Year for 2009:

The 2009 World Performance Car of the Year has been revealed! The winner in this category is the Nissan GT-R. The GT-R beat the Corvette ZR1 and Porsche 911 Carrera to win this title. At first there were 23 models in the category where  the GT-R topped all of them.

On the winning GT-R one judge said, “The drive of the GT-R, especially on a track, reveals an incredibly flexible all-wheel-drive chassis that lays down the rubber whenever you request it… for $77,000 it may be the world’s best enthusiast car.”

Past winners include the Porsche Cayman S in 2006, the Audi RS4 in 2007 and the Audi R8 in 2008.

World Green Car of the Year for 2009:

Honda’s FCX Clarity has been awarded with the 2009 World Green Car title. The conference was in New York and the Clarity FCX beat 22 contenders for the title.

The FCX Clarity is a hydrogen fuel cell-car which has an electric motor with power that comes from an on-board fuel cell stack. The only emission from the car is water, and it has the efficiency of three times that of modern petrol powered car.