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What is the best car in the world?

The World Car Of The Year award is starting to gain prominence in the auto show arena despite being the relative newcomer, Vijayenthiran writes. The award event is now entering its 10th year and will culminate at the 2014 New York Auto Show next April.

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Mike Segar/Reuters/File
A man wears a shirt with vehicle prints as he rides an escalator during a press preview at the 2013 New York International Auto Show in New York.
  • By Viknesh Vijayenthiran Guest blogger

Not to be outdone by the more established North American Car Of The Year And European Car Of The Year awards, the World Car Of The Year award is starting to gain prominence in the auto show arena despite being the relative newcomer. The award event is now entering its 10th year and will culminate at the 2014 New York Auto Show next April where the winners for the respective World, Performance, Design And Green categories will be announced.

Today, an initial list of 30 candidates has been revealed, which already has some standouts but sadly appears to have a lack of serious performance contenders. For the World category, we’d pick the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and Range Rover Sport as strong contenders while in the Performance category we’d give the nod to either the Jaguar F-Type or Porsche Cayman.

We’re not doing to the judging, however. That task will be taken care of by dozens of jurors representing more than 20 countries. To be eligible, the candidates must become available for sale on at least two continents during the period beginning January 1, 2013 and ending May 30, 2014.

Last year, the Volkswagen Golf took World honors, while the Performance award went to the Porsche Boxster, the Design award to the Jaguar F-Type and the Greenaward to the Tesla Model S. 

The 30 candidates for the 2014 awards are listed below:

  • BMW 4-Series
  • BMW i3
  • BMW X5
  • Citroen C4 Picasso
  • Ford EcoSport
  • Ford Kuga
  • Hyundai i10
  • Jaguar F-Type
  • Kia Carens
  • Range Rover Sport
  • Lexus IS
  • Maserati Ghibli
  • Mazda3
  • Mercedes-Benz S-Class
  • Mitsubishi Space Star
  • Nissan Note
  • Opel Cascada
  • Peugeot 2008
  • Peugeot 308
  • Porsche Cayman
  • Renault Captur
  • Renault Zoe
  • Seat Leon
  • Skoda Octavia
  • Subaru Forester
  • Suzuki SX4
  • Tesla Model S
  • Toyota Auris
  • Toyota Corolla
  • Toyota RAV4

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