To qualify for an award, the car needs to have been launched – and driven by judges in the UK – between 1st January and 31st December of the previous year. From the long list of qualifying cars, a shortlist is drawn up in each category, on which the judging panel vote. The awards are decided based on objective analysis of the cars in the shortlist.

Each qualifying car only appears in one category – each of the categories have been created to ensure there is no overlap of vehicles. Categories may vary each year depending on the number of relevant models launched by manufacturers during the qualifying period. The winning car from each of the categories goes forward to contest the title of UK Car of the Year.

In each category, every judge votes for the car they want to win that section. If there’s a tie, those tied cars go into a second round of voting with every jury member choosing their favourite. If that produces a tie, the chairman has a casting vote. All of the category winners then go into a new category and each member again votes for their preferred winner. The car with the most votes wins – it’s a simple first past the post system. In the event of a tie, the same system used for the categories is applied.