Rules & Scoring

Rules

To qualify for an award, the car needs to have been launched on or after 1st January 2024, or be on sale by 31 December 2024.

From the long list of qualifying cars, a shortlist is drawn up in each category, on which the 31 judges will vote.

The awards will be decided based on objective analysis of the cars in the shortlist.

Each qualifying car will only appear in one category. Each of the categories has been created to ensure there is no crossover of vehicles.

The winning car from each of the categories goes forward to contest the title of UK Car of the Year 2025.

Scoring

In each category, every member 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 member choosing their favourite. If that produces a tie, the chairman has a casting vote.

All of the category winners then go forward and each member votes for their preferred winner. The car with the most votes wins – a simple first past the post system. If there’s a tie, the same system as for the categories is applied.