The seven finalists for the Car of the Year title are known. A fairly open ballot this year with models with very different profiles.
A “Car of the Year” sticker on the rear window has long been a guarantee of record sales. This is less true today, but the competition is not uninteresting. The 60 jurors from 23 European countries managed to reduce the preliminary list, extended this year to 42 models compared to 25 last year, to only 7 units. In alphabetical order, these are the Alfa Romeo Junior, the Citroën C3/ë-C3, the CUPRA Terramar, the Dacia Duster, the Hyundai Inster, the Kia EV3 and the Renault 5/Alpine A290, these the last two being considered as the same model.
From today, the jurors have 8 weeks to test the models and decide which one deserves to be crowned. The seven cars will be brought together for a joint test at the Mettet test site in Belgium, until the final vote for the 2025 Car of the Year title.
So what are these 7 finalists worth? Let's start with the most unexpected with the Alfa Romeo Junior. This model was born under a bad star with a name, Milano, which earned it the wrath of the Italian state, judging that naming a car produced outside Italy like this was a scandal. Add to that the current difficulties of Stellantis and we can exclude it from the title race. The Citroën C3 and its electric version ë-C3 have serious chances, but the multi-energy philosophy can be punished. Not quite thermal, not quite electric, therefore not perfect, and the recent bugs reported on the electric version do nothing to reassure us. The Cupra Terramar is the only hybrid of the lot and benefits from a young and dynamic image which could do good for the image of the competition. But like any good CUPRA, it is overpriced and therefore elitist. The Dacia Duster is a marvel in terms of quality/price ratio and its finish today has nothing to envy of the best SUVs. But the Franco-Romanian is in the sights of EuroNCAP which only gave it 3 stars out of 5. It's difficult to make such a car the best of the year but it doesn't matter, it doesn't need it.
The year of the car in Korea?
Now let's look at the two little Korean girls. The Hyundai Inster is the electric derivative of the Casper, almost unknown in Europe but popular around the world. This lack of notoriety could be fatal to him. The Kia EV3, on the other hand, enjoys the brand's good image and ticks all the boxes with a 100% electric structure, a nice look, good autonomy and an access price of 35,990 euros.
Finally, there remains the Renault 5 and its version with the Alpine A290. Already it's not very nice of the jury to have put the two cars in the same bag when the Renault Group is doing everything to create a brand identity specific to Alpine. If she(s) win(s) who will really be titled? So let's only judge the R5. A crisp face, a modern interior while revisiting the markers of the original model, very well thought-out prices and a range of batteries that can satisfy a wide range of drivers. A designated winner? Let's keep in mind that the 2024 European Car of the Year award went to the Renault Scenic. Getting a manufacturer to win two years in a row is never easy and could fuel the rumors of lobbying swirling around the competition.
If the Renault suffers from these considerations that are more political than technical, who can take the crown? Only one manufacturer present in the list of 7 finalists this year was already opposed to Renault last year, Kia. So we will put a little post on the EV3.
READ ALSO: Renault Scenic E-Tech is the car of the year 2024
