And so the big news has broken: from an incredibly diverse range of cars in 10 separate categories - everything from petrol, diesel, hybrid and plug-in - the Ford Ranger has been named the overall winner of the AA DRIVEN New Zealand Car of the Year for 2022, just beating the BYD Atto 3 and Mitsubishi Outlander to the top podium spot.
Ford gets the glory and well-deserved, too. But we'd also like to offer a massive congratulations to the winners in the 10 individual vehicle categories (from which our top three shortlist and ultimate winner were chosen).
We also named winners for the AA Safest Car award (calculated from Ancap data) and People's Choice award (voted by you, our readers).
If you'd like to watch the special COTY Zooming with DRIVEN show where all the winners were announced, you can do that here.
Below is a recap of the top cars; click on the red links to go to the video presentation and full story for each.
OVERALL WINNER
Ford Ranger
Small SUV: MG ZS
Medium SUV: Kia Sportage
Large SUV: Kia Sorento
Passenger: Honda Jazz
Clean Car HEV: Toyota Highlander
Clean Car PHEV: Mitsubishi Outlander
Clean Car BEV: BYD Atto 3
Luxury: BMW iX
Sports & Performance: Chevrolet Corvette
LCV: Ford Ranger
People's Choice: Toyota RAV4
AA Safest Car: Tesla Model Y