- Category Winners in 9 classes revealed.
- Combustion, hybrid and EV models all in contention.
- Next stop: Overall Winner to be announced on December 5.
We're on our way with the DRIVEN Car Guide AA Insurance 2025 New Zealand Car of the Year! Which is a mouthful, but then it's a big programme.
Today (November 28) we announce our Category Winners. Each year we choose our top vehicles in nine separate categories, argue and drive our way down to a top three and ultimately select our COTY Overall Winner.
Uniquely, we also consider last year's Category Winners alongside the new models - because that's the choice you as consumers have, so that's the choice we as judges must also make.
Speaking of which: the judges this year are DRIVEN Car Guide's David Linklater and Damien O'Carroll, with guest judge Matthew Hansen (freelance journalist and a former member of the DRIVEN team way back when).
The Category Winners are all live now, and don't forget: one of these will emerge as our Overall Winner, to be annnounced Friday December 5. See below for links straight to the stories.