Watch the Wheels 2021 Car of the Year announcement

Join us as we announce the winner of Wheels 2021 Car of the Year.

Testing narrowly survived lockdowns and took place at the Australian Automotive Research Centre proving ground and on the roads around Torquay, Victoria, over five days in early December, 2020.

Ten contenders were shortlisted from an initial list of 52 new models released in the 12 months prior to testing.

This year's COTY wannabes are the Audi e-tron, BMW 4 Series, Ford Escape, Ford Puma, Genesis GV80, Kia Sorento, Land Rover Defender, Mazda CX-30, Mercedes-Benz GLB and Toyota Yaris.

Five judges evaluated the cars against the COTY criteria of Function, Technology, Efficiency, Safety and Value. Wheels Car of the Year testing has taken place continuously since 1963.

After the announcement, the March 2021 issue of Wheels, containing our full COTY coverage, will go on sale at all good retailers immediately.

You can also catch up on all the COTY 2021 extras here on our website.

We’ll be publishing the full story and video on the winner and finalists, shortly after the announcement. Check back on Tuesday, March 2, and Wednesday, March 3, to read our full COTY coverage.

Wheels Magazine Editor Dylan Campbell and other journalists from the judging panel will be available to answer any questions you might have, so make a Disqus account in the comments section below – if you don’t already have one – and get posting on the COTY articles as they’re published.

In the meantime, read our Wheels Car of the Year 2021 preview here to see the cars in contention.