The Crank: My 2011 World Car of the Year is…

[svgallery name="2011_Audi_A8L"] By John LeBlanc

The seventh annual World Car of the Year awards, which yours truly is a judge, announced its top ten finalists for 2011 this week.The overall winner for WCOTY—as well as winners for World Performance Car, Green Car and Design of the Year—will be announced at this year’s New York show in April. Before then, myself and my 65 fellow international automotive journalists must submit our top three finalists for the oveall WCOTY winner, before the trio are announced at the Geneva auto show during the first week of March.

You’ll have to wait until Geneva to find out how my colleagues collectively voted. But here’s how I whittled down this year’s ten finalists to three:

• WCOTY voting rules state that we judges should not vote on a vehicle we have not driven before December 31, 2010. Which means that the BMW X3 and Jaguar XJ—two cars I didn’t get an offer to drive last year—get dropped right off the bat.

• Next, if a car is going to vie for WCOTY, it should stand to reason that it’s sold in ALL major markets. So right away, I’m shuffling off to Buffalo the not-sold-in-North-America Audi A1. As well, although the Volvo S60 sedan is sold here, its V60 sport wagon counterpart isn’t. And the sedan isn’t worthy enough on its own to make up or that oversight. So bye-bye S60/V60.

• The next pair of WCOTY finalists to go by the wayside are similar in their attributes and deficiencies. The BMW 5 Series and Porsche Cayenne are both excellent cars in their own segments. But both lack a lot of imagination on the part of their makers in their makeovers, essentially refined examples of their predecessors. Bye-bye.

• Which leaves us with the final WCOTY four: the Audi A8; Jeep Grand Cherokee; Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG; and Nissan Leaf EV.With some regret, the first to go is the ‘Benz supercar. Although the SLS provided one of my best driving experiences of 2010, the car is too limited in its appeal to win outright.

Which leaves the new Jeep Grand Cherokee with the bronze. In some regards it's a match in features and performance (especially off-road) with a pricier Range Rover or Cayenne. But when it comes to premium SUVs nearer its price range, the Jeep has the fit-and-finish, features, and onroad manners that are beyond compare.

In second, I have Nissan’s purely electric Leaf. While the appeal of any EV is solely determined by its owners driving lifestyle, the Leaf is the only affordable and practical production car today that can truly deliver a zero-emissions driving experience—something all automakers should be striving towards.

And finally, my 2011 World Car of the Year (drum roll, please) the new Audi A8, pictured above.

Beating out the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S Class, the Audi is tops in a segment that’s turned into the equivalent of the Cold War Era arms race. As a tehcnological tour de force, the A8 not only introduces a wave of new high-tech goodies, they are all presented to the driver and passenger in a natural, intuitive way. And right now, it’s the best driving car in its class too.

You’ll have to wait for a few weeks to see how my WCOTY judging counterparts tallied their scores. But for now, you have my votes.In the meantime, let me know what you think should be this year’s WCOTY.

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