The winners of the World Car of the Year awards were announced at The New York Motor Show on 21 April. The Chevrolet Volt won the award of World Green Car; from its subtle name motorists can probably work out that there is an electric element to this vehicle.

The Aston Martin Rapide was awarded World Car Design and the Ferrari 458 Italia, World Performance Car.  Both the Aston Martin and the Ferrari equally deserved to win the design award and Ferrari would have certainly been disappointed not to have done so. But on balance the performance award was probably the most appropriate; that is what Ferrari is all about.

The Nissan Leaf won World Car of the Year as many thought it would, although others including ourselves thought the Audi A1 deserved to win. So perhaps did the motoring public; Audi AI leasing is far more popular than Nissan Leaf contract hire .

Audi must have also been disappointed that the A8 didn’t win an award; it’s a wonderful car but it is still beaten by BMW 7 Series leasing sales, in spite of the fact that Audi A8 contract hire is slightly less expensive; £44 per month less. The A8 is more understated than the 7 Series but then not everyone wants understated.

In fact all the Audi models have class, even the inexpensive models like the AI; it may be the entry model but it still has a lot of road presence, for what is really a very economical car; Audi A1 leasing starts at just £216 plus Vat per month.