It wasn't all doom and gloom for the motor industry during 2009, that's if you believe what you read in the papers. The fact is that throughout this difficult period, new cars continued to be sold and everyone from journalists and industry commentators to fleet executives and private motorists continued to make judgments about which cars were best.
So which cars were the best in 2009? That rather depends on who you listen to. The annual sales charts are a good place to start and unsurprisingly, their upper echelons were packed with the usual suspects.
Ford continued its dominance with the Fiesta supermini and Focus family hatch claiming the top two spots. The fleet favorite Mondeo even sneaked into the top ten.
An honorable mention must also go to Vauxhall which pushed Ford all the way with the Corsa, Astra and Insignia also featuring highly. The all new Astra which launched in December 2009 should spice the race up further still in 2010.
The other top sellers included Volkswagen's classy Golf and Peugeot's 207. The fact that both the MINI and the BMW 3 Series also featured highly can be taken as evidence of our continuing love affair with the premium brands, also that we know quality when we see it.
The awards handed out during 2009 paint a similar picture but with some exceptions. The Ford Fiesta impressed everyone and was named What Car? Car of the Year as well as collecting the star prize in the Auto Express New Car Honors. The European Car of the Year for 2009 was the Vauxhall Insignia and for 2010 that prestigious gong goes to the new Volkswagen Polo. The 2009 Word Car of the Year was the Mk VI Golf from Volkswagen.
Other models that fared well in the sub-categories of the big awards included some less obvious but highly accomplished choices. The Skoda Superb and Jaguar XF were regularly acclaimed in the executive car segments. Toyota's iQ city car won fans with its innovative design and for a performance car bargain, it was hard for anyone to see past the mighty Nissan GT-R.
