Sports

1 Audi R8
2 Aston V8 Roadster
3 McLaren SLR roadster

At least the McLaren SLR roadster and the Aston V8 Vantage Roadster were beaten by the overall Car of the Year winner. Which is some consolation. The journalist panel didn't even think the rampantly showy SLR was worthy of the original long list, let alone the short list. It crept in via the back door of the Wild Car, but here in the final reckoning it grabbed just 18 percent of the vote. The Aston did better with a third of the votes, but even that deliciously evil V8 growl couldn't prevent the Audi taking half of the votes. The journos say: a perfect result.

Family

1 Ford Mondeo
2 Mercedes C-Class
3 Ford S-Max

The group-winning Mondeo came closest to snatching the overall prize from the Audi R8, and rightly so. Never has a middle-market car of the type dished out by soured faced fleet managers been so welcomed. The sheer space, quality and driving verve were enough to swing it Ford's direction. A couple of gripes. It's got a bit too big and it'll still shed pounds (the paper type) far quicker than an equivalent priced BMW, but that's just carping. The smart but pricey C-Class was beaten into second, with the astonishingly fine-driving S-Max in a distant third (18%). Sad, but that's the fate of people carriers.

Luxury

1 Bentley Continental GTC
2 Audi S8
3 Maserati Quattoporte Automatic

The closest race of any group saw Bentley's behemoth convertible outpoint the shockingly fast Audi S8 by a handful of votes. A triumph of Hello-style glamour over discrete uber-technology and style, which is another way of saying that the Audi should have won it. Not that the 12-cylinder Bentley isn't immensely appealing, in a WAG-ish sort of way, but the V10-powered Audi is a far more sophisticated method of spreading the wealth. The Maserati is somewhere between the two, and although the Ferrari-sourced V8 is wonderful, especially channelled through the new automatic gearbox, far less of your £83,000 has gone on the interior that should have. You obviously agree – it came bottom in the group with a quarter of the vote.

Supermini

1 Mini Cooper
2 Suzuki Swift Sport
3 Vauxhall Corsa

None of the Mini's many drawbacks stopped the stampede to crown the Cooper king of the 'minis. Poor rear seat space? Not a problem. Tiny boot? Who cares? Wouldn't have fancied its chances much against next year's totally fresh Fiat 500, but it's still the best of the bunch here with its new range of engines and smarter interior. You agreed, placing it first with 46% of the vote. The Suzuki may beat the Mini on price and have its measure on driving verve, but only 31 percent of you reckon it should have won. Still though, great result for the Swift and the Vauxhall Corsa, whose previous incarnations would have struggled to grab a single vote.

4x4

1 Land Rover Defender
2 Audi Q7
3 Land Rover Freelander

Never has such a poorly packaged and downright uncomfortable car done so well in a competition. But that's the power of the Land Rover Defender. So strongly do people connect that age-old shape with off-road prowess, the Defender goes into the sunset with no less consumer support than it did almost 60 years ago. It'd certainly crush the Audi Q7 in any off-road contest, but that's not what the Audi's for. Greater cause for criticism is the lack of space inside a car that's so big on the outside. The Freelander is a sensible compromise between the two but, as it so often the case, the compromise finishes last.