The ABC Award for Best Car of the Year 2025 turns 53 years old in this edition. Of the almost fifty novelties that are presented every year, the ABC Motor section selects the twelve finalists.
These are the Alfa Romeo Junior, Audi A3, Citroën C3 –and its 100% electric variant ë-C3–, Cupra Terramar, Dacia Duster, Fiat 600 –and pure 600e variant–, Lexus LBX, Nissan Qashqai, Omoda 5, Peugeot 3008 –also with electric version e-3008–, Renault 5 and Toyota C-HR.
It is difficult to put different segments and silhouettes in the same bag, and for this we have had to make an abstraction to value each of them in the range in which they are. You can vote for your favorite model by accessing the site bestcar.abc.eswhere you will find all the characteristics of each of the selected vehicles, as well as the instructions for voting.
The final election starts on Thursday, November 14 with the voting of three types of jurors who have to act as counterweights to find the winner. On the one hand there are the 35 specialist juries, motor journalists from the most prestigious media in Spain, whose voting, the most complex as they have to evaluate each model in six different sections, has a final weight in the election of 70% of the vote.
ABC subscribers, restless and informed readers about the world of motorsport, have a 20% weight on the final result.
It was in 1972 when ABC had the initiative to create the award for Best Car of the Yearthrough its weekly section Mundomóvil, the first of its kind to be published in a national newspaper, dedicated to the world of motors. To form the jury from the beginning it was seen that the most suitable were the specialized motor journalists, which only consisted of thirteen journalists (seven from motor magazines) and the rest from general information newspapers and magazines. Although it quickly increased. To choose the Best of 1974, 24 journalists already voted and 34 for the 1975 award, equaling current figures.
The voting panel was made up of five new models: the Renault 5, which was the winner, the Seat 127, the Citroën Dyane 6, the Austin Victoria and the Simca 1,200-S. And the number of cars grew more slowly and in the 70s they remained between four or five, because at that time, with quota imports of automobiles, the main innovations focused on cars manufactured in Spain, which There weren’t many.
In all this time, the one that has received the ABC Award for Best Car of the Year the most times has been Renault, with ten models, tied with Citroën. Next, Peugeot accumulates eight awards in its showcase, Seat seven, and in fifth position is Hyundai, with five awards in its record. As for the record figures, more than 5,500,000 units were manufactured for the Renault 5, the first vehicle to receive the ABC Award for Best Car of the Year in Spain. A good part of them, 1,100,000, in the Renault factories in Valladolid and Palencia.
The Ford Fiesta, the American brand’s utility vehicle, has sold more than 17 million units worldwide, making it one of the most successful models of all time, since its launch in 1976.
In 1983, Peugeot launched the 205, a car that would become the flagship of the new stage of the French brand. This utility vehicle would become, with more than 5.3 million units produced, the brand’s second best-selling vehicle, with all its versions: three and five doors, and convertible.
