19 Cars. One Winner. And You Won’t Believe It! 2026 Chasing Cars Car of the Year

Every year Chasing Cars takes the best new cars and pits them against each other for overall Car of the Year honours in our new-car megatest. There can only be one winner, and with 19 make/models and 26 individual cars, it’s a tough competition. A week of intensive testing sees new metal and three wild-card entries face off on interior packaging, driving dynamics, build quality and powertrain calibration, with a true winner needing a certain amount of X-Factor and boundary pushing. This year, our field consisted of the below new make and models. Audi Q3 Audi A5 & S5 BYD Atto 1 Cupra Terramar Honda Prelude Hyundai Palisade Hyundai Ioniq 6 Kia EV3 Kia Tasman Mazda CX-5 MG MG 4 Urban EV Renault Duster Renault Scenic E-Tech Skoda Superb Tesla Model Y Toyota RAV4 Volvo ES90 Volvo EX90 Zeekr 7X Time codes: 0:00 - intro 0:23 - what makes a winner 0:44 - testing process 1:25 - day one 2:36 - day two - first elimination round 11:42 - day three 16:52 - day four - second elimination round 17:08 - The finalists 23:56 - The Winner As always, we don’t accept advertising from car manufacturers, and we’re powered by Budget Direct. Subscribe now! https://www.youtube.com/user/ChasingCarsAustralia?sub_confirmation=1 Chasing Cars on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chasingcarsaustralia/ Follow Chasing Cars on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chasingcars.com.au/ Chasing Cars is Australia's most independent source of new car reviews, car industry news, comparisons and car guides. We give you a critical look at every new car you should consider!