Drive Car of the Year 2026 is underway!

Australia’s new-car market has never been busier or more congested.

As a nation of roughly 1.1 million new-car buyers, we can now choose from more than 70 brands and a wide variety of powertrains in cars that range in size from a sub-4.0-metre-long Kia Picanto to a near-6.5m-long Chevrolet Silverado HD.

This can make answering the perennial BBQ question of “Which one is the best?” something of a horses-for-courses answer.

For over 20 years, the Drive Car of the Year awards have addressed the many and varied needs of consumer car buyers by offering the most detailed and comprehensive new-car awards program in the country.

Each year, the best vehicles in a range of categories are chosen by Drive’s expert judging panel, with one of these as the overall Drive Car of the Year.

This affords buyers in any segment to understand the best new car in their slice of the market, as well as understanding what it takes to “move the game forward the most for Australian new car buyers” as an overall winner.

There are now 20 vehicles that carry the honour of being a Drive Car of the Year.

From the inaugural winner, the 2006 Audi TT, through a range of sports coupes, passenger sedans, and hatchbacks (no station wagons, though), the awards have moved with the changing consumer mindset and saw judges award the first SUV in 2015 (Ford Everest), hybrid in 2018 (Toyota Camry), ute in 2023 (Ford Ranger) and first electric vehicle in 2024 (Kia EV9).

Each year, the categories are reassessed and refined to align with buyers’ needs and the market’s spread, and for 2026, there are a couple of changes.

First, and most clearly, the price bands have changed. According to industry analysis firm BlueFlag, as of July 2025, the average new-car transaction price in Australia is now $61,969. To be clear, this is the price of the car, and any associated on-road and accessory costs. And yes, you read that correctly – $62,000.

Considering our DCOTY price bands are expressed before on-road costs, this means there are people who buy cars under $60,000 (to $59,990 MSRP) and people who spend over $60,000.

Given we need to put a ceiling spend on most consumer categories, we have added an upper limit of $90K (to $89,999 MSRP) or $150K (to $149,999 MSRP) for luxury categories.

While this is broadly the same as last year, when we had $50K and $80K bands, a few cars have moved around. As per previous years, if a model range crosses a price bracket, only the variants priced under the price cap are eligible.

We have removed three categories from the 2025 Drive Car of the Year field. The Best Family Car Under $80K and Best Luxury Off-Road SUV Under $150K awards have been ‘paused’ due to a lack of significant market activity in those segments.

As has the Best Large Dual-Cab Ute Under $150K award, despite a new six-cylinder pick-up range from Ram, as we felt it didn’t quite align with the consumer-focused nature of the awards.

Electric categories have been realigned from the four ‘type’-centric awards in 2025 (Affordable, Urban, Family and Luxury) to simply matching the price-band approach of other vehicle categories for 2026.

The Best Large SUV Under $80K category from 2025, won by the overall 2025 Drive Car of the Year, the Hyundai Santa Fe, has been split into two similarly focused categories.

New for 2026 are the Best Seven-Seat SUV Under $60K and Best Seven-Seat SUV Under $90K categories, to better align with the needs of buyers in these segments. Basically, the SUV’s physical size is now secondary to the number of seats available.

This gives us 16 awards for 2026 (compared to 19 in 2025), designed to cover the majority of Australia’s new-car market and Australian new-car buyers.

Once again, all prices are capped at $150,000, and there are no specific sports-car categories, given that significant emotion plays a part in consumer decisions for these lucky buyers. So, we will address this with additional and specific content throughout the year.

The team will be gathering a field of finalists together during December to put all the vehicles through their paces, both for media (social, video and photography) and to see how some newcomers fare against the more well-known models.

We’ll be publishing a list of all finalists, as well as some behind-the-scenes content, this side of Christmas, with all winners – including the overall Drive Car of the Year 2026 – to be announced on Drive.com.au and through the Nine Media Network, in February 2026.

Which cars will be included as finalists, and which will win the coveted awards? Come with us as we go through the details from top to bottom during Drive Car of the Year 2026!

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