It doesn’t seem like five minutes has passed since MotorMartin was reporting on the huge variety of motoring award winners announced at the beginning of 2016 and now here we are, at the beginning of 2017, with a whole load more deserving award winners to report on. This year will be even more special as MotorMartin will soon be announcing the winners of the inaugural 2017 MotorMartin ‘Real Life’ Motoring Car Of The Year Awards and I can guarantee that they’ll be a few surprises to look forward to.

Here then, cars from ten different manufacturers have been hailed best-in-class after the first round of voting in the UK Car of the Year Awards 2017, supported by Cox Automotive, whose UK brands include Manheim and Motors.co.uk. With the winners of the 12 categories now decided, the successful models go on to battle it out for the title of UK Car of the Year 2017.

It’s certainly been a positive experience for some, as winning their first UK Car of the Year Awards were Hyundai, Toyota, Renault and SEAT. The organisers behind the UK Car of the Year Awards 2017 have shared with MotorMartin that in the Best Small Hatch class, the Hyundai IONIQ beat off stiff competition to win, while the latest generation of Toyota’s Prius was voted Best Family Car. Renault’s Scénic/Grand Scénic has been named Best MPV, and in the popular category of Best Crossover the SEAT Ateca took the honours. Phew.

The UK Car of the Year Awards 2017 proved fruitful for two German manufacturers, as Mercedes-Benz and Porsche claimed two prizes apiece, whilst in the Best Executive Car category, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class took top spot, with the S-Class Cabriolet hailed as Best Cabriolet. The Porsche pairing of the 718 Cayman and Boxster were voted Best Coupe and Best Sports Car respectively.

And it’s not difficult to see why after winning the title of Best Luxury Car in 2015 with its Ghost, Rolls-Royce once again triumphed in the category with the Dawn. At the other end of the driving spectrum, Ford reclaimed the Best Performance Car crown with the Focus RS, a car strongly favoured by the respected journalist Tony Yates on The Junk Yard, DriveTribe. Ford, of course, having previously won the category in 2014 with the Fiesta ST. Best Estate Car was judged to be Volvo’s V90 and the new Large Crossover category was won by the Jaguar F-Pace. All deserving winners I’m sure you’ll agree.

So here we go then, drum roll please: The overall UK Car of the Year 2017 will be announced on 24th February 2017. Previous winners of the award are: BMW i3 (2014); BMW i8 (2015) and Mazda MX-5 (2016).

Full list of UK Car of the Year Awards 2017 category winners: