The Mazda2 was chosen as the 2008 World Car of the Year at the recent New York International Auto Show.

Talk about a sweet revenge for Japanese automakers, which failed to land in the top 3 in every other category. Owning the podiums were their German rivals. That said, American manufacturers fared even worse: none of their cars managed to win over enough of the 47 international journalists who made up the jury to finish among the three finalists in the various categories. Sure, the Ford Mondeo stepped on the podium, but it's not even sold in North America.

The World Green Car of the Year title also slipped from the Americans, despite having two extremely worthy contenders: the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid and Saturn Vue Green Line. They were bested by three diesel-powered machines: the smart fortwo CDI, the VW Passat Blue Motion and the winner, the BMW 118d EfficientDynamics, a new technology package which aims to maximize fuel economy.

A complex process in order to get to the top 3, the 47 members of the international jury first had to select 10 finalists for each category. This year, 39 new vehicles were eligible for the WCOTY awards, meaning they were sold in at least five countries and two continents before January 1, 2008. Of course, there were a few particular conditions.

 

Thus, in order to qualify in the World Performance Car of the Year category, a car had to be available in more than 500 units across the world (so exclusive machines like the Bugatti Veyron were discarded).

As for green cars, the jury included some prototypes which were basically pre-production models. Here's the thing, though: at least 10 units had to be already part of press fleets around the world.

"We want this competition to reflect what the auto industry has to offer everywhere in the world. In an era of globalization, we believe that cars sold in Europe stand an increasingly better chance to land on our shores or in other foreign markets. Therefore, we must have similar criterions for comparison," explained the vice-president of the organizing committee and lone Canadian member of the jury, Toronto's Gerry Malloy.

The aforementioned 47 journalists came from 24 different countries (10 of them were North Americans). Obviously, one has to wonder if every single judge actually tested every single model in contention, since some of the cars are only available in specific markets. Ultimately, the WCOTY Awards bring international recognition to vehicles which, otherwise, would remain unknown in certain parts of the globe. Now that would be a shame...