There are now almost as many ceremonies for car awards as ones for films. World Car of the Year (WCOTY) would like to become the Oscars, but it has a way to go over here where European Car of the Year is the big one.
Anyway, WCOTY has decided the VW Up (sorry, VW, we can't be bothered with silly exclamation marks) is Number One. In Europe, it came second to the Vauxhall Ampera, which did not even make the WCOTY shortlist - the Chevrolet Volt, which is the same car as the Ampera has got off to a poor start in the USA.
We have no problem with the decision in favour of the Up, but the identical Skoda Citigo has just gone on sale in the UK at around £300 less than the Up, so presumably the Citigo could be promoted as "Even better than the World No. 1." - World No. 0.5, perhaps?
The shortlist for WCOTY also included the BMW 3 Series and the Porsche 911. Possibly in response to the current economic situation, they felt that they should not be celebrating anything too showy, but they did give the Porsche 911 the award for the Best Performance Car.
Other awards went to the Range Rover Evoque for Best Design (the 101st global award for the car according to Land Rover) and the Mercedes S250 CDI for Best Green Car. Presumably, the jury felt that the S250 was a great achievement for such a big car, although others might doubt that such a leviathan could count as being very green.