17 used European Car of the Year winners for bargain prices

If any year epitomises the at times unpredictable nature of Car of the Year (the artist formerly known as European Car of the Year) it’s 2001. Among the seven finalists bidding for the trophy were the new Ford Mondeo (a belter of a car), the original Toyota Prius (a true pioneer) and the Audi A2 (clever, compact and utterly charming). All were beaten to the gong by the Alfa Romeo 147, however, an undeniably pretty but not particularly inventive small hatchback.

Won’t find us complaining, though; it still looks gorgeous today and those brave enough may fancy a £2k punt on a stock version. The spirit of this list guides us towards the 3.2-litre V6 GTA hot hatch, however, advertised here for a mere £8k with modest mileage and the promise of having been kept safe from the rain and salt.

Fastidious Car of the Year followers – the Eurovision fanatics of the automotive world – are no doubt feverishly typing their comment already, informing us that the Alpine A110 actually lost to the Jaguar I-Pace in the 2019 contest (the final COTY to be crowned before a capacity Geneva Motor Show crowd).

In fact the Jag and Alpine scored 250 points apiece, with a tiebreaker only narrowly nudging the honours in the direction of the all-electric I-Pace. What scenes we would have witnessed had the lithe, welterweight sports car with nary a sop to luggage space walked home with a usually quite sensible award. A110 values are carved from granite beside the car it lost out to, however, with £35k your entry point and the little Alp’s recent retirement only shoring its residuals up further.

Had the A110 scraped a win in 2019, it would have surely ousted the Porsche 928 for COTY’s most thrilling winner. It was way back in 1978 that a V8-powered 2+2 comfortably beat the BMW 7 Series and Ford Granada to seal the title of ‘Europe’s best new car’. Porsche’s supposed attempt to replace the 911 didn’t quite pan out that way, although 928 production did continue for a staggering 18 years, proving the late Seventies judges knew their stuff.

It’s decent value by Porsche standards, too, and won’t be yet another 911 or Cayman at your local cars ‘n’ coffee. We’ve found this wonderful early example on gorgeous phone-dial wheels for under £20k.

Perhaps a less surprising moment involved the 2022 coronation of the Kia EV6. An entirely electric podium was a true sign of the times, the Kia pipping its Hyundai Ioniq 5 cousin and the Renault Megane E-Tech by a pretty narrow margin. Three of the remaining four finalists were fully electric and indeed every COTY winner since has drawn its power with a plug.

The EV6 was a worthy winner, mixing rapid charging, pleasing dynamics and edgy design in one heavily warranted, family friendly setup. Cool things. Cooler still was the GT version, which launched shortly after its base car with 577bhp, a 3.5sec sprint to sixty-two and an actual drift mode. It can now be yours for less than half its original price, too…

A year earlier, the fourth-gen Toyota Yaris romped home with victory. By this stage, TopGear.com legend Paul Horrell was a mainstay of the COTY judging panel (still is), and while the little Toyota surely scored most of its points for the affordable slice of hybrid motoring it represents in base form, there was another trick up its sleeve. “The chassis is surprising fun out in the country, and this three-cylinder is more characterful than the drone of previous hybrids,” said Paul in his judging notes. “Oh, and the GR…!”

Yep, the fourth-gen Yaris is sold either as an unremittingly sensible hybrid auto or as a bespoke-bodied, four-wheel-driven, madcap hot hatch. GR Yaris values are rock solid, making this tidy £22k example a relative bargain amidst a strong ol’ market.

The Golf is one of a tiny handful of models to win the award twice and though it’s no shock this Mk7 won, it’s perhaps more of a surprise it shares the honour with the Mk3. We could have picked any number of its thrilling offshoots to celebrate here. The Internet loves a Mk7 Golf R, however, and it’s very hard to argue when it’s represented by a neat white three-door with a proper gear shifter in the middle of its interior. And all for just £12k.

Fun fact: the Mk7 Golf won by the joint-largest margin in COTY history, its 414 points more than double the 202 scored by the joint Toyota GT86/Subaru BRZ entry which claimed silver. Joyful winners though they’d have been, it’s not quite the injustice the Alpine A110 suffered…

A year later enthusiasts could cry ‘injustice’, however, when the exquisite, inventive BMW i3 lost out to the Peugeot 308. No bad car, the second-gen 308, and it still looks handsome and drives with pleasing composure now. But it looks like a misstep with hindsight, no?

Unless we’re talking about the 308 GTI, of course, or more pertinently the 308 GTI by Peugeot Sport with its limited-slip differential, skinny 1.2-tonne weight and near-270bhp output. It was wild when pushed but docile amidst your daily routine, and thus a hot hatch that hit the bullseye of its owners’ requirements. Yet it struggled for attention beside the (admittedly brilliant) Mk7 Golf GTI and looks a comparative bargain now: six grand looks paltry for the performance on offer here.

No arguing with this winner, though. Car of the Year victory for the first-gen Ford Focus was fully deserved recognition of how much the Blue Oval had transformed the sorry, ageing Escort into something truly revolutionary: a family hatch that nailed all the basics but still allowed its driver to have an utter riot. Most notably in the 1.6-litre Zetec form we’ve unearthed here, in fact. Its sub-£1,500 price tag looks a steal for a car that – if suitably coddled – has ‘future classic’ scrawled all over it. Not literally, of course. But we’re sorely tempted.

A leftfield shout for ‘future classic’? The Ampera certainly demonstrates a moment in time. That pesky Peugeot 308 victory aside, COTY has a robust track record of recognising emerging technologies and important watermarks in automotive history. The first-gen Nissan Leaf won in 2011 when very few car buyers knew what ‘EV’ stood for, while a year later it passed the baton to the joint Vauxhall Ampera/Chevrolet Volt entry.

The Ampera also drove with a single-speed electric transmission, albeit with a range-extender petrol engine to make it far more flexible than the Leaf. You won’t find many in the classifieds now and this 80k-mile example feels like a fascinating way to spend five grand on an inevitably very efficient used car.

Or you could spend a mite more on a much more traditional Vauxhall saloon car. Back in 2009 the humble Insignia pipped the Ford Fiesta to victory by one, solitary point. Perhaps the latter looks the more deserved winner now, but the Insignia wasn’t bad at all – especially if you took a punt on its VXR halo, equipped with a 325bhp 2.8-litre V6 turbo, all-wheel drive and a good old fashioned six-speed manual gearbox. It was effectively a cut-price Audi S4 and an appealing slice of off-radar fun – even more so now at under seven grand. Just mind the enormous tax bill.

High CO2 (and thus high tax) can swing you a used car bargain, however. The Ford S-Max claimed COTY honours in 2007 as only the second MPV – and first seven-seater – to do so. This was no mundane people mover, however, imbued as it was with the same sharp-witted chassis behaviour Ford managed to slot beneath nearly everything it made in the early 21st century.

Lots of humble diesels occupy the classifieds for bafflingly little money but the real gold, for those willing to hunt, is a five-cylinder 2.5-litre turbo S-Max, all 217bhp, 143mph and seven-point-odd-to-sixty of it. Fuel bills won’t be small either, but what a multi-purpose tool this otherwise is.

Fiat has won COTY on nine occasions, more than anyone else, though amazingly the little Panda’s only snared the trophy once. It was a bargain in the early Noughties and is now only too happy to disprove the myth that “you can’t buy a car for a grand anymore”. Modest miles, a full service history and decent spec lie beneath the neat black paint of this 2009 example, and there are plenty of examples which ask even less if you’re willing to go a little more rogue.

Renault’s next in the hall of fame, with eight wins to its name – a couple of those very recently. The Clio which claimed a slim victory in 2006 was decent enough in base form, but downright superb once the genius folk at Renault Sport got their hands on it.

The post-facelift 200 Cup remains among the greatest hot hatches of all time, fusing grown-up dynamics with an impish attitude. An all-time-great 2.0-litre engine with a dizzying redline is squeezed beneath its bespoke and bulging bodyshell. They aren’t easy to maintain, but with sturdy research you can get your hands on a mesmeric little performance car.

Alfa Romeo scored two wins in quick succession at the turn of the century. The size of the 156’s win over the Mk4 Volkswagen Golf must have raised plenty of eyebrows on its reveal, but there’s no denying this is a beautifully sliced saloon or wagon. It’s close to irresistible in GTA form.

We’ve dug out a 2.5-litre V6 with a manual ‘box for a friendly £4k, though it’s worth noting the 156 helped pioneer the paddleshift automated manual – then dubbed Selespeed – in its lowlier four-cylinder Twin Spark form. It’s hard to imagine that would feel award-worthy now…

Another emotive winner from Italy, the base Delta held the COTY trophy aloft way back in 1980. “The elegant, compact five-door had a lot of charm, remarkable comfort and a roadholding unrivalled by other cars its size,” claims the official awards blurb, though its poor performance and limited engined range came in for some criticism.

Perhaps those judges can be indirectly credited with the Delta’s glow-up into a World Rally and performance car legend with its wildly turbocharged Integrale spin-off. The big boy Evo versions are now stratospherically priced, though £40k for this deep red example (restored with the help of a bloke called Richard Hammond) is hardly giveaway either.

Never heard of NSU? The West German carmaker claimed one of the earliest COTY wins with its rotary-powered saloon car. But its curious 113bhp twin-rotor powertrain wasn’t its only tech highlight – its all-round disc brakes, fully independent suspension and semi-automatic transmission were hardly mainstream in the Sixties. Just mind its reliability record, which is arguably bad enough to undermine its unlikely victory. It’s a cool slice of history for £15k if you’re feeling brave, however…

Or you can own the first ever COTY victor for a mere third of the price. The Rover 2000 got its hands on the inaugural trophy way back in 1964, beating the cheaper, flightier Hillman Imp in the process. It was praised for its ride and handling though, much like the Delta, the judging panel appears to have craved more power, which Rover duly delivered with its V8-powered P6 3500 four years down the line. That original four-cyl 2000 is still your cheapest route into one, mind.