Region's Car of the Year: The best new car we've tested in 2025 – Region Canberra
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Car of the Year 2025. Photos: James Coleman.
A year is famously 52 weeks long. But having tallied up all of the new cars I’ve tested over the past 12 months – one each week – I’ve arrived at 51 cars. So either my maths is not very good and I’ve missed one. Or I loved one so much I kept it for longer.
Now, to work out which one it was. And name it Car of the Year for 2025.
However, if you remember previous years’ awards, this one will be a little different. We must still have one to rule them all, because meritocracy. But also two others that acknowledge each of the parts always engaged in the purchase of a new car – the head and the heart.
So, without further ado, please put your hands together for our winner and … our other two winners:
The Honda Accord Hybrid. Photo: James Coleman.
Provided you can cough up a little more than a Camry, you can get the most polished sedan out there. Spacious, smartly designed, and silky smooth to drive – and all while sipping fuel.
By the end of my week with it, the only grievance was to my OCD – from the gear lever that tilted towards the driver by five degrees.
The BYD Shark 6. Photo: James Coleman.
So maybe you’re not going to want to tow a house with it, but for all other assorted ute duties – there’s a reason it’s Australia’s number-one plug-in hybrid.
You have a handy all-electric range of 100 km, and combined 800 km all up, and the one and only model, the Premium, costs from $57,900. That’s a mid-range Ford Ranger.
The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro SE+. Photo: James Coleman.
It’s a five-seat SUV with the interior of a Mercedes, a turbocharged engine, a surround camera to rival Google street view, and a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty – all from $29,990 driveaway.
There are little things, like overactive safety alerts and a clunky gearbox, but these fade away like the odd bit of brown stuff in a prawn when you remember that price. For a new car, it’s a bit impossible to beat.
The Hyundai Inster Cross. Photo: James Coleman.
Okay, so it’s not going to turn you into Billy Hargrove, like a Mustang. Or twang your heartstrings like an Alfa. It’s not quick, and with about 300 km of driving range, you’re limited to the city.
But just look at it. There’s not a cheerier city car out there. It made even our muscly, manly house-movers swoon.
The Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio. Photo: James Coleman.
Alfa Romeos are always bought with the heart. And while many of the brand’s purists still scoff at the thought of one as an SUV, the reality is, there’s no other SUV out there like it – as raucous, as lively, and as damn gorgeous. It deserves to go down in history as one of the greats.
(In fact, so soundly did it sweep me off my feet, I put my money where my mouth is and bought its lesser – and slightly older – sibling as our family car, a 2018 Stelvio Ti.)
The Ford Mustang GT. Photo: James Coleman.
Maybe it was because I’d just watched Stranger Things, and ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’ was playing, but I smiled the entire drive from Sydney to Canberra after picking this up. And then the whole way back crying.
And I’m not alone – earlier this year, the Mustang reported its best monthly sales in Australia in almost seven years.
In a world of dull and duller pursuits of efficiency, a good ol’ American muscle car with a thumping V8 under its vented bonnet goes down like a hearty Guinness.
The Tesla Model Y. Photo: James Coleman.
There’s not many EVs that have survived the week with a “Yeah, I’d actually happily live with that one” from my wife. In fact, there’s only one. This one.
To be clear, I didn’t much like Tesla’s original Model Y, because it felt like the engineers had spent far too long playing around with whoopee cushions and video games to bother with other things. Like suspension.
The interior Tesla has become famous for. Photo: James Coleman.
But that was all fixed here. All the toys remain, like something I never used called ‘Bioweapon Defense Mode’ on the app. But there’s plenty of useful ones too. Like the biggest boot I’ve ever seen on a mid-size SUV. And a rear screen which meant the kids could watch Thomas the Tank Engine on YouTube. It’s also genuinely well honed to drive – I’m used to EVs feeling like clumsy, anemic blobs.
It’s been more than 10 years since Tesla came to Australia. With the updated Model Y, you’re left thinking that despite the waves of opposition since, it might still be the best at it.
(It also solves my earlier maths problem – because the reason there were 51 reviews in 52 weeks was because we tested this and BYD’s rival, the Sealion 7, together).
2025 Tesla Model Y. Photo: James Coleman.
Here’s the full list of other wannabes that either didn’t quite make it … or were not even close (click on the name to read the full review):
The BYD Sealion 7. Photo: James Coleman.
The Ford Tourneo Titanium X. Photo: James Coleman.
The Isuzu D-Max X-Terrain. Photo: James Coleman.
The Kia Carnival. Photo: James Coleman.
The Leapmotor C10. Photo: James Coleman.
The MG U9. Photo: MG Motor Australia.
The Nissan Qashqai. Photo: James Coleman.
The Subaru Forester Hybrid. Photo: James Coleman.
The Volvo EX90. Photo: James Coleman.
You can also see our previous Car of the Year winners for 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021.
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