Winners of ContractHireAndLeasing.com Car of the Year Awards 2014 announced

Yes, it’s awards season again and as the entertainment industry hands out BAFTAs and Oscars, it’s time for the automotive industry to hand out gongs to its movers and shakers.

So as ContractHireAndLeasing.com, the UK’s number one leasing website, celebrates turning 15, we felt it was high time we recognised the achievements of the manufacturers and their cars with the inaugural ContractHireAndLeasing.com Car of the Year Awards.

Every car on the market was up for consideration by our team of motoring journalists and automotive industry professionals, but with 14 categories and only one winner in each, adjudicating wasn’t easy. In the end though, we came up with this definitive list of the best cars you can lease.

ContractHireAndLeasing.com’s MD, Dave Timmis, said: “As we celebrate 15 years as the UK’s top leasing site, it was only right that we rewarded the very things that the whole industry is based on: the cars. A lot of very good models were left by the wayside during the selection process, but that’s testament to how good the winners are.”

The Winners

Supermini – Volkswagen Polo

Volkswagen Polo leasing deals: business / personal

The evergreen Polo was refreshed in 2014, and while improving an already excellent supermini was a tough ask, Volkswagen managed it. With its smooth ride, engaging handling and impressively low running costs, the Polo shows no signs of relinquishing its place at the top of the supermini segment. Full review

Small Family Car – Citroen C4 Cactus

Citroen C4 Cactus leasing deals: business / personal

There was a lot of scepticism when Citroen announced that the C4 Cactus was going to be more than just a kooky concept car, but at a stroke, this spiritual successor to the 2CV has silenced the naysayers. With clever features like the Airbumps keeping ownership costs low, impressive fuel economy slashing running costs and one of the most comfortable rides of any car on sale today, this is one seriously good small family car. Full review

Family Car – Skoda Octavia

Skoda Octavia leasing deals: business / personal

Skoda’s reputation is much improved, but it still isn’t amazing, which is a pity because the Czech company makes some incredibly well sorted cars. Based on the same underpinnings as the VW Golf and Audi A3, the Octavia bridges the gap between hatchback and saloon brilliantly. It’s well built, it drives well and it’s cheap, but it’s the huge boot and the ‘Simply Clever’ features that seal the deal for us. Full review

Compact Executive Car – Audi A4 Ultra

Audi A4 leasing deals: business / personal

If truth be told, the A4 is nothing revolutionary, but fit it with a new, super-efficient diesel engine and it becomes a force to be reckoned with. The 8.3-second 0-62mph time is good, as are the 67.3mpg combined efficiency figure and the 109g/km CO2 emissions, but by putting that in an already best-selling executive saloon, Audi is on to a winner. Full review

Executive Car – Tesla Model S

Tesla Model S leasing deals: business / personal

Tesla may have put the kybosh on all the assumptions we made about electric cars by producing something truly usable, but the Model S is so much more than that. It’s also a well-equipped, luxurious and technologically advanced executive saloon. That we can say that about an electric car is quite a compliment in itself. Full review

Luxury Car – Mercedes-Benz S-Class

Mercedes-Benz S-Class leasing deals: business / personal

When it comes to luxury saloons, you don’t have to look much further than the S-Class. Quality is up there with the best, as you’d expect from Mercedes, but it’s the use of high-tech equipment that sets the German manufacturer apart. Climatised seats and a night vision display with thermal imaging are just two of the toys that make the S-Class the long-distance cruiser safer and more relaxing than first-class air travel. Full review

Estate Car – Peugeot 308 SW

Peugeot 308 SW leasing deals: business / personal

The new Peugeot 308 is a huge improvement on the old car, with chic styling and vastly superior driving dynamics, but the SW estate variant turns the Golf/Focus rival from challenger to market leader. The 660-litre boot is nothing short of cavernous, and the 308 SW is one of the few estates to look better than the hatchback it’s based on. Full review

SUV – Nissan X-Trail

Nissan X-Trail leasing deals: business / personal

The new X-Trail may share little with its predecessor, running on stretched Qashqai underpinnings and aiming at the lifestyle SUV market rather than the rough and tumble of ‘proper’ off-roaders, but we think it was the right move. The new X-Trail is a more refined, more capable and better looking road car, and it hasn’t sacrificed much in the way of mud-plugging ability. Full review

4x4 – Range Rover Sport

Range Rover Sport leasing deals: business / personal

The Range Rover Sport may have a reputation for being a footballer’s car, but it’s also probably the best all-round car on the market. Luxurious motorway mile-muncher? Check. Capable 4x4? Check. Seven-seat family bus? Check. Sports car? Check. No, it’s not cheap, but when you consider that you’re getting four cars in one, it’s good value. Full review

Coupe – Audi TT

Audi TT leasing deals: business / personal

The departure of the RX-8 and Alfa Romeo Brera left the TT in a class of one, but now the Peugeot RCZ is on its heels, Audi has upped its game. While the RCZ flounders on ageing underpinnings but even with the fuel-sipping Ultra diesel engine, the TT is a cut above. The Virtual Cockpit is a work of art and so is the exterior. And the engine range. And the interior. It’s definitely ‘vorsprung’. Full review

Performance Car – BMW M4

BMW M4 leasing deals: business / personal

With the general trend towards cleaner, greener modes of transport, it’s refreshing to see a performance car which is still a dynamic improvement on its predecessor, as well as an environmental one. It’s better looking too, thanks to the 4 Series designers’ newfound freedom from the shackles of the 3 Series aesthetics.

Sports Car – Jaguar F-Type Coupe

Jaguar F-Type leasing deals: business / personal

It’s almost as though no automotive awards ceremony is complete without the F-Type, such is the magnitude of its success. Any suspicion that the acclaim is undeserved, however, is eliminated from the moment the engine, be it V6 or V8 – it matters little – bursts into life. Add dramatic noise to dramatic performance and dramatic looks and you’ve got the best sports car on sale. Full review

Commercial Vehicle – Mitsubishi L200

Mitsubishi L200 leasing deals: business / personal

The L200 has been around for some time, but that doesn’t stop it being right up at the top of its class. It may not be the best tow car in the segment, or the cheapest, but it’s the best all-rounder. Pop a load bed cover on an L200 and you have the ultimate cross between school run SUV and ready-to-work commercial.

Stewart McKee, Mitsubishi Motors UK’s General Manager for Press, Events and Public Affairs, commented: “We are delighted to receive this award. The iconic Mitsubishi L200 pick-up is a huge success story for us.  At the end of January, sales were up 42 per cent YTD, largely the result of the launch of the L200 Challenger – the company’s best ever value for money pick-up.” Full review

Green Car – Audi A3 e-tron

Audi A3 leasing deals: business / personal

Audi has joined the PHEV revolution, but what separates the Ingolstadt-based company from the competition is that instead of applying the technology to a 4x4 or a sports coupe, it has used a family-friendly, fun-to-drive and desirable hatchback as a starting point. As a result, Audi has built the best plug-in yet. Full review