Your guide to the best cars from the 2022 Autocar Awards

General Guides 

If you're sitting there thinking about your next lease car but you just can't decide, we might be able to help. Or we might just make it worse. If it does make it worse we're going to blame the people at Autocar. This is their choice of the best cars around based on the results of the recent Autocar Awards so it's only fair they take the blame.

There's a huge list of winners in a whole host of categories that we won't delve into right now.

Alongside awards for various people's immense contribution to the automotive industry, the car awards include best bets for future classics, best company car (Tesla Model 3), best dream car (Chevrolet Corvette Stingray apparently), best manufacturer (BMW), and Britain's best driver's car (Porsche 911 GT3).

We don't have the time to go into the whole list but you can check it out for yourself if you want to know more. In the meantime, we've taken a handful of the most likely category winners to help you make that final decision.

Best Small Car

It's not a surprise to see the Fiat 500 take this one. Its compact size is as handy on a narrow country lane as it is in the medieval Italian streets where it grew up. Its small dimensions and good visibility make it extremely manoeuvrable in the city and an absolute blast to drive on a twisty road. The latest models are all-electric too, and with an official range of 199 miles they're perfectly usable for the occasional longer journey.

Best Electric Car

On the subject of electricity, given its current Car of the Year status the Kia EV6 was almost guaranteed to take this title too. The styling isn't everyone's cup of tea, and yes, the wheels do look very large, but that same innovation carries through to the interior, which uses the extra space and flat floor of an EV brilliantly. It feels light and airy, with more storage space than a small warehouse. The 77.4kWh battery offers class-leading range, and when the 328 miles do run out, it can be charged faster than almost anything else thanks to the 800V electrical system.

Best SUV

Describing the Land Rover Defender as an SUV doesn't really do it justice. Technically, it's an accurate description, but the Defender is more about the utility rather than the sport. The Defender has been designed to pick up where the old one left off when it ceased production in 2016, and it does exactly that but with a bit more of the comfort and refinement required for the road. It's comfortable and well-equipped, and yet it retains the ability to go places other SUVs fear to tread.

Best Family Car

There's clearly still no change in the popularity of the SUV, as proved by the Skoda Enyaq iV taking the best family car award. And it's also an EV. What Skoda has done is take an electric SUV and make it sensible and affordable. It sits on the same platform as the VW ID.4 but it does away with some of the high-tech styling to create a roomy and practical family car that just concentrates on being a car. A great interior, comfortable ride, and loads of space. What more do you need from a family car?

Best All-Rounder

What do you do if you want a little piece of all of the above? You choose a Cupra Formentor, just like Autocar did. It's a hatchback, an estate, an SUV, and with the right engine choice it can even be a ‘hot' version of any of them. It's got the rugged looks and raised height of an SUV for easy loading. The rear seats fold flat to create a usefully large estate car. Opt for the current range-topper and you also get 306bhp and four-wheel drive system.

The Cupra Formentor really does tick an awful lot of boxes. And you can lease one here.

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