For the first time in the 29-year history of the WesBank/SA Guild of Motoring Journalists Car of the Year competition, the announcement of the finalists was made at the 2013 Johannesburg International Motor Show (JIMS).

The nine 2014 WesBank/SAGMJ Car of the Year finalists in alphabetical order are:

• Audi A3 Sportback 1.4 FSI
• Jaguar F-Type 3.0 V6S
• Lexus IS 350 F Sport
• Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG
• Peugeot 208 GTI
• Porsche Cayman S
• Renault Clio 4 66 kW Turbo
• Volkswagen Golf 7 TSI 90 kW
• Volvo V40 D3

Last year’s winner - Porsche’s Boxster - was a controversial choice seeing that its R700 000+ pricetag actually puts the car out of the budget reach of most South African motorists. Previous winners include the Hyundai Elantra 1.8 GLS during 2012 whilst diesel cars were popular with the judges in 2011 when the BMW’s 530d and VW’s Polo 1.6 TDI shared the honours.  

This year’s finalists has four sportscars in the running including the new Porsche Cayman S.

We are a little surprised and saddened about some of the semi-finalists that did not make the finalist count including Honda’s CR-V 2.2 Elegance AWD manual and the Ford EcoSport 1.0 EcoBoost Titanium.

The winner will be announced at a WesBank-hosted function that will be hosted during February 2014.

In other motoring related news, if you are headed to the 2013 Johannesburg International Motor Show this week, make sure you check out these five awesome attractions.