Scroll below to see the winners of this Year's Continental Irish Car and Van of the Year Awards...
Later today at a gala event in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, the 2014 Continental Irish Car of the Year will be revealed so here’s a look at the cars nominated.
The 28 voting members of the Irish Motoring Writers’ Association (IMWA) have cast their votes and the original list of 51 cars has been cut down to just 16 finalists.
The cars featured in this year's 2014 Continental Irish Car of the Year Awards include:
BMW 4 Series
Citroen C4 Picasso
Dacia Sandero
Ford Fiesta ST
Kia Carens
Mazda6
Nissan Juke Nismo
Peugeot 2008
Peugeot 208 GTi
Range Rover
Renault Clio
Skoda Octavia
Toyota Auris
Toyota Corolla
Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagen Golf GTI
"What an excellent range of cars in this year's shortlist," commented IMWA Chairman Gerry Murphy, "the most exciting for a number of years - they really show how, in latter years, the car manufacturers have developed a range of totally new car segments - it won't be an easy task to choose a winner from this great line up".
So there you have it. We’ll know the winners of the various categories later on today, so keep an eye out on the JOE Twitter account as we’ll have our resident petrol head down at the event keeping track of what’s going on. We'll also get a look at the 2014 Continental Irish Van of the Year, so keep an eye out for that announcement too.
UPDATE - And the winners are...
Ireland's motoring journalists flocked to the gala event in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry earlier today for the 2014 Continental Irish Car and Van of the Year Awards (and also because they heard there would be free food - which there was).
There were a number of front runners for the main event including the VW Golf GTi, the Mazda6 and the Toyota Corolla, but very few would have guessed what the eventual winner would be. The overall Car of the Year was chosen from the five Car of the Year finalists, so don't be surprised when you see the same car winning two awards.
So without further ado, here's a look at the winners of the various categories along with the 2014 Irish Car and Van of the Year as voted by members of the Irish Motoring Writers' Association.
Irish Small Car of the Year - Peugeot 2008
Irish Compact Family Car of the Year - Citroen C4 Picasso
Irish Family Car of the Year - Mazda6
Irish Executive/Luxury Car of the Year - Range Rover
Irish Performance Car of the Year - Golf GTi
Irish Van of the Year - Mercedes Benz Sprinter
Irish Car of the Year - Citroen C4 Picasso
So there you have it. The main picture above features Frédéric Soulier, Managing Director of Citroën Ireland, model Adrienne Murphy and, of course, the 2014 Continental Irish Car of the Year Award.
