Here’s a surprise; it hit me when I first viewed the 2019 World Car of the Year contenders. Despite an unhealthy interest in cars, I had essentially no opinion on most of the candidates this year.

It’s time. At roughly 100 pictures and thousands of words, the finish line looms.

In anticipation for the finale, we reflect on eight cars which nearly made the cut.

Prior to our finale, the wonderful world of wedge-shaped supercars nears.

Outside the final twenty cars, we reach vehicles quick by the standards of today.

With exotic cars on the horizon, a select few sport compacts soon fight back.

Kicking off the top half of our list in action, more serious contenders emerge.

Mixing unlikely contenders with storied nameplates, the mission continues.

Any eager corner carver will be in for a treat in this segment of our countdown.

It’s attack of the turbos, as we drive our way on to the next level of the rankings.

Sporting pretensions increase, as we move further up the ranks in this series.

This collection of oddball, boxy cars marks the humble beginnings of the list.

With the advent of events like Radwood, it’s about time we turned our attention to the last stand of the old world automobile. Most carmakers had finally recovered from the fuel crises of decade prior; with fuel injection and turbocharging soon to become a mainstay of automotive technology.

On the subject of mid-size cars available as of March 2018, the B8 Passat continues to be one of my preferred designs. That being said, it is still a little on the aggressive side. Are others fairing any better?

Oops, not anymore.

The ranking only lists M, i and Alpina models - or this post would go on forever.

It’s legal to import to the US, so post Twingo memes in this thread to celebrate.

Any ideas what this is? Will post hints if everyone gets stumped.

Three years ago, a similar list of this nature was made on Oppo, let’s see how far we’ve gone since then…

The year is 1968, and you have three small sports saloons to choose from.