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<h1 id="h-drive-car-of-the-year-2019">Drive Car of the Year 2019</h1>

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In 2019 we got down to business with Drive Commercial Vehicle of the Year. The Expert is what its name implies, and as such it makes light work of heavy loads, resulting in the Peugeot Expert being a convincing winner.

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If you need a new workhorse - whether it is a ute, a van or a four-wheel drive - Drive's inaugural Commercial Car of the Year awards has you, and your business, covered.

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As Drive turns 25, we're also celebrating 15 years of bringing you Drive Car of the Year Awards. Take a trip down memory lane with us as we look at the previous winners of this prestigious award.

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<div class="wp-block-drive-blocks-past-winners"><h3 class="text-center">Drive Car of the Year Past Winners</h3><p class="text-center max-w-3xl mx-auto">As Drive turns 25, we're also celebrating 15 years of bringing you Drive Car of the Year Awards. Take a trip down memory lane with us as we look at the previous winners of this prestigious award.</p><img src="https://prod-boot.drive.com.au/wp-content/plugins/drive-post-editor/assets/build/src/img/past-winners.png" alt="past-winner" class="mx-auto"/></div>

Best 4WD 2019

Best Recreational Ute 2019

Best 4&#215;4 Work Ute 2019

Best 4&#215;2 Work Ute 2019

Best Small Van 2019

Best Medium Van 2019

Best Large Van 2019

2019

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Car of the Year 2019

2025

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2024

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2023

DRIVE

2022

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2021

Drive Car of the Year Winners group photo

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2020

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2018

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2017

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2016

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020.
 
Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.

Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30)
Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner 
Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner

Alex Misoyannis

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines as a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.

Drive - Australia&#039;s home of Car News, Expert Reviews, Independent Advice, Specs and Guides and Cars for Sale

Drive

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner

Deputy News Editor

Emma has been on our television screens for over a decade. Most of her time in the industry has been spent at racetracks reporting at major motorsport events in Australia - from TCR and Superbikes to Porsche Sprint Challenge and Supercars. Emma has also hosted various MotoGP and F1 events interviewing the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Jack Miller. Having previously presented on an automotive show, she made her move to the Drive family in 2020.
Fiercely proud of her Italian heritage, Emma is a coffee loving, stylish-black wearing resident of Melbourne.

Emma Notarfrancesco

Emma has been on our television screens for over a decade. Most of her time in the industry has been spent at racetracks reporting at major motorsport events in Australia - from TCR and Superbikes to Porsche Sprint Challenge and Supercars. Emma has also hosted various MotoGP and F1 events interviewing the likes of Daniel Ricciardo and Jack Miller. Having previously presented on an automotive show, she made her move to the Drive family in 2020. Fiercely proud of her Italian heritage, Emma is a coffee loving, stylish-black wearing resident of Melbourne.

Senior Presenter

Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.

Ethan Cardinal

Content Coordinator

Journalist 

Ilana is a Melbourne-based journalist who was previously a copywriter in the Big Apple. Having moved to Melbourne for her Master of Journalism, she has written articles about food, farm machinery, fashion, and now the fast and furious. Her dream car has been a Mini Cooper since the fifth grade, eyeing its style and petite size.

Ilana Cohen

Ilana Cohen, Author at Drive

News Cadet Journalist

With over 20 years of experience in digital publishing, James Ward has worked within the automotive landscape since 2007 and brings experience from the publishing, manufacturer and lifestyle side of the industry together to spearhead Drive's multi-media content direction.

James Ward

In writing and presenting content for Drive, James understands that the needs of buyers will vary from car to car, and through his own family experience, knows what works best for when readers are dealing with day-to-day family challenges, and when they can simply relax and enjoy the drive. Much of his work is behind the scenes, guiding the strategy that steers the content publishing across all channels, but if given a chance will never shy away from getting his hands dirty off road, or at pace on a racetrack. James has owned dozens of cars, run a supercar club, competed in club and amateur level motorsport, and was even a finalist in the search for an Australian Top Gear presenter.

Director of Content

Jemimah is Drive's Consumer Editor. She has more than a decade of editorial experience and has previously worked in property and lifestyle journalism for Domain, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and REA Group, among many other publications.

Jemimah Clegg

Jemimah Clegg, Author at Drive

Consumer Editor

Jess Lydka Morris spent several years working in lifestyle content in the UK at the likes of Marks &amp; Spencer, Red Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar. Having moved to Australia ‘for a year, tops’ in 2015, she travelled every state and territory, lived in a hostel for far too long, and worked in the commercial team at Drive for three years before getting back into editorial after welcoming her son in 2022.

Jess Lydka-Morris

Journalist

Jordan is a motoring journalist based in Melbourne with a lifelong passion for cars. He has been surrounded by classic Fords and Holdens, brand-new cars, and everything in between from birth, with his parents’ owning an automotive workshop in regional Victoria. Jordan started writing about cars in 2021, and joined the Drive team in 2024.

Jordan Hickey

Jordan Hickey, Author at Drive

News Journalist

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. 

More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

Kathryn Fisk

Kathryn Fisk, Author at Drive

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

Senior Journalist

Kez Casey migrated from behind spare parts counters to writing about cars over ten years ago. Raised by a family of automotive workers, Kez grew up in workshops and panel shops before making the switch to reviews and road tests for The Motor Report, Drive and CarAdvice.

Kez Casey

Prior to life as a motor noter, Kez worked various roles within dealerships, from detailing to sales, before settling into service and parts departments with brands like Toyota, Renault, Kia and Mercedes-Benz. Looking back further still, Kez’s older brothers were in the panel trade, so after school many an evening was spent bleeding brakes, disassembling and reassembling cars, trucks and tractors or wet-sanding, buffing, and final-finishing – building an eye for detail in the process.

Contributer

Contributor

Max is the News Publishing Coordinator for Drive. He enjoys creating engaging digital content, including videos, podcasts, interactive maps, and graphs. Prior to Drive, he studied at Monash University and gained experience working for various publications. He grew up playing Burnout 3: Takedown on the PS2 and was disappointed when real life car races didn’t have the same physics.

Max Stevens

Max Stevens, Author at Drive

Rob Margeit is an award-winning Australian motoring journalist and editor who has been writing about cars and motorsport for over 25 years. A former editor of Australian Auto Action, Rob’s work has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Wheels, Motor Magazine, Street Machine and Top Gear Australia. Rob’s current rides include a 1996 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and a 2000 Honda HR-V Sport.

Rob Margeit

Rob Margeit has been an automotive journalist for over 20 years, covering both motorsport and the car industry. Rob joined CarAdvice in 2016 after a long career at Australian Consolidated Press. Rob covers automotive news and car reviews while also writing in-depth feature articles on historically significant cars and auto manufacturers. He also loves discovering obscure models and researching their genesis and history.

Features Editor

Sam Purcell has been writing about cars, four-wheel driving and camping since 2013, and obsessed with anything that goes brum-brum longer than he can remember. Sam joined the team at CarAdvice/Drive as the off-road Editor in 2018, after cutting his teeth at Unsealed 4X4 and Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adventures.

Off-road writer of the Year, Winner - Sam Purcell

Sam Purcell

Before landing a gig writing about it for a living, Sam Purcell grew up with that typical obsession with cars and trucks, with his earliest memories coming from the back – and on dad’s knee behind the wheel – of a 1985 Land Rover 110 V8. From there, he has owned a couple of old Land Rovers of his own, and has been lucky to spend time behind the wheel of just about every four-wheel drive on the market, putting them through their paces off-road.

Off-Road Editor

Sam Purcell has been writing about cars, four-wheel driving and camping since 2013, and obsessed with anything that goes brum-brum longer than he can remember. Sam joined the team at CarAdvice/Drive as the off-road Editor in 2018, after cutting his teeth at Unsealed 4X4 and Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adventures. Off-road writer of the Year, Winner - Sam Purcell

Susannah Guthrie has been a journalist for over a decade, covering everything from world news to fashion, entertainment, health and now cars. Having previously worked across titles like The New Daily, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, People Magazine and Cosmopolitan, Susannah now relishes testing family cars with the help of her husband and three-year-old son.

Susannah Guthrie

Susannah Guthrie has been a journalist since she was 18, and has spent the last two years writing about cars for Drive, CarAdvice, CarSales and as a motoring columnist for several in-flight and hotel magazines. Susannah’s background is news journalism, followed by several years spent in celebrity journalism, entertainment journalism and fashion magazines and a brief stint hosting a travel TV show for Channel Ten. She joined Drive in 2020 after spending a year and a half at the helm of Harper’s BAZAAR and ELLE’s online platforms. Susannah holds a Bachelor in Media and Communications from the University of Melbourne and cut her teeth as an intern for Time Inc in New York City. She has also completed a television presenting course with the National Institute of Dramatic Art. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and her one-year-old son who, despite her best efforts, does not yet enjoy a good road trip.

Tom started out in the automotive industry by exploiting his photographic skills but quickly learned journalists got the better end of the deal. With tenures at CarAdvice, Wheels Media, and now Drive, Tom's breadth of experience and industry knowledge informs a strong opinion on all things automotive. At Drive, Tom covers automotive news, car reviews, advice, and holds a special interest in long-form feature stories.

Tom Fraser

As part of the Drive content team, Tom covers automotive news, car reviews, advice, and holds a special interest in long-form feature stories.

Production Editor

Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.

Tung Nguyen

News Editor

Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.

Drive Car of the Year 2019

Drive Car of the Year Light Commercial Awards

Drive Car of the Year SUV Awards

Drive Car of the Year Past Winners