A special Christmas present for both our readers

THIS time last Christmas Toyota's tiniest offering got robbed of a not-at-all prestigious award, and it's all my fault.

Regular readers might recall that last year I offered up some honours to the good, the bad and the ugly of 2009, and that Toyota's radical little IQ got pipped to the post by Ford's Fiesta at the very last minute, largely because I wimped out and said the oriental city car's boot was too small.

Yep, it's time to revive the Life On Cars Awards, in a time-honoured tradition dating back to, oooh, this time last year. Only this time the job of working out what this year's best car was is even harder, because there's no less than five motors to mull over.

For starters, there's the Citroen DS3, which not only got shortlisted for the official European Car of the Year award but was also named by Stuff Magazine as the nation's trendiest car. I still think the clutch is a little lighter than I'd like but in every version I've tried is fabulously crisp through the corners, the interior gives off an air of quality and it looks great. It is that rare thing; a Citroen that's cool.

But it's got competition in the surprising shape of the Suzuki Swift, which I wasn't expecting to be anything Earth-shattering but it bowled me over by being a small sports car in disguise. I still think it's not quite as funky as its predecessor and that the boot lip's too high, but everything from its slick gearchange to its sense of fun when you drive it proved hugely impressive.

The car, I reckon, everyone at The Champion offices loved was Skoda's Yeti, which offers much more than just distinctive styling. It's like a Land Rover Discovery, but usefully smaller and much, much cheaper. If you like taking your dog for walks in the countryside, I cannot think of a better car for the job.

Certainly its roomier than the Honda's CR-Z, a sporty and slightly cramped coupe I drove and fell in love with on a couple of occasions this year. It achieves the historic feat of being the first hybrid car you'd actually want to buy because it's a nice car, and not as an eco-friendly statement. Good looking, revvy and fun to drive, it's a real contender.

It's only matched in the style stakes by our final contender, the Peugeot RCZ, which I've already had several arguments with readers over because I reckon it is truly beautiful. Striking, sporty and surprisingly practical, I'm not surprised Peugeot has had such a hit on its hands with this coupe.

It's a special treat for Champion-reading car lovers, and my way of saying Merry Christmas.

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