the Motor COTY is not done in one go at the end of the year, it is a continious process through out the year. It is divided into 4 sections. Australian, Japanese, Eurpoean and American performance car. The magazine go through performance testing of a section of cars every 3 months. For example. they tested the Aussie cars in March, and then the Japs cars in June... and so on. The cars coming 1st, 2nd, 3rd from each section will go through to the final round at the end of the year. Any late entry will be automatically included into the final round of COTY. And this year the Holdens are the late entry so that is why they are included even though Ford (which is considered as a local brand) came 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the Australian section of the COTY, resulting in a total of 5 Aussie cars in the COTY list.

Hope that answers your question Cawimmer