It’s two years in a row at the top of the luxury sector for Audi‘s A8.

The car has had a quiet year in terms of changes, with Audi focussing on big updates to the A3, A4 and A6, having revised its biggest saloon in ’07. Audi will also have to mothball its claim to have the lowest-emitting luxury car with the new BMW 730d’s 192g/km eclipsing the 2.8 FSI petrol A8, which had held the record with 199g/km.

This category is an award that tends to be held for two years at a time before finding a new home, with Jaguar‘s XJ the previous winner in 2007 and 2006, beating the previous Merc S-class incumbent. Those previous winners show how far Audi has come in building its prestige brand image, and demonstrate that even at the very top of the pricing tree it can come out on top against the stiffest competition.

The voting was as tight as fleet sales are in the sector itself, with the BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar rivals all running the big Audi close.