ONE OF the smallest cars in the running for this year's Scottish Car of the Year title walked away with the biggest award - the Hyundai i10 won the main prize despite being up against some of the most prestigious names in the automotive industry.

The award ceremony is the culmination of a year's evaluation by writers from the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers (ASMW) and the little i10 also became the first car to lift the all-new Scottish Car of the Year trophy, designed and supplied by the Bridge of Weir Leather Company.

Alisdair Suttie, president of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers, said: "Looking at the list of nominees and category winners, it's clear it would take something special to win overall and the Hyundai i10 has everything. Great value, practical, affordable to own and hugely enjoyable to drive, it's the perfect small car. Hyundai can feel justifiably proud of themselves to have won Scottish Car of the Year.

"All of the other category winners can also give themselves a well-earned pat on the back as the judges are a tough bunch to please. Whether it's a supercar or used car, the ASMW members are always looking for the car that best suits the needs of its owner.'

The Hyundai first won the 'Small Car' category, and then went up against the winners of 14 other categories - Family, MPV, Executive, Estate, Crossover, SUV/4x4, Sports, Coupe, Drop-Top, Hot Hatch, Design and Innovation, Electric, Diesel and Used Car.

It was an evening of double wins, too, for BMW and Jaguar.

The German marque collected trophies for the 220d in the Diesel category, while the unique i3 won the Electric car section.

Jaguar's success came for its Jaguar F-Type in the Coupe section and its designer, Ian Callum, was there to pick up the award for the Design and Innovation award, a new category sponsored by the organisers of next year's Concours of Elegance event in Edinburgh, for the new Jaguar XE.

The stunning McLaren 650S - newly arrived in Scotland via a new dealership, McLaren Glasgow, which is part of the Park Group in Hamilton - won the Sports award.

Mazda took the Family category with its Mazda3, while the SEAT Leon ST was voted the Estate winner. Citroën's Grand C4 Picasso earned it the MPV winner's award, while the Suzuki S-Cross was another car beat all-comers in the Crossover category.

A rejuvenated Jeep brand, saw its Cherokee earn the plaudits in the SUV square-off, while another all-wheel-drive car to impress was the Volkswagen Golf R, crowned best Hot Hatch.

From the Soft-top section, the winner was the Audi A3 Cabriolet, while in the Executive sector, Lexus' IS came out on top.

The newly created Used Car award went the way of the Ford Focus, which in its original guise was the recipient of the first Scottish Car of the Year title in 1998.

The SCOTY Hall of Fame

1998: Ford Focus

1999: Jaguar S-Type

2000: Audi A2

2001: Jaguar X-Type

2002: Mazda6

2003: Volvo XC90

2004: Peugeot 407

2005: BMW 3 Series

2006: Jaguar XK

2007: Ford Mondeo

2008: Ford Fiesta

2009: Land Rover Discovery 4

2010: Kia Sportage

2011: Range Rover Evoque

2012: Dacia Duster

2013: Volkswagen Golf

2014: Hyundai i10

The winners:

Small and overall - The Hyundai i10 has been a sales hit across the UK with 22,000 examples of the latest model sold since it went on sale in January, 2014. It is also Scotland's favourite Hyundai model, achieving more than 2200 sales so far this year. Priced from £8595, it can be anything from a stylish first car, to a great little fuel-sipping runabout whose features include air conditioning and Bluetooth connectivity as standard.

SUV - The all-new Jeep Cherokee won the SUV title and comes in three main trim levels and is equipped with a new 2.0-litre MultiJet II turbo diesel delivering 170hp (with a new and pretty damned good nine-speed automatic gearbox) and 140hp (using a six-speed manual). The range starts at £25,495 and goes to £37,195.

MPV - Citroën's Grand C4 Picasso took the MPV category and has already been named BBC TopGear Magazine's 'Family Car of the Year 2013' and What Car? 'MPV of the Year 2014'. It's an extremely practical car, and you can tell this has been designed from the ground up to be what 'it says on the tin' - a very able MPV.

Coupé - Jaguar F-Type's win in the Coupé section was an easy choice. It's a fantastic bit of eye candy and it has innovation and quality stamped into its DNA thanks to a superb handling set-up and a fiercely competitive engine.

Soft-top - Audi's A3 Drop-top winner, the A3 Cabriolet is priced from £26,085 to £35,265, but for a bit of added spice you can pay close to £40k for the outstanding S3 Cabriolet, which has 296hp at its disposal. For those with less demanding needs, the ideal choice is an entry level 1.6 TDI, which can do 74.3mpg with CO2 emissions of just 99g/km to keep you in the zero road tax bracket. The more powerful petrol and TDI engines in each range are also available with the added reassurance of quattro all-wheel-drive.

Family - The Mazda3 is a handsome winner and can come in many guises via a 36-strong model range. These are priced from £16,995 to £23,745 and they combines the striking new Kodo design with acclaimed Skyactiv engineering. There's a choice of 1.5-litre 99hp petrol engine; or 2.0-litre with either 118 or 163hp power output, and a 2.2-litre 146hp turbodiesel, with the best of those achieving 72.4mpg.

Sportscar - that nomenclature seems a little understated for the stonking McLaren 650S - which, as the name suggest has 650 galloping horses at its disposal from a 3.8-litre V8 petrol engine. It has an achievable top speed of 207mph - and will get you from 0-100mph in just 5.7 seconds, which is comparable to the McLaren F1 car! You'll need a few tonnes of grain or some record breaking tup sales to afford this one though - it costs just shy of £200,000.

Executive - the Lexus IS is a luxury sports saloon that offers gives the option of a subtle hybrid platform ... a refined alternative to the usual diesel choices, while the low CO2 is good news for company car drivers. There's two power choices - a 2.5-litre V6 petrol engine in conventional form in the IS250 or the IS300h, the first in the range to feature the full hybrid Lexus Hybrid Drive system, with which 65mpg-plus is possible.

Hot hatch - One of my favourites this year was the excellent Golf R from Volkswagen. The 296hp R is the fastest Golfs ever, yet it is also one of the safest thanks to its 4Motion four-wheel-drive set-up. It has a version of VW's four-cylinder 2.0-litre turbocharged TSI petrol engine from the Golf GTI, but developed to produce maximum power of 296hp, which can do the 0-62mph run in just 4.9 seconds with the optional DSG gearbox. And, thanks to clever engine management, it has a combined fuel consumption of 39.8 mpg, or slightly more with the DSG.

Estate - SEAT's Leon Sports Tourer (ST) has a 587-litre load space and some pretty impressive performance and handling attributes to boot. With prices starting from £17,110 on-the-road, and the SCOTY award-winning FR 2.0 TDI 184hp coming in at £23,815, it's also a pretty good buy. The FR version can shift from zero to 62 mph in 7.8 seconds but it will also allow you 65.7 miles per gallon on the combined cycle.

Diesel - BMW's 220d features TwinPower Turbo technology to achieve a maximum power output of 190hp and 400Nm torque. With the standard six-speed manual gearbox, the it can return an average fuel consumption of 64.2mpg and a CO2 output of 115g/km. But with the impressive eight-speed auto, these figures hit 68.9mpg and 107g/km, respectively. The 220d Coupé is priced from £26,865 for a Sport derivative.