Of the 21 finalists named Monday for the New York Auto Show's World and Performance awards, only two come from American automakers.

The Ford Fiesta is the only vehicle produced by Detroit's "Big Three" to make the list of 11 finalists for the World Car of the Year, which will be presented April 9 at the auto show.

The Performance Car of the Year field was similarly dominated by imports, with only the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 making the list of 10 finalists.

Other than the Fiesta, which sprung from Ford's European operations and is to be sold in the United States in 2010, the other 10 finalists in the World category were: the Audi A4, BMW 7 Series, Citroen C5 Sedan, Fiat 500, Honda Fit (Jazz), Jaguar XF, Mazda6, Nissan GT-R, Toyota iQ and Volkswagen Golf VI.

The other nine cars making up the field for the Performance category include the Audi RS6 Avant, BMW 135i, Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG, Mitsubishi Evo X, Nissan GT-R, Porsche 911 Carrera and Subaru Impreza WRX STI.

To be eligible, a car has to be in production and sold in at least five countries and on two continents. The final winners will be picked by a team of 59 judges -- mostly motoring journalists.

This is the fifth year for the award, which has gone to the Audi A6 in 2005, BMW 3 Series in 2006, Lexus LS460 in 2007 and Mazda2/Mazda Demio last year.