The shortlist of seven nominations for the European Car of the Year 2006 has been announced, chosen from 28 candidates.

All of the contenders had to be available in five or more European markets either now or within the next month, and needed to be capable of over 5000 annual sales. Judges from 22 countries then voted for their favourites, including our own Steve Cropley. Autocar is one of the seven magazines involved in the organisation of the Car of the Year award.

The final seven are the Alfa Romeo 159, BMW 3-series, Citroen C1/Toyota Aygo/Peugeot 107 triplets, Mazda 5, Renault Clio, Toyota Yaris and VW Passat. Each jury member then has 25 points to award to at least five of these cars, with a maximum of 10 points for an individual car.

The Seat Leon, Peugeot 1007 and Suzuki Swift only narrowly missed out on making the shortlist, but the rest of the 28 received very few votes – even the technology packed Mercedes S-class lagged a long way behind.

The winner will be announced at the Autocar Awards on November 14, and the trophy will be given o the winning manufacturer in January, who can then use the title and Car of the Year logo for a year.

Source = Autocar

I'm rooting for the Alfa.

Repost: http://www.germancarzone.com/showthread.php?t=476 (European "Car of the year 2006".)