Ten cars reached the final of the contest for the National Prize “Car of the Year in Moldova”, organized for the second time by “Auto Expert” magazine with the support of the Auto Press Association in Moldova. Members of the jury, composed of the most important auto journalists, Monday November 13 have nominated the finalists that will compete for the main title “Car of the Year 2006 in Moldova”. The assessment criteria have included design, quality, reliability, safety, road holding and price-quality ratio. Thus, the ten finalists are the following: Chevrolet Aveo; Fiat Grande Punto; Opel Corsa; Peugeot 207; Ford S-Max; Renault Clio III; Hyundai Santa Fe; VW Jetta; Nissan Note; Toyota RAV4. These cars were selected from a number of 50 completely new models, promoted on the Moldovan market starting 1 January 2006. They will be tested by all the jury’s members. While assessing the automobiles qualified for the final there will take into account the relevance of each model on the local market, besides standards of comfort, performance and price-quality ratio. The cars that do not take the test-drive are excluded from the contest. The automobiles that will win the title “Car of the Year 2006 in Moldova” in each class are chosen by the public through voting. All the models were divided into 15 classes and have their own code. This year the contest has a special nomination – The Novelty of the Year. The victory of a class model directly depends on the number of votes that it gathered, strictly on the consumers’ appreciation. Participants in the contest will be awarded by organizers, partners and sponsors. The public can vote through enquiries from the “Аuto Expert” or “Auto Bazaar” magazines, accessing on-line pages or via SMS-voting. According to the organizers, the contest’s purpose is to determine the best automobiles of those officially sold in each market segment.