• Country: Luxembourg
  • Name: Gerhard Kuntschik, President of the Jury Country: Austria Capital: Vienna Population: 9,097,759 Auto Park: 240.000 new registrations (2021)
  • Name: Xavier Daffe Country: Belgium Capital: Bruxelles Population: 11,239,755 Auto Park: 5,9 millions
  • Name: Ilia Seliktar, Honorary President of the Jury and Co-Founder member of the board Country: Bulgaria Capital: Sofia Population: 6,856,602 Auto Park: 2.5 million, year import and registration of new cars - 35 000, second hand - 250 000. Name: Leonid Seliktar Country: Bulgaria Capital: Sofia Population: 6,856,602 Auto Park: 350,000 new vehicles.
  • Name: Ozren Adamović Country: Croatia Capital: Zagreb Population: 3,88 million Auto Park: 1,968,370
  • Name: Petros Soutzis, Co-founder & Vice President of the jury Country: Cyprus Capital: Nicosia Population: 1,141,166 Auto Park: 900,000
  • Name: Vladimir Rybecky Country: Czech Republic Capital: Prague Population: 10 515 669 Auto Park: 6 293 125 registered cars (average age 15,58), 610 405 registered light commercial vehicles, 186 905 registered trucks, 20 489 registered buses (end of the year 2021). Registrations in 2021: 206 876 new cars, 19 660 new LCVs, 8 679 new trucks, 1 367 buses. Car production in 2021: cars 1 105 223, trucks 1 262, buses 4 947.
  • Name: Mikkel Thomsager Country: Denmark Capital: Copenhagen Population: 5,700,000 Auto Park: 2,278,000
  • Name: Tommi Petteri Lempinen Country: Finland Capital: Helsinki Population: 5,300,000
  • Country: France
  • Name: Ioannis Stavropoulos Country: Greece Capital: Athens Population: 10,815,197 Auto Park: 5.200.000 cars, exclude taxi (is about 34.000) LCV and HCV
  • Name: Robert van Ginneken Country: Holland Capital: Amsterdam Population: 17,5 million Auto Park: 9 million of which 400.000 BEV and 145.000 PHEV
  • Name: Gábor Szécsényi Country: Hungary Capital: Budapesta Population: 9,617,512 Auto Park: 4,000,000
  • Name: Achim Stahn Country: Germany Capital: Berlin Population: 83,000,000 Auto Park: 47,700,000
  • Name: Dave Humphreys Country: Ireland Capital: Dublin Population: 6,378,000 Auto Park: 2,515,322
  • Name: Alessio Viola Country: Italy Capital: Rome Population: 60,795,612 Auto Park: 36,900,000
  • Name: Krumislav Barzov Country: Macedonia Capital: Skopje Population: 2,058,539 Auto Park: 400,000
  • Name: Anthony Alfred Darmanin Country: Malta Capital: Valletta Population: 425,000 Auto Park: 410,000 Registered vehicles, approx. 10,000 new vehicles registered each year
  • Name: David Andersen Country: Norway Capital: Oslo Population: 5,136,700 Auto Park: 3 milion
  • Name: Szczepan Mroczek Country: Poland Capital: Warsaw Population: 37,773,915 Auto Park: 25,000,000
  • Name: José Caetano Country: Portugal Capital: Lisbon Population: 10,347,892 Auto Park: 4,480,000
  • Name: Dan Vardie, Founder & Chairman Country: Romania Capital: Bucharest Population: 19,237,691 Auto Park: 8,9 millions
  • Name: Suspended – Petr Menshikh Country: Russia Capital: Moscow Population: 143,975,923
  • Name: Mladen Alvirović Country: Serbia Capital: Belgrad Population: 7,209,764 Auto Park: 2,200,000
  • Name: Rudolf Karpat, Co-founder Country: Slovakia Capital: Bratislava Population: 5,415,949 Auto Park: 2,725,538 Name: Michal Karpat Country: Slovakia Capital: Bratislava Population: 5,5 milion Auto Park: 3,436.018 cars and LCV registered , 2021 sales: 75.700 cars and LCV
  • Name: Matjaz Korošak Country: Slovenia Capital: Ljublijana Population: 2,061,085 Auto Park: 1,100,000
  • Name: Joan Dalmau Country: Spain Capital: Madrid Population: 46,786,605 Auto Park: 29.9 million vehicles
  • Name: Felix Björklund Country: Sweden Capital: Stockholm Population: 10,23 million Auto Park: 4,887,904
  • Name: Markus Rutishauser Country: Switzerland Capital: Bern Population: 8,306,200 Auto Park: 4,503,339
  • Name: Okan Altan Country: Turkey Capital: Ankara Population: 85 million Auto Park: 25,385,084 (End of 2022, February)
  • Name: Richard Aucock Country: United Kingdom Capital: London Population: 64,511,000 Auto Park: 37,000,000
  • Name: Oleg Vasylevskyi Country: Ukraine Capital: Kiev Population: 42,031,000 Auto Park: 10,950,000 cars and commercial vehicles

Latest press release – February 6-th, 2012, Bucharest06 / 02 / 2012

AUTOBEST organization celebrated the 11th Anniversary
The Prague  2012 festivity host an impressive festivity with no less than 8 awards.

   The 11th edition of AUTOBEST AWARDS festivity took place this year on February 2th, in Clarion Congress Hotel in the magical Prague, one of the most beautiful cities of Europe. “We are here at the eleventh AUTBEST Gala awards in Prague, the incredible capital of Czech Republic and one of the jewels of Europe. We can only thank to our hosts for giving us the opportunity to discover this historical city.” said Ilia Seliktar, AUTOBEST President.

   Hyundai Elantra was voted “AUTOBEST 2012”. With a total of 839 points, the winner overtook  Ford Focus – no. 2 with 758 points and Chevrolet Aveo coming third with a total of 744 points, very close to no. 2! Fiat Panda – who won the Autobest award for the previous generation seven years ago, came on 4th with 668 points, followed by Toyota Yaris with 591 points. No less than 10  members of the Jury voted Elantra  as the winner, other 3 gave the first place to Focus and the rest of no. 1 spot been shared by Aveo and Panda. (for detailed results, see Final Ranking in www.autobest.org )

   “I am proud and honored to receive this important award for Hyundai Elantra. We, at Hyundai Motor Europe, are taking very seriously this award, as the first international one for Elantra. Before anything else, at AUTOBEST we appreciate the transparency of the election process. I’ve been in Belgrade for the final 5 test and I personally discovered the passion of all Jury members to test and assess all the cars in the final, following a very clear , transparent process. Thank you Ilia, thank to all the Jury members.” said Allan Rushforth, Senior Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer, Hyundai Motor Europe in receiving the award.

   Ilia Seliktar, the Autobest President, statedThis year, we had a tough competition among 5 cars, all of them extremely performing. But the best buy car of Europe is Hyundai Elantra. I am quick in saying that we discovered at the beginning of the year – almost a month after AUTOBEST announcement – that Elantra convinced American media to receive “North American Car of the Year”. For the first time in the history, we, AUTOBEST region motoring writers and our colleagues from USA and Canada came to the same conclusion. And yes, Hyundai Elantra is the best buy car both in Europe and North America. This is a huge success!.”

   “I’m very pleased to be here with you this evening to accept MANBEST 2011. Without the cooperation of the media, we will not be able to communicate our strategies and policies. I want to thank to all Jury members for this great award. I am honoured!” expressed Carl Peter Forster, member of the board of Tata Motors.  

   “I’m very pleased to be here with you this evening to accept AUTOBEST’s COMPANYBEST award on behalf of the Chevrolet Europe. This is the perfect time to receive such a prestigious awardsaid Andy Higgins Director of Chevrolet Europe for AUTOBEST region, referring to the Chevrolet Centennial, celebrated last year.

   ” I feel very honored to have won the SPORTBEST award, because it is a prestigious award given by an experienced, expert jury,” said Jan Kopecký , the winner of SPORTBEST 2011.

   “We are very honored to receive this prestigious award. At VW we intend to democratize expensive safety technologies, transferring these to small cars as it is the case with City Emergency Brake for the new up! We can see that other competitors are following us and this is very good for all customers” said Prof Dr Stefan Gies, in receiving the “SAFETYBEST 2011” award.

    ”We are proud to receive the prestigious ECOBEST 2011 award for the Chevrolet Volt / Opel Ampera. This is the first European award for our first EVer” said Marc Kempe, Communication Director for Chevrolet Europe. Peter Erhardt, Communication manager for AUTOBEST region at Adam Opel AG added: “This is the right award for Opel Ampera. Many thanks to all Jury members.”  

   “TECHNOBEST 2011” award went to Ford of Europe for the new 1.0L ecoboost engine. “By coincidence, this week we launched the first Focus equipped with this small, but very performing engine. We are very proud to receive this award as a proof that our latest technology in powertrains is recognized as championing the low consumption and very low emissions.” said, Hans Juergen Fuchs, Communication manager at Ford of Europe for AUTOBEST region..

   Gerry McGovern was present on a video link with the public in the AUTOBEST Gala awards. He was thanking for “DESIGNBEST 2011” in the name of his design team, Andrew Wheel one of the designers of the new Range Rover Evoque and Frank Klaas, Worldwide communication Director for Jaguar Land Rover walked on stage to take over the award.

The AUTOBEST Jury would like to thank all the readers from the region for encouraging the project. Also, we would like to thank the PR responsible within the automotive industry for providing all the support in organizing meetings and drive tests of the new products.

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