• 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

Autobest Press Release – 14 December 200508 / 12 / 2010

Kia Rio is the “AUTOBEST of 2006” among the emerging markets of Europe
The awards ceremony will take place at the end of January, in Kiev, Ukraine
(December 14-th, 2005)

Kia Rio was voted “AUTOBEST 2006”. With a total of 706 points, the winner overtook Ford Focus II, which scored 659 points, and Renault Clio III, that came third with a total of 599 points. 9 members of the Jury selected Kia Rio as the winner, and the other 3 gave the first place to Ford Focus II.

Despite the fact that Renault Clio III was not voted no. 1 by any of the Jury members, it achieved important points, placing it on the third place. The forth finalist, Chevrolet Matiz/Spark, scored 467 points and Suzuki Swift, 449 points.

“This year’s competition was very tight and all the finalist car models are extremely close to the AUTOBEST philosophy. In front of Ford Focus II and Renault Clio III, Kia Rio emerged as the winner thanks to its fantastic value for money, great versatility and the important efforts paid by Kia in developing an excellent dealership network across entire Europe and in improving the delivery of spare parts. AUTOBEST International Jury is proud to award Rio as the Best Buy Car of 2005”, Mr. Dan Vardie, AUTOBEST Chairman, stated.

“The AUTOBEST 2006 award for the Kia Rio is a splendid achievement for the growing Kia brand,” commented Jean-Charles Lievens, Senior Vice President Kia Motors Europe. “Jury members from the emerging Eastern European countries have given our B-Segment newcomer the strongest possible endorsement as the ideal car for motorists in this region.” Yong-Hwan Kim, Senior Executive Vice-President and COO of Kia Motors Corporation stated, “This award marks the first time an Asian car maker has been awarded a car of the year distinction by AUTOBEST in the ‘emerging markets’ of Europe, which clearly demonstrates that Kia is in tune with the needs of the European customers and committed to expansion throughout our largest overseas market.”

The Jury made its decision taking into consideration 13 criteria, each of them counting a specific number of points that reflect a different importance in the final vote of each car. The price, with 60 points out of a total of 240 available to be distributed among the finalists, is the most important. Other sensitive issues for the region, like distribution network, service and spare parts availability, consumption, versatility and boot capacity, count for 20 points each. All of these specific criteria for the customers in emerging countries total more than a half of the total number of points. Other issues, common for all European countries, like new technologies, handling, dynamics, environmental friendly, are less important. The design, evaluated with 30 points maximum, becomes more and more important for the clients in emerging countries.

The fifth edition of AUTOBEST AWARDS FESTIVITY will take place at the end of January 2006 in Kiev, Ukraine. Following the tradition, AUTOBEST International Jury grants the awards in different country every year. Last year, the awards festivity was held in Bucharest, Romania. Besides the AUTOBEST winners, in Kiev are also invited important people and decision makers from the automotive industry in Kiev and in Europe as well, stars, sports people and famous personalities in Ukraine.

AUTOBEST Jury thanks the readers form the region for encouraging the project and the PR responsible in the automotive industry for providing all the support in organizing meetings and drive tests of the new products.

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