How to be Candidate

• To be eligible for the Car of the Year award, a car should be in series production during the current year, and be a model that has been available to most members of the Jury for a test drive sufficient to form a founded opinion, before the first voting round.
  
• To be considered as a CANDIDATE the car should have been commercially available in at least five European markets where of two major markets before 31st December of the current year. It is understood that a price list has been published, and that orders are accepted by distributors and dealers at the published prices.
  
• All the cars who are presented during the current year, before the publication of the long list (28 october), are suitable to be elected as a Candidate.

Candidate requirements

• Have an entirely or essentially new structure and design and entirely or essentially new mechanical units. (The engine, drive train and suspension are the “mechanical units.”)
  
• Have a structure and/or mechanical units sufficiently modified to seriously alter the car’s appeal, its destination and market position. A new body or powerplant on an existing underpan does not necessarily rank as a “new structure,” unless the car’s character and its market destination are altered.
  
• Note: An estate car derived from an existing passenger car or vice versa does not rank as a new model.