The seven finalists for the prestigious ‘Car of the Year 2008’ accolade have been revealed as the Fiat 500, Ford Mondeo, Kia Cee'd, Mazda 2, Mercedes-Benz C-class, Nissan Qashqai and the Peugeot 308.

The finalists were decided by a first round vote by the 58 European jury members from a list of 35 eligible cars, all launched in the past 12 months.

The second round of voting (deadline 12 November), in which jury members have 25 points to allocate to at least five cars (with no ties for first place), will decide the Car of the Year 2008. The winner will be announced across Europe on Monday 19 November 2007.  A special presentation will be made to the winning car manufacturer at the annual Autocar Awards in London the same evening.

The Car of the Year is in its 45th year. The jury consists of professional motoring writers from 22 European countries. The British jury members are: Steve Cropley, editor-in-chief of Autocar; Andrew English, motoring correspondent of The Daily Telegraph; Paul Horrell, contributing editor, Top Gear magazine; Ray Hutton, motor industry correspondent of The Sunday Times; John Simister, motoring correspondent of The Independent; and David Williams, motoring editor of the Evening Standard. Ray Hutton is the president of the International Jury.

The organising committee consists of seven leading European publications - Autocar in the UK, Auto in Italy, L'Automobile in France, Autopista in Spain, Auto Visie in Holland, Stern in Germany and Vi Bilagare in Sweden.