As is the case every year, my favorite car magazine, Car & Driver is preparing for it’s January “10 Best” issue. The C&D staff creates a list of nominees, rounds up the cars for one last assessment, and then decides on the final list of 10 cars to earn the 10 Best honor. This year, they are holding a contest. To enter the contest, you choose which cars you think will win the award and write a 50 word essay describing why you should be the winner if you are one of the contestants who guessed the list correctly.

I just filled out my contest entry form. If you’re curious, these were the 10 cars I chose:

Mazda Mazdaspeed 3 (displacing the Acura TSX as Best Sports Sedan - even though the MS3 is a hatch but it still counts)
BMW 3-series (a shoe-in with the new 335)
Porsche Boxster/Cayman (best luxury sports car)
Honda Fit (best K-car on the market..easy pick)
VW Rabbit (this recently won C&D’s comparo of all the cars in it’s class so I’m choosing it over the others)
Chrysler 300/300C/300C SRT-8 (best full size.. there’s no reason why this ‘06 winner doesn’t still earn the award in this category)
Chevrolet Corvette (best sports car… mustang gt500? please..)
Ford Mustang (it was either this or the RX-8… given the choice I would take an RX-8 but for the purpose of this list, I think the Mustang gets on the list as best muscle car. The RX-8 is getting long-in-the-tooth sorely needing a power boost to compete)
Honda Accord (best family car… I thought for a second about the all-new Camry but no way C&D editors will choose the boring Camry)
Mazda MX-5 (best roadster….neither the solstice or sky are good enough to replace this)

I really wanted to include the RS4 in the list but I just couldn’t quite get myself to do it. It’s a fantastic car that has gotten lavish praise from everyone but I just wasn’t sure if it would make it to the 10 Best list. I hope I’m right.

To complete your own entry, click here