Whatcar.com received the top award for consumer websites at the publishing industry's annual awards ceremony.
The online consumer magazine, part of the UK’s largest car buyer's guide, took the award ahead of big-name nominees, which included NME.com, Topgear.com, empireonline.com, fhm.com, cnet.co.uk and runners world.co.uk .
The awards ceremony was judged by The Periodical Publishers Association who described whatcar.com as "a well-oiled machine that delivers excellent usability" .
"Generating an extraordinary response, whatcar.com maximised audience interaction and user-generated content, from its website users sharing reviews as part of the Reader Test Team to its 'Big Brother-style' Diary Room at the British Motor Show 2006," the judging panel added.
They went on to praise the "strong use of well integrated video" and described the site as "doing everything you want it to do, which is very rare online at the moment".
Group editor of the company, Steve Fowler commented, "We are honoured and delighted to receive such a high-profile award ahead of so many websites we recognise as being excellent in their field. All this comes at a time when we're working had to develop whatcar.com into an even better resource for car buyers and owners - the fruits of which will be revealed later this year."
Jim Lee, publisher of the magazine What Car? added, "This year has already been an exceptional one for whatcar.com. In addition to this award, we're seeing over one million unique users visit the site for car-buying advice every month, with an incredible three quarters of a million videos streamed from the site in 2007 alone."
'This award is testament to the hard work of the editorial, sales and publishing teams in keeping true to What Car?'s policy of providing car buyer's with expert, impartial advice on the medium of their choice."
