The Fiat 500 city car has been named this year’s ‘European Car of the Year’.
The prestigious award was voted for by a panel of 58 European motoring journalists from 22 countries.
Fiat’s new version of the Cinquecento scooped the prize in emphatic style, making 57 of the 58 judges' shortlists and being voted the best car of 2007 by 33 of the 58.
The 500 city car beat the Mazda 2 and Ford Mondeo into second and third place, respectively. In fourth place came the Kia Cee’d, followed by Nissan’s Qashqai, the Mercedes C-Class and the Peugeot 308.
Following the supermini’s European launch back in July, the Fiat 500 has gone on to sell 105,000 cars in Italy and France alone – just 15,000 off the 120,000 target set for the whole year in all European markets.
However, UK buyers will have to wait until January to get their hands on the incredibly popular 500 .
The Car of the Year award began in 1964. Cars can only enter if they are on sale in at least five different European markets in the course of the year, with judging based on the car's design, comfort, safety, economy, driveability, performance, practicality, respect for the environment and value for money .
The Italian carmaker last claimed the award in 2004 with its Panda city car, but only by a very small margin of just one point.
