Fiat’s Euro star

4:14pm Friday 23rd November 2007

FIAT'S Retro 500 was the run-away winner of this year's European Car of The Year competition - and will carry the title throughout 2008.

The iconic micro mini, which has yet to go on sale in the UK, was chosen from a short-list by an international jury made up of 58 specialist journalists from 22 European countries - 57 included it in their short-list, and 33 made it top in their personal rankings.

Scoring 385 points, the Fiat beat the Mazda 2, which took second place with 325 votes, and the third-placed Ford Mondeo, which received 202 points.

Fourth went to the Kia Cee'd (166 points), fifth to the Nissan Qashqai (147), sixth to the Mercedes C-Class (128) and seventh to the Peugeot 308 (97).

One of the British jurors, Steve Cropley, Autocar editor-in-chief said; "Every now and then a car comes along that undoubtedly deserves to be Car of The Year - the Fiat 500 is one of those cars."

This is the second time - the first was the Fiat Panda in 2004 - that an A-segment model has won the prestigious award.

It also brings the total of Fiat Group Automobiles wins in the annual competition to 123: the Fiat 124 (1967), Fiat 128 (1970), Fiat 127 (1972), Lancia Delta (1980), Fiat Uno (1984), Fiat Tipo (1989), Fiat Punto (1995), Fiat Bravo/Brava (1996), Alfa 156 (1998), Alfa 147 (2001), Fiat Panda (2004) and the Fiat 500 (2008).

Launched in European on July 4 this year, the new Fiat 500 immediately aroused huge interest and favourable comments made by more than 7,000 people from 63 countries (more than 1,000 journalists were accredited) who homed in on Turin for its debut.

• The Fiat 500 goes on sale here in January - for more details see page 66 of Wheels section.

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