The iconic new Fiat 500 has taken the top spot in this year's Car of The Year competition, winning the approval of 58 jury members from 22 countries.
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).
Steve Cropley, COTY juror and 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. 34 of the 58 jurors placed the Fiat 500 at the top of their lists, a clear indication that this was indeed the year for Fiat. Good things come in small packages".
Fiat will collect the award at an official ceremony in Berlin on the 28th January 2008.
The COTY jury is made up of 58 senior motoring journalists from 22 countries. Their objective is to choose the most outstanding new car to go on sale in the past 12 months. Jurors vote twice: first to select a short-list of seven from the new cars launched in Europe, then again to choose the winner.
Autocar is one of seven leading publications from around Europe which organise the COTY contest. Each publication takes it in turn to organise the vote, publicise and promote the contest and hold the prize-giving ceremony.
The jury is completely independent of the Organising Committee in matters connected with the award itself, the selection of eligible cars and the voting.
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