Fiat 500 is European Car of The Year 2008

Fiat 500 has been elected for European Car Of The Year of 2008. The high-profile automotive awards, undertaken by 58 journalists from 22 European countries. Fiat won with 385 votes, ahead of the second placed Mazda 2 (325 votes) and the Ford Mondeo (202 votes).

Each member of the jury has 25 points to distribute among the seven shortlisted cars, with a maximum of 10 points going to their first choice. The 500’s win was decisive, with 57 out of 58 journals including it in their short-list, and 33 putting it at the top of their personal rankings.

Fiat Group has taken top honors a staggering 12 times since its Fiat 124 won in 1967. But as prestigious as the awards sound, there’s a certain kiss-of-death attached to the European CoTY gong. Based on the size of its CoTY trophy cabinet alone, you’d think that Fiat would be jousting with Toyota for position at the top of the automotive global sales chart. That said, Fiat’s last winner, the Panda in 2004, was a well deserved gold medallist, and the brilliance of the 500 means this year’s award really should mark the turn in Fiat’s progress.
The seven finalists were the Fiat 500 (385 votes), Mazda 2 (325 votes), Ford Mondeo (202 votes), Kia Cee’d (166 votes), Nissan Qashqai (147 votes), Mercedes C-class (128 votes) and the Peugeot 308 (97 votes). See Car of the Year for more details.