Built to rival BMW’s modern incarnation of the Mini, Fiat’s 500 is proving to be a worthy contender. Much like it’s predecessor wooed millions of drivers from the late 50’s through to the mid 70’s the new 500 is repeating the act, being a sell out success seemingly wherever it goes on sale. If that isn’t enough, the Fiat 500 is finishing off 2007 with one big fat trophy for the cabinet – 2008 European Car of The Year.

The Fiat 500 appears to be an across the board hit with motoring publications and journalists, winning car of the year by a handy 60 points over the runner up Mazda2 with Kia’s Cee’d coming a distant third. Positions four and five were taken by Nissan’s Qashqai and the Mercedes-Benz C-class.

This win is no mean feat with the 500 having to impress some 58 motoring journalists from 22 countries along with seven major motoring publications, a far cry from “Wheels Car of the Year”.

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