Fiat's Cinquecento voted car of the year

Bigger is not necessarily better if you want to win a motoring award

• Car of the century

Fiat’s diminutive Cinquecento has won the 2008 European Car of the Year (COTY) award.

The Fiat Panda-based, retro Fiat scored 385 votes from the 58 European judges (including the Daily Telegraph’s motoring correspondent, Andrew English) against the second-placed Mazda2, which scored 325 points and the Ford Mondeo (202 points).

The Cinquecento scored votes from 57 out of 58 members of the jury and 33 of them included it as their favourite car.

This is the twelfth Fiat Group car to have won the award since it was instigated in 1964, it is also the first time that Andrew English has personally voted for the winning car – hurrah!

The Polish-built, two-door Cinquecento has goes on sale in the UK next year at prices starting at £7,900. In Europe where it is already on sale, the little Fiat has already captured over 14 per cent of the A-segment market.

A high-performance Abarth model arrives next year and a drophead and a small MPV version of the car are likely to follow s are likely to follow.