by Robert Lewis (19 Nov 03)

Fiat has won the International Car of the Year Award for the eighth time, after the jury of 58 motoring writers from 22 European countries gave the new Panda the nod as their choice for 2004.

As always, the arrangement was that the number of cars under review was eventually whittled down to seven, from which the jurors had to make their final choice. Each of them had 25 points to allocate, with ten going to their individual favourite.

Candidates were assessed under ten different headings: Design, Comfort, Safety, Fuel Economy, Driveability, Performance, Practicality, Respect for the Environment, Price, and Value for Money. It’s clear from the results that some cars didn’t attract many points for Design.

Altogether, the Panda scored 281 points, appearing on the score sheets of 55 of the 58 members of the jury, and getting the maximum ten points from 16 of them.

Second equal on points were the Mazda3 and the new Volkswagen Golf, both on 241, with the Toyota Avensis on 219, the Opel/Vauxhall Meriva on 213, the BMW 5-Series on 144 and the Nissan Micra on 111. See above for remarks on Design.

This is the first time an A-segment model has carried off the Car of the Year Award, which was inaugurated in 1964. The Panda is not, of course, on sale yet in the UK, but it started attracting attention right from its September sales launch in Italy. On the launch weekend, more than 500,000 people visited the 700 dealerships which had the new car on show. In the two months since then, Fiat has taken something like 95,000 orders.

A Long Line Of Success

Its previous winners were the 124 in 1967, the 128 in 1970, the 127 in 1972, the Uno in 1984, the Tipo in 1989, the Punto in 1995, and the Bravo/Brava in 1996.

Of the other makes in the Fiat Group, Alfa Romeo won in 1998 and 2001 with the 156 and 147, and Lancia took the 1980 award with the Delta.

Fiat tops the league table of overall winners with eight awards, followed by Renault with five, Ford with four, Citroen and Peugeot with three apiece. Alfa Romeo, Audi, Opel/Vauxhall, Rover and Simca each have two winners on the list, and there were one-off awards for Austin, Lancia, Nissan, NSU, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Volkswagen and Toyota.

As is frequently remarked, this is a somewhat odd list, and success in the International Car of the Year Awards isn’t always a sign of either a prestige make or a car which is eventually going to get rave reviews from owners.

But well done, Fiat.

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