(Fri 10 Apr 09)

The Fiat 500 may have divided opinions since its existence was first revealed a few years ago (some people loving it, others hating its attempt to recall the looks of a car from half a century ago), but it has undoubtedly captured the hearts of the World Car of the Year jury members, who have given it their Design award for 2009.

"Icon is an overused word in the automotive world," they said in their official citation, "but the Fiat 500 dating from 1957 genuinely deserves the sobriquet. Revived by Fiat last year, the new Cinquecento is larger than its predecessor but still smaller than a MINI. Cheerful and cheeky, it does a brilliant job of capturing the visual appeal of the original version while meeting modern design and engineering standards."

There was more praise for juror (and design consultant and critic) Robert Cumberford, who remarked that the new 500 "pushes the emotional hot buttons of several generations of people who might never have driven one of the early models, but who admired them on European streets". And leading academic Tom Matano said that the Fiat is "genuine, straightforward, without gimmicks. It is a welcome addition to a car world full of non-humanistic designs."

Second place in this year's Design category went to the Citroen C5, with the Jaguar XF coming in third. Citroen won the 2006 title overall with the C4, while Audi has dominated for the last two years with the TT and R8.

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