The new Fiat 500 city car has been elected 2008 Car of the Year, well-informed sources said on Thursday.
The winner of the Car of the Year award will be officially announced on Monday.
The car was chosen by a panel of 58 leading European motoring journalists representing 22 countries.
The 500 was reported to have been a hands-down winner over its six rivals thanks to its look, safety features, the quality of its interior and variety of its models and engines.
''This was the first time that there was such a big gap between the winner and the runner-up,'' observed Franzo Grande Stevens, the Fiat board secretary.
''This is a magnificent achievement and all the credit goes to (Fiat CEO Sergio) Marchionne,'' he added.
Competing against the 500 were the Ford Mondeo, the Kia Cee'd, the Mazda 2, the Mercedes Class C, the Nissan Qashqai and the Peugeot 308.
The 500, a re-edition of the classic car which was produced from 1957 to 1977, made its official debut in Turin on July 4.
The car has a retro-look to recall the classic 500, named after its original engine size, following the example of the new Volkswagen 'Beetle' and the BMW 'Mini'.
During its presentation to the press, Marchionne said that ''the 500 is not just a car, it represents the new Fiat, a solid company projected towards the future. It's our travelling manifesto''.
Marchionne orchestrated Fiat's comeback from near bankruptcy at the start of the decade to posting 12 quarters of positive results in a row.
The Car of the Year organising committee is made up of the managing editors from seven prominent European automotive magazines: Auto (Italy), Autocar (UK), Autopista (Spain), Autovisie (Netherlands), L'Automobile Magazine (France), Stern (Germany) and Vi Bilaegare (Sweden).
This year's edition is being run by Stern and the award presentation will be in Berlin on January 28, 2008.
The Car of the Year award was created in 1964 and this is the 12th time that the Fiat group has won. It picked up nine awards with a Fiat marque car, twice with an Alfa Romeo and once with a Lancia.
Fiat developed the platform for the 500 with Ford Motor Company of the United States, which will use it for its revamped 'Ka' model.
Although the original 500 was a small-engined economy car, the new car has a starting price of 12,000 euros and its priciest model, which has a 1400cc engine, runs about 14,000 euros or more.
Buyers have the option of three different motors: 1200cc 4-cylinder petrol, a 1400cc Starjet 4-cylinder 16 valves petrol and a 1300cc Multijet 4-cylinder diesel.
There are currently three versions of the city car: Pop, Sport and Lounge.
