THE international jury presiding over the Car of the Year award, made up of 58 specialist journalists from 22 European countries, has elected the Fiat 500 Car of the Year 2008.

In addition to winning the Car of the Year 2008 award outright, the super-compact Fiat distinguished itself by obtaining votes from most members of the jury - 57 out of 58 included it in their short-list and 33 made it top in their personal rankings.

This is the second time - the first was the Fiat Panda in 2004 - that an A-segment model has won the most prestigious car award in the world.

Launched on July 4 this year, the new Fiat 500 immediately aroused huge interest and favourable comments made by more than 7,000 people from 63 countries - over 1,000 journalists were accredited - who homed in on Turin for its debut: institutional authorities, financial analysts, businessmen and celebrities from the worlds of entertainment, fashion and sport.

Critical acclaim was immediately confirmed by intense customer interest.

More than 105,000 orders were taken in just four months in Italy and France, while interest continues to grow in the rest of Europe.

For example, 6,300 orders have already been placed in Germany where the car went on sale just a few weeks ago.

As of today, in Europe, the Fiat 500 stands second in the A-segment with a share of 14.1%, behind the Fiat Panda with a 21.2% share.

The Fiat 500 is the manifesto of new Fiat', a model that is in all respects the physical demonstration of the company's new approach, the renewed strategies of the brand, a different way of interpreting the car.