Automotive accolades for Bentley, Mazda And Fiat

Friday November 21, 2003

Examples of automotive excellence from Bentley, Fiat and Mazda have earned the respective manufacturers accolades in separate awards around the globe.

The Fiat Panda fought off the Mazda3, the new Volkswagen Golf and the BMW 5-seriesto take the 2004 European Car of the Year title, the Mazda RX-8 sports car was named '2004 RJC Car of The Year' in Japan and the Bentley Continental GT coupe won the special design award at "The Most Beautiful Car in the World" 2003.

The special design award at 'L'Automobile pi' Bella del Mondo' (The Most Beautiful Car in the World) 2003 is decided by a jury of Italian car journalists who recognised development of formal continuity and excellence of workmanship shown by the the Continental GT.

The award will be formally presented to Bentley Motors at a ceremony at the Milan Triennale on 5 March 2004.

Fiat's new small car - the Panda - won The European Car of the Year award based on design comfort, safety, fuel economy, driveability, performance, practicality, respect for
the environment and also price and value for money. The Panda was examined by 58 jury members from 22 countries and received 281 votes, ahead of the Mazda3 (241 votes), the new Volkswagen Golf (241), the Toyota Avensis (219), the GM Meriva (213) the new BMW Five Series (144) and the new Nissan Micra (111).

In Japan the four-door, four-seat, Mazda RX-8 featuring the RENESIS rotary engine has been awarded '2004 RJC Technology of The Year' by the 74 members of the Automotive Researchers' & Journalists' Conference of Japan.

The award was the second year running that Mazda has won the top RJC Car Of The Year prize, with the Mazda6 (Atenza in Japan) winning last year.

The RX-8 is an entirely new type of sports car that combines distinctive styling with enough interior space for four adults.