Fiat 500L is ‘Newcomer of the Year 2013’

Fiat 500L (Photo credit: Chrysler-Group)

The Fiat Group starts the new year by picking up two prestigious awards, selected by the readers of the Italian magazine who took part in the 'Newcomer of the Year 2013' and 'My Favourite Cars 2012' contests. The award ceremony took place yesterday at Palazzo Mezzanotte, home of the Milan Stock Exchange, in the presence of the managers of all the car manufacturers.

With 17% of the votes, the Fiat 500L won the 'Newcomer of the Year 2013' title, after a thrilling clash with the Mercedes-Benz A-Class which took second place (16.3%) ahead of the Volkswagen Golf (13.2%) and the New Fiat Panda (9.49%).

Fiat's new 'City lounge' was selected from a shortlist of 12 models selected by the Quattroruote editorial team from among the most significant new cars presented over the last twelve months. In November and December 2012, more than 48,500 voters chose their favourite from the list via SMS and on-line voting. For the first time, sports cars and sensational models were not shortlisted, instead opting for those which are bought and driven every day.

Fiat 500L (Photo credit: Chrysler-Group)

Carlo Cavicchi, Editor-in-Chief of Quattroruote, gave the prestigious trophy to Alfredo Altavilla, Chief Operating Officer EMEA.
The Fiat Group also had extraordinary success in the second contest, "My Favourite Cars", again by Quattroruote and, at the same time, by other specialist magazines in 14 European countries, with the rankings drawn up at a national level. In particular, Italian models came out on top in 7 of the 10 categories into which the contest is divided: the Fiat Panda took first place among the citycars (26.8% of the votes), the Fiat 500L among the small cars (12.1%), Alfa Romeo Giulietta in medium-small (23.4%), Maserati Quattroporte among the flagships (23.8%), Ferrari 458 Spider among the cabrios (18.7%), Ferrari F12berlinetta among the sports cars (31.0%) and Fiat Freemont (15,1%) among the MPVs.

Between September and October 2012, those taking part in the "My Favourite Cars" contest expressed themselves through the www.quattroruote.it website, completing a form where they indicated not only their favourite car for each segment, but also a series of judgements on the brands and their perception. A judgement which is even more interesting if you consider that the voters are expert and passionate motorists who travel 20,800 kilometres in their car every year, almost twice the national average.