In the 14th edition of the country's prestigious annual automotive awards the Croatian Association of Car Journalists has this year voted the Fiat 500 as HR Auto, its top prize for the car of the year.

The Croatian Association of Car Journalists this year has voted the Fiat 500 as HR Auto 2008, its prize for the car of the year. This was 14th time that Croatian car journalist's had carried out an annual contest to elect the best new car on the national market.

Collecting the Croatian car of the year award is the latest honour to be bestowed on the Fiat 500, which was launched in Turin on 4th July 2007 and has now been rolled out across all the main European markets. Since then the 500, which is built at Fiat's Tychy factory in Poland, has won the most prestigious of all honours, that of European Car of the Year 2008, only the second time a contender drawn from its segment had come out on top (the first was the Fiat Panda) and its bulging order book now stands at over 140,000 units.

Now the A-segment Fiat 500 adds Croatian car of the year to its impressive prize haul. The award for the car of the year, which is called HR Auto 2008, has been given to director of the Croatian Fiat Group importer Autocommerce, Bozena Kljucaric, at glamorous ceremony in Zagreb. The award was presented by the President of Croatian Journalists organization Zdenko Duka, and the President of Croatian Assotiation of Car Journalists Mato Pavlicevic.

Behind the winning Fiat 500 in the journalists' judgement was in second place the Mazda2, while the Nissan Qashqai collected place. The Fiat 500 also won another award at the ceremony, this time for its cute and stylish design, while rounding out an impressive night for Fiat was the new Fiorino van which won a special award dedicated to small commercial vehicles. It was thus truly a Fiat night at the Hotel Antunovic in Zagreb, a night that ended in style with a party that last until morning light.