From the country that brought us Guinness, Smithwicks, U2, Leprechauns, and Black Pudding, comes the prestigious(?) Semperit Car of the Year award. And which car do you think was honored with this reward? Why, none other than the Honda Civic (Euro model, of course).

This is good news for Honda, because unfortunately, the Civic came up a little short when it came to the big prize - the European Car of the Year award. In fact, the number of votes tallied for the Civic in that race were only sufficient to put it in a somewhat distant fifth ranking, behind the Ford S-Max, Opel/Vauxhall Corsa, Citroën C4 Picasso, and the Skoda Roomster.

Well, at least they can celebrate for the Irish victory. Here's the release from Honda.ie:

Honda Civic has been voted Semperit Car of the Year 2007 by the Irish Motoring Writers Association.It is the first time that Honda has been awarded the Semperit Irish Car of the Year title. The announcement was made at the Awards Ceremony in the Pavilion at Leopardstown Race Course, Dublin 18 attended by leading figures in the Irish motor industry. The Civic beat off tough competition from the 54 new cars launched on the Irish market this year to take the top prize. In accepting the award, Adrian Cole, Managing Director of Universal Honda expressed his delight, saying: “2006 has been a great year for Universal Honda; our sales are up for the third successive year, we moved into our new headquarters and now the new Civic has scooped the coveted Semperit Irish Car of the year award.” Mr Cole went on to thank Paddy Murphy from Semperit Ireland who presented the award and also the Irish Motoring Writers Association for their ongoing support and confidence in the new Civic. 27 members of the Irish Motoring Writers Association participated in the voting. Points were awarded on a basis of criteria including: innovation, safety, space, comfort, build quality, driving dynamics and value for money. The Honda Civic is available in a choice of 4 door saloon and 5 door hatchback options. The 4 door version is equipped with a 1.8 i-VTEC option whilst a choice of 1.4 i-DSi and 1.8 i-VTEC engines are available options in the 5 door range. Honda’s i-Shift clutchless transmission is an available option in the high spec 1.8 ES model. The environmentally friendly Civic IMA Hybrid saloon has recently been introduced to the line up. The range will be expanded further with the arrival of the Type ‘S’ and Type ‘R’ 3 door derivatives in March 2007.

LINK
pageID=9387parentID=4115" >Honda.ie release

Thanks to Ken for the tip on the Semperit award.

Last edited by JeffX on November 20, 2006 18:18