Currently reading: Skoda Fabia is 2015 What Car? Car of the Year

Two Skoda models were victorious at the What Car? Car of the Year Awards. Citroën, Nissan, Volkswagen, BMW and Audi also took home silverware

The Skoda Fabia has won the most prestigious motoring award in the UK – What Car? Car of the Year, in association with Warranty Direct.

The Czech model, which also won the Small Car category at last night’s ceremony, scooped the main prize exactly 15 years after winning it for the first time in 2000.

What Car?’s Car of the Year Awards are the most highly prized by manufacturers and the car-buying public alike. Awards are presented in 16 categories in total, but only the car that best delivers against the judging panel’s stringent criteria wins the overall Car of the Year prize.

The winning Skoda Fabia 1.2 TSI 90 SE model beat stiff competition from 25 other vehicles that made the overall Car of the Year shortlist. A full list of category winners can be seen here.

What Car?’s panel of judges praised the Fabia’s turbocharged 1.2-litre petrol engine, which combines punchy and flexible performance with impressive efficiency credentials.

It also beats its main rivals in the small car class – the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo – for both space and practicality, while the technology that comes as standard on the Fabia includes a brilliant 6.5-inch touchscreen display and a ‘Mirrorlink’ system that can sync with Android phones to provide sat nav.

What Car? editor, Jim Holder, said: "The Fabia is a fully deserved winner of our most sought after award – not only because of the fact that it is a well equipped and practical small car but also because of the big name rivals it has disposed of in the process.

'We’ve driven and evaluated all of its rivals and, whichever way you cut it, the Fabia is the most rounded small car on sale in the UK today."

A full list of category winners can be seen at whatcar.com/awards, but 2015 winners include another Skoda, the Skoda Octavia, in the Family Car sector, the Audi A3 e-tron (electric car), Citroën Grand C4 Picasso (MPV) and the Sunderland-built Nissan Qashqai which, as last year’s Car of the Year winner, is still a favourite in the small SUV category.

Land Rover’s Discovery Sport won the inaugural What Car? Car of the Year Safety Award, presented in conjunction with Thatcham Research, the UK’s only Euro NCAP crash test centre. 

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AndyT 10 January 2015

Ibiza please

Got to say I am more excited about its future Sister, the new SEAT Ibiza (although I believe a further facelift of the current model comes first).
Given how right SEAT has got the Leon, the next Ibiza should also be a good'un!
Mini2 9 January 2015

Children.

Such childish comments on here. To say WhatCar "has priorities that are at odds with car enthusiasts" is at odds with common sense. Many car enthusiasts have different views of what makes them an enthusiast; some people like functional, some like being children, some like something in the middle. I'm surprised at the obvious snobbery still surrounding Skoda; are people forgetting it was also crowned What Car's COTY back in 2000, and what a good car it was? It changed Skoda. This one doesn't to the same extent, and to be honest I'm surprised it has won given the slightly lukewarm reviews from both this magazine and What Car. But hey, some of the other winners seem worthy, if sometimes a tad repetitive. The 5 door MINI the best small hatchback over £15,000? Reeeeeally?
skorob 8 January 2015

The best keeps getting better.

Big well done to Skoda. The original Fabia from 2000 still looks fresh today - the same can't be said of the 2000 Fiesta! Best family car for octavia and the best car under 10k for citigo a bonus!
All this on top of record 75,488 uk sales last year. Skoda are doing it right, something a lot of other manufacturers should take note of. If you purely buy a car based on looks, you obviously have very little knowledge of cars.At least the Skoda marque produces cars that dont age within 3 years, and they are build impeccably. Haters gonna hate, but Skoda have gone from strength to strength under VW Groups wing.