It’s attracted widespread critical acclaim, created an astonishing degree of interest and stoked up colossal passion… and now the new Fiat 500 is starting to bring in the awards.

The latest of these comes from Fifth Gear, Channel 5 TV’s weekly motoring show, which has just crowned the 500 its Best Small Car of the Year – several months before the supermini is even launched in the UK.

Accepting the award at Fiat’s UK headquarters in Slough, Berkshire, Giulio Salomone, Managing Director of Fiat Group Automobiles UK said: “We are absolutely delighted with this great honour.

“Clearly the British public like what they see in our new 500 – already more than 5,000 have expressed an interest in ordering one – and it’s fantastic to see that motoring experts such as those working on Fifth Gear agree.”

The new 500 scooped one of only three category awards given in Fifth Gear’s annual honours, the others being Best Family Car and Best Fast Car. It was praised by the show’s presenters and production team for its style, handling, performance and build quality.

Special mention was also made of the new 500’s recent Euro NCAP five star crash safety rating (35 points) which puts it among the safest cars available in Europe today.

“The Best Small Car is arguably the most important award Fifth Gear gives out as more small cars are sold in the UK than any other sector,” says James Woodroffe, Producer, Fifth Gear. “Consumers want a supermini that doesn’t feel like it’s built to a budget, but is styled with flair, and comes with the maximum five star Euro NCAP safety rating.

“The Fiat 500 fits the bill better than anything else we’ve driven this year and was a unanimous choice.”

The 500 has already gone on sale in many mainland European countries, including Italy, France, Germany and Spain and will be launched in the UK early in 2008. Available with a choice of three engines, built to comply with the latest and toughest Euro 5 exhaust emissions regulations, and either five or six-speed gearboxes, the Fiat 500 guarantees strong performance with remarkable fuel economy and very low CO₂ emissions. A Dualogic sequential robotised 5-speed gearbox will become available next year for the petrol engines.

The engine range comprises the 69 bhp 1.2 and the 100 bhp 1.4 petrol units from the FIRE family that boasts a total output of over 10 million engines to date, plus the widely acclaimed 75 bhp 1.3 16v MultiJet turbodiesel with DPF, of which over two million have been built to date.