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The newly released Toyota Echo, sold in Europe as the Yaris, has won the prestigious European Car of the Year award.
It is only the second Japanese car to win the title in its 36 year history.
The European Car of the Year is one of the world's most important new vehicle awards.
Recent winners include Ford's European-built Focus and the Alfa Romeo 156.
The Echo mini-car was styled at Toyota's European Office of Creation (EPOC) in Belgium and is to be built from 2001 at a new factory in France.
Three versions of the Echo - a three-door and five-door hatch and a four door sedan - went on sale in Australia in late 1999.
Fifty-five journalists from 20 European countries voted Yaris as Car of the Year ahead of six strong competitors.
Nineteen of the judges made the Yaris their first choice.
Yaris scored 344 points ahead of Fiat's new radical multi-purpose vehicle the Multipla on 325. The Opel Zafira scored 265.
The editor of Autocar magazine (Patrick Fuller), convenor of the award, said Yaris was competing well in the hard fought European mini-car market.
"Yaris has been parachuted into the European supermini category - the most hotly contested car market in the world, and it is setting the pace," Fuller said.
He said the groundbreaking car marked the first time Toyota had shown itself committed to European design.
It incorporated "clever ideas" such as a roomy interior, high tech engines on all models and a good chassis and suspension.
Echo in Australia features 1.3 litre and 1.5 litre Twin Cam Multi-valve engines with intelligent variable valve timing to provide maximum power, economy and emission control.
Echo's designer, 33-year-old Greek born Sotiris Kovos, is a graduate of the renowned London Royal College of Art.
"We did not want to create a refrigerator - an appliance. That would be a terrible reputation to have," Kovos said at the vehicle's launch.
"We set out to devise a style that created emotion, a warm feeling.
"We wanted people to either love it or hate it. That is better than being indifferent."
Echo's unusual styling allows comfortable seating for five people, with substantial cabin storage, in a package which is mini-car sized.
Toyota delivered a record 100,000 Echoes in Japan, where it is known as Vitz and another 95,000 Yaris in Europe in the car's first six months of availability.
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