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Coming in with a total of 526 votes from a panel of 65 jurors, the mini Toyota iQ claimed the title of Japan Car of the Year for 2008. 39 of the 65 jurors gave the iQ a perfect score of 10.

Second place went to the iQ’s closest rival, the Citroen C5 which came in with 223 vote. Surprisingly, the third-place title went to the Nissan GT-R which received a total of 201 votes. With that said, this is a pretty astonishing victory for the Toyota iQ.

iQ’s Chief Engineer Hiro Nakamura Hiroki Nakajima said: “I wish to thank my Toyota colleagues for giving me some slack and putting up with my one-track, head-strong mission to build a car like no other, the world’s smallest four-seater, and that some self-indulgence on my part was necessary to achieve such an epoch-making vehicle.”

The Toyota iQ will go on sale in Europe next year with a 6-speed manual gearbox and a choice of gasoline and diesel engines. The iQ is rumored to make its stateside debut at the 2008 LA Auto Show next week as a Scion.

2009 Toyota iQ:

 

Source: InsideLine

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