BMW 3 Series named World Car of the Year 2006

A jury of 46 international automotive journalists reviewed every new car available around the world and, in an exhaustive selection process, narrowed them down to three - the BMW 3 Series, Mazda MX-5 and Porsche Cayman S. At the ceremony, the 3 Series was awarded the prestigious World Car of the Year honour thanks to its balance of ride, handling, performance and interior space.

"The BMW 3 Series has been one of the world's most enduringly popular cars since BMW pioneered the sports sedan concept more than 40 years ago"

said Guenther Seemann, Managing Director, BMW Middle East.

"Although in this region we see an inverted pyramid sales pattern with the larger BMW 5 Series and BMW 7 Series as our top sellers, the BMW 3 Series is by no means eclipsed. In 2005 the 3 Series represented 17% of the total number of BMW's sold in the Middle East, it is a leader in its segment and the awards it has won both in the Middle East and internationally are proof of this status," Seemann added.

The BMW 3 Series was voted Best Medium Car at the AutoCar Middle East awards in December last year. The award preceded a number of UK awards bestowed upon BMW's new 3 Series model range.

In January 2006, the BMW 320d ES was awarded the 'What Car?' Car of the Year 2006 accolade as well as the Compact Executive category. At the awards, Steve Fowler, Group Editor of 'What Car?' commented: "The BMW 3 Series emerged as a clear winner. We'd expected BMW's Compact Exec contender to be good, but we didn't expect it to be this good. No other car is as great in so many ways as the 3 Series."

The 'What Car?' Car of the Year award came at the same time as BMW scooped a clutch of top honours at the Fleet Excellence Awards - the voting of which is drawn from the 30,000 plus readers of Fleet Week and Fleet Management. Proving that BMW offers products that appeal to the business user as well as private buyers, the 3 Series won the coveted 'User Chooser Car of the Year' overall prize alongside its category win.

The top honours given to BMW by the World Car of the Year jurors, What Car? and Fleet News and Fleet Management come hot on the heels of a host of other awards. Since its launch in March 2005, both Auto Express and Test Drive magazines have awarded the 3 Series their Best Compact Executive car of 2005.