Mazda2 the world's best

An international panel of 47 motoring journalists have chosen the Mazda2 to be the World Car of the Year.

Mazda's light car knocked the Ford Mondeo and the C-Class Mercedes-Benz out of contention to be announced winner at the New York International Auto Show last Thursday, March 20.

Coincidentally, those three cars were the short-listed finalists in Wheels Magazine's local COTY award (more here), but the C-Class took the top spot in Australia.

"The fact that a small hatchback with a starting price of less than $20,000 has won WCOTY in 2008 shows just how good Mazda has become at building stylish, safe, sophisticated and enjoyable cars," said Australia's representative on the WCOTY judging panel, Bill McKinnon.