Our favourite European Car of the Year winners

It was back in 1964 that a group of enterprising motoring magazines from across Europe first got together and decided to vote on the best new car to have emerged across the continent that year.

The European Car of the Year Award, as it came to be known, has continued uninterrupted to this day, with journalists from motoring magazines across Europe casting their votes for the best new car to hit the showrooms each year (the winner no longer has to be European-made per se, but must be available in at least five European nations).

The jury considers a mix of criteria, including design, comfort, safety, economy, handling, performance, price and, latterly, environmental impact.

Looking back at past Cars of the Year is a fascinating year-by-year snapshot of the automotive industry. Some years, the top three places are occupied by three unequivocally great cars: 1984, with the Fiat Uno scraping past the Peugeot 205 and VW Golf Mk2, is a case in point. We also like the 1974 trio of Mercedes 450SE (the first S-class, and a triumph of engineering and safety), the futuristic-looking Fiat X1/9, and the first-generation Honda Civic.

Other years the pickings are a little leaner – for example we wouldn't call 2002's podium, which features the Peugeot 307, Renault Laguna, and Fiat Stilo, a particularly vintage crop of cars.

Boy, there have been some great winners, though. Here are our 10 favourite European Car of the Year winners from the past 57 years.

Warning: reading about these greats of yesteryear may leave you hankering to experience them for yourself. With specialist insurance for classic cars from Lancaster you’ll be able to protect them for generations to come.

Rover 2000 (1964)

Also known as the Rover P6, this handsome saloon was notable in a few ways – primarily as the very first winner of this award. It was also noteworthy as the last Rover made before the company went under the Leyland umbrella.

Those strikingly handsome looks were a quantum leap forward from its predecessor, the P5 – which, though imposing, looked positively Edwardian compared to this sharp, lean beast. Another feather in the 2000's cap was its suspension, which managed to provide the perfect combination of comfortable ride and agile handling.

If there were any criticisms, they were mostly directed at the two-litre, four-cylinder engine, which didn't exactly propel this substantial car forwards at rocket speed. That issue would be addressed a few years later, though, with the introduction of a 3.5-litre V8, capable of 158bhp and a 10.5-second 0-60 sprint.

The 2000's eventual replacement would be another European Car of the Year – more on that in a moment...

Renault 16 (1966)

The first thing that strikes you when you look at Renault's huge-selling mid-60s family hatch is a certain… je ne sais quoi. Put another way, the car has oodles of that French style which can at first glance look odd, even ungainly – but which, ultimately, grabs your attention and holds it firmly.

Styling apart, the Renault 16 had plenty else to recommend it, not least that (at the time revolutionary) hatchback design. It entered a market donated at the time by saloons – and it set the sector alight, influencing medium-sized car designs to this day (one of its most immediate tributes was to be the Austin Maxi, launched in 1969 as Britain's own first five-door hatchback).

The judges loved the comfortable, spacious interior, and Sir Stirling Moss called the 16 "the most intelligently engineered automobile I have ever encountered".

The 16 was, unsurprisingly, a massive sales success story – almost 2 million cars were produced between 1965 and 1980. Its eventual replacements, the Renault 20 and 30, were no slouches in the style and comfort departments either.

Peugeot 504 (1969)

Peugeot's large saloon for the late Sixties was designed by the Italian studio Pininfarina, better known for more glamorous fare such as the Ferrari Daytona. And indeed, the 504 did contain some genuine Italian style, the sort of stuff you wouldn't otherwise expect from a large family saloon / estate. This visual chutzpah was more notable in the highly desirable coupe and cabriolet forms.

The 504 had an amazingly long life – its native country, France, stopped producing it in 1983, but thanks to its reputation as a reliable, mile-munching workhorse it remained in production elsewhere around the world until 2006. Some 3 million were produced in Europe, with another half million being produced in harsher environments such as Nigeria and Australia. One Australian-produced version was recently tracked down with 620,000 miles (or over a million kilometres!) on the clock.

We particularly love the rugged, massive estate, where seven seats were an option. In fact, we can still vividly recall long journeys in the third row of a 504 estate, many summers ago…

Citroën CX (1975)

One of the most unmistakable car silhouettes of its time, surely? Its angular, sharklike looks gave the CX real road presence – and for many classic car purists it remains the last 'real Citroën' before the firm's takeover by Peugeot in 1976 (the CX's successor, the XM, was also striking, but in a very different way).

The CX also featured two trump cards for which Citroën was winning itself a name in the 1970s: a hugely comfortable ride, provided by the firm's state-of-the-art hydropneumatic suspension, and a modern-looking interior complete with swooping, space age-influenced dash and cockpit.

Citroën's large saloon was instantly recognisable, much admired by motorists and journalists alike – and probably, ultimately, not the huge seller it might have been, thanks to competition from certain prestige German marques, who by the 1970s were producing some awesomely competent exec saloons.

Now, though, the CX is revered as a forward-looking product of its times. We'd recommend placing it near the top of your classics wish list. And, of course, matching it with some classic auto insurance.

Rover 3500 (1977)

We admit that, if this poll was concerned with, say, reliability or resistance to rust, Rover's sleek but fallible coupé wouldn't get a look in. The car had a few other problems, too: Rover needed to save money at the time, so discarded the 2000's rear suspension for a traditional live rear axle, making for a less comfortable ride.

But we can't ignore those Ferrari Daytona-influenced looks, nor the big Rover's popularity on British roads in the late 70s and early 80s (they were much loved by the nation's police forces, for example). The 3500 also represented the last victory for a British marque for over 40 years, until Jaguar's I-PACE battery-electric crossover triumphed in 2019.

Lancia Delta (1980)

From the visionary mind of Giorgetto Giugiaro (he of the DeLorean, various Maseratis, and the first-generation Lotus Esprit and VW Golf), the Delta was a fine-looking hatchback that managed an impressive mix of handling and comfort. As we'd come to expect from cars in which Giugiaro had had a hand, it was innovative for its time, with independent rear suspension, a split-folding rear seat, and even optional air conditioning.

The Delta is best known today for its successful career on the rally circuit: it won 46 World Rally Championship victories and scooped the Constructors Championship for a hugely impressive six successive years. To allow these rally specials (the Delta HF 4WD and HF Integrale) to compete, a road-going homologation special, the Integrale Evoluzione (or Evo as it became colloquially known) was presented in 1991. These days, it's a hot-hatch classic. Its reputation for being chucked around at speed will probably mean that you’ll be hard pressed to find one that’s had an easy life. If you do, protect it immediately with some classic car insurance.

Fiat Uno (1984)

A reasonably contentious winner, this, as it beat no less a car than the Peugeot 205, for many people one of the defining cars of the 1980s (we could say the same of the third-placed car, the Mk2 Golf). But the Uno was, in its way, every bit as much of a landmark.

What won the 1984 prize for the Uno was a set of characteristics that drivers truly wanted from their small cars: nippy handling (great for city driving), an affordable price tag, and great fuel economy. The latter was helped by the car's kerb weight of 711kg: that's frankly a little off the scale by today's standards, when even city cars such as the Toyota Aygo weigh in at 840kg.

Incidentally, Fiat has scooped the European Car of the Year no less than nine times in its history – more than any other car marque.

Oh, and the name came from…? The single windscreen wiper, unusual for the time. Store that away for future pub-quiz reference.

Peugeot 405 (1988)

Peugeot's large saloon won the 1988 contest by a whopping 212 points, the biggest gap in the competition's history (the Mk7 Volkswagen Golf would match the achievement nearly 30 years later).

You can see why it was an easy choice. Another Pininfarina-designed Peugeot, the 405 was great to drive, and great to look at. Here in the UK, it took on the dominant models in the large saloon class – the Cavalier and Sierra – and performed well, finishing both 1992 and 1993 as Britain's 8th best-selling car. It almost qualifies as British, as well – construction was shared between Peugeot's plants at Sochaux in France and Ryton, Warwickshire.

A tribute to the car's popularity is the fact that, although production in its native France ceased in 1997 (with the 406 taking over), it continued to be made in Iran, by the Iran Khodro company, until 2019 – when the licence and tooling was transferred to Azerbaijan's Azermash Khazar consortium. So, yes, you can still get a new one of these – you might just have to go to the shores of the Caspian Sea to pick it up.

Renault Clio Mk1 (1991)

As the successor to the cute, boxy, and much-loved Renault 5, the Clio had a tough act to follow when it emerged blinking into the daylight in 1990. But it made, you'd have to admit, a pretty fine job of it.

For one thing, the Clio had some continuity with its predecessor – it shared the same suspension and floor plan as the 5's second generation.

Like that model, the Clio was fun to drive, nice to look at, practical and affordable – and, for a 1990 supermini, nicely equipped. It shifted over 50,000 units per year in the UK, with the help of a certain TV advert ('Nicole!' 'Papa!').

And, like many small hatches of the time, it got its own limited-edition 'hot hatch' version – the 145bhp Clio Williams, well-kept examples of which now fetch upwards of £15,000. Add to that the classic car insurance that would accompany something both so treasured and so lively, and you've got yourself an expensive, but wonderfully fun driving package.

PS: the Clio, in a later iteration, won the award again in 2006 – one of just four cars, along with the VW Golf, Vauxhall Astra and Toyota Yaris, to take the crown twice.

Ford Focus Mk1 (1999)

Some years, the winning car seems just streets ahead of its competitors. The 1999 winner, Ford's first-generation Focus, is a case in point, feeling well above the pace set by its (admittedly decent) runners up, the Vauxhall Astra Mk4 and the Peugeot 206.

With concept-car looks that still hold up well today, the Focus also managed to rewrite the book on how a small family hatchback could drive. Indeed, even to this day anyone looking to pick up an affordable but great-driving car would do well to look at the Mk1 Focus – it's easily old enough to qualify for classic car insurance by anyone's standards, yet it drives as well as anything in today's showrooms.

Since the passing on of the 80s Escort, Ford hadn't really competed in the small family car stakes – the 1990 Escort was no match for its brilliant-driving, beautifully-packaged predecessor. The Focus, though, brought Ford right back to the top table, with its impressive range of engine and trim options. The contemporary Golf Mk4 might have felt a little bit more upmarket on the inside, but the Focus was a lot more fun to drive. It was a game-changer of a car – and a highly deserving European Car of the Year.

Protect your own award-winner with classic car insurance

As our sprint through European Car of the Year history has shown, car fashions have come and gone. What hasn't changed, though, is the pleasure you can derive from owning and driving a classic car.

Another constant down the decades is our dedication, here at Lancaster Insurance, to providing you with the classic car insurance that will protect your investment.

Benefits of classic car insurance through Lancaster can include:

• Historic rally cover
• Static show cover
• Limited mileage discounts
• Choice of repairer
• 24-hour claims helpline

Contact us today to start giving your classic car the protection it deserves.

Policy benefits, features and discounts offered may very between insurance schemes or cover selected and are subject to underwriting criteria. Information contained within this article is accurate at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.