Honda Civic was pronounced the title of Indian Car of the Year-2007 (ICOTY) by top automobile journalists of India at a ceremony held in Mumbai.

ICOTY award has been instituted to review all new cars in the Indian market and is judged by senior motoring journalists of India .

Civic was among the eight cars who qualified in this year’s awards that included news launches by other manufacturers competing for the title.

Expressing joy on receiving the award Mr. M. Takedagawa- President & CEO, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd. said, “I am delighted to receive this award for Civic which has done us proud all over the world. It is great to have the unanimous appreciation of experts as well as customers.”

The 10 members of the ICOTY 2007 jury included eminent auto journalists from the country including Hormazd Sorabjee and Shapur Kotwal (Autocar India), Gautam Sen and Bob Rupani (BBC Top Gear), Bijoy Kumar Y and Srinivas Krishnan (Business Standard Motoring), Adil Darukhanwala and Aspi Bathena (Car India) and Yogendra Pratap and Sirish Chandran (Overdrive).

Each member of the jury was asked to apportion 25 points to at least five cars. One car — the winner was to be awarded a maximum of 10 points which was verified and audited by Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Civic had already been declared the car of the year by magazines in their individual capacity winning 9 awards including 2 ‘Car of the Year’ awards. Honda Civic was adjudged the ‘Car of the Year’ by CNBC TV-18 Autocar Auto Awards 2007 and NDTV Profit Car India & Bike India Awards 2007. The car also made a clean sweep of the ‘Viewers’ Choice’ award bagging the NDTV, CNBC and Aaj Tak Viewers’ Choice awards

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About Honda Siel Cars India Ltd.

Honda Siel Cars India Ltd., (HSCI) was incorporated in December 1995 as a joint venture between Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Japan and Siel Limited, a Siddharth Shriram Group company, with a commitment to providing Honda's latest passenger car models and technologies, to the Indian customers. The total investment made by the company in India till date is over Rs. 800 crores.

While the company sold its first 50,000 units in nearly five years, it is today geared to sell more than 50,000 units in a single year. The Honda City, its first offering introduced in 1997, revolutionized the Indian passenger car market and has ever since been recognized as an engineering marvel in the Indian automobile industry. Thereafter, HSCI launched its high-end models the Accord and the SUV, CRV. The City ZX, introduced in its new avatar in 2003, replicated the success of the earlier car. The Honda Civic, launched in India in July 2006, too has matched the success of other Honda models and has proved an instant hit with Indian customers.