Peugeot's 307 Named European Car Of The Year...Not Available In America

PARIS, Nov 20 (Reuters) - PSA Peugeot Citroen's 307 sporty compact car, launched in April to rival Volkswagen's best-selling Golf (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VOWG.F), was named car of the year by a panel of 55 European journalists, the French automaker said on Tuesday.

The 307, of which 250,000 have been sold to date, beat off competition from 29 other vehicles introduced this year, including the Renault Laguna, Fiat Stilo, BMW's Mini (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BMWG.F), the Honda Civic, the Citroen C5 and Jaguar X-Type.

To be eligible, the cars needed to be new this year and on sale in at least five European countries. The winner was then selected according to the personal criteria of the judges, such as handling, innovation, styling, features and price.

The 307's success has allowed PSA to continue expanding its market share in Western Europe, building on previous strong performances by the smaller Peugeot 206 and Citroen Xsara Picasso.

Its Western European market share climbed to 15.2 percent last month from 13.4 percent in October 2000 as it accelerated the launch of new vehicles. The company aims for worldwide sales this year of three million cars, up from 2.8 million last year.