A two-door Japanese sports convertible has taken out the Australian motor industry's most coveted award - Wheels' Car of the Year - for the second time.
The latest version of the Mazda MX5 Roadster, with a price tag starting at $42,000, drew praise for its precision engineering and agility at a relatively low cost.
The three other finalists in contention for the 2005 award were the Mercedes Benz M Class four-wheel-drive wagon, the Lexus IS250 sedan and the Ford Focus.
"There are many more expensive sports cars than the MX5," Wheels motoring magazine's editor Ged Bulmer said at Tuesday's awards announcement in Melbourne.
"But to get one that's superior to the Mazda means stepping up to the most affordable Porsche Boxster ($107,400)".
The Wheels' Car of the year Award, now in its 43rd year, is the longest continuously-running new car award in the world.
Twenty-one cars were nominated for the 2005 award and they were whittled down to the eventual winner by 10 independent judges who oversaw a week of road testing against strict criteria.
The winning car maker can usually expect a surge in new car sales the following year.
"You can pour millions into advertising and marketing... but the importance of the award is its independence," Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson said.
"I know, from the point of view of customers, it makes a world of difference."
The Mazda MX5 first took out the industry's top accolade in 1989, the year of its launch.
The MX5 has undergone a series of major refinements since then, Mr Dickson said, but it continued to embody a key quality sought by the Japanese car marker.
"We firmly believe in the spirit of `zoom, zoom`," he said, borrowing from Mazda's advertising tag line.
" ... or the fun of driving, and the MX5 is the embodiment of that."
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