FORD'S FOCUS is the 1999 European Car of the Year. It won with a landslide 444 points. Of the 55 European motoring journalists on the voting panel, 42 gave the Focus maximum possible points.
Second was the Opel Astra with 272 points, and third Peugeot's 206 with 249 points.
Audi's TT and Volvo's S80 followed in fourth and fifth places with 235 and 175 points respectively.
It was Ford's fourth Car of the Year title since the competition began in 1963. Its previous winners were the Escort in 1981, the Scorpio in 1986, and the Mondeo in 1994.
The Car of the Year contest was launched in 1963 by Dutch car magazine Autovisie, which later teamed up with some other leading European magazines and newspapers to raise its international status.
