Skoda won four gongs at the Auto Express New Car Awards, more than any other manufacturer.It also won the overall prize for New Car of the Year for the Skoda Citigo, the slightly lower-cost version of the VW Up! The other Skoda winners were the Superb for both Family Car and Estate Car and the company also won the Driver Power Award for Customer Satisfaction.Auto Express editor-in-chief, Steve Fowler, commented: “These Car of the Year Awards are proof that Skoda’s now a big league car maker – and in many ways it’s outshining parent brand VW!”

“The Citigo offers small car buyers the space, quality and comfort normally associated with much larger cars, but at a fraction of the cost. It’s simply sensational value-for-money.”

Behind Skoda came five manufacturers who all managed to win more than one award.

BMW achieved three: Compact Family Car – 1 Series, Compact Executive Car – 3 Series and Executive Car – 5 Series

Land Rover garnered two: Compact SUV – Evoque and Large SUV – Discovery (or three if you categorise it as Jaguar Land Rover, with the Jaguar C-X16 also winning the Design Award).

Ford and Peugeot also managed two: Ford got Hot hatch – Focus ST and Five Seat MPV – C-Max while Peugeot won in Supermini – 208 and Coupe – RCZ.