| Wheels Car Of The Year |
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The original intention of the award was to promote excellence in the Australian car manufacturing industry. Until the mid-70's, imported vehicles were not eligible for the award. The big five, Holden, Ford, Valiant, Datsun, and Toyota, now dominated sales with a wide variety of body and engines. With falling sales, the fuel crisis and the instability of the Australian Economy , all Europe an brands, such as, Renault and Volkswagen , ceased local assembly. With a shrinking manufacturing base, reliability and quality issue, Wheels magazine changed the award rules to allow imported vehicles to be eligible. At first, this was condemned by the local industry, unions and media. But by doing this, Wheels magazine enabled local products to judged on a global platform. This, in turn, created a more competitive product and industry. The first imported car to receive the award was the Honda Accord in 1977. Since then, the award has been given to locally manufactured vehicles on 11 out of 28 occasions. ''Wheels''’ Car of the Year winners are:
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