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The New Year could hardly have started out better for Opel. In January, sales grew by over seven per cent in Europe; more than 110,000 orders have already been received for the new Opel Corsa and the brand has won a whole ar- ray of awards since the beginning of the year. The inf lux of prizes started right at the turn of the year: in their Auto Test Winner in Green competition, the environmental institute Ökotrend and the trade magazine Auto Test selected the Zafira Tourer 1.6 CNG ecoFlex the most environmentally friendly vehicle in the van segment for the third year in a row. The next accolade came at the Detroit Motor Show: for the second year running, Opel Group CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann was able to accept a Connected Car Award for the digital connectivity of the company's vehicles. Opel won the Pioneer Award for especially trendsetting innovations with Opel OnStar, the comprehen- sive carefree package of connected safety, high-class mobility services and progressive information tech- nology. "Presently, internet is nor- mally a premium topic, but Opel have made an expensive technol- ogy mainstream," explained maga- zines Auto Bild and Computer Bild in the reasoning for the award. In Stuttgart, Peter Christian Küspert, Vice President Sales & Aftersales Opel Group again accepted another trophy for the Opel Adam, for the second year in a row, Opel's individualization champion won the Readers' Choice Award The Best Cars of respected magazine auto motor und sport in the mini-car category. The Opel ADAM received 29.8 per cent of the votes and even managed to beat the 24.2 per cent it received last year. The ADAM is also very popular in the German and Austrian Blog- ger scene that handed the stylish individualisation champion the Blogger Auto Award 2015 in the minicar category. Then Opel Marketing Officer Tina Müller was on her way to Berlin for the next awards ceremo- ny, where the new Opel Corsa was named Most Sensible Car 2015. This Readers' Choice Award from the consumer magazine Guter Rat and the magazine SUPERillu was already the fifth prize for the small car with the Oh! effect. Auto Bild and the independent service provider Schwacke also hosted an awards ceremony in Berlin to recognise the cars with the highest residual values. At the Value Champion 2015 awards, two Opel models took number one spots. The Opel Adam won the small car category with the highest residual value of 57.5 per cent of the new-car price after 48 months. In the compact van category, the Opel Zafira Tourer (52.4 per cent) also took first place – ahead of the BMW 2 Active Tourer (51.8 per cent), thereby underlining how well new cars from Rüsselsheim retain their value. Opel also swept the advertising Grand Prix with one gold and two silver medals. The Opel adver- tising campaign "Umparken im Kopf " won the Grand Prix from Econ Forum's Jahr der Werbung (Year of Advertising) for the best campaign of the year. The coveted prize went to Opel's lead agency Scholz & Friends. "Umparken im Kopf " also won two silver medals in the categories Out of Home and Print. Pop over to the Opel showroom at Cars International in Mdina Road, Qormi, to see what models are in stock or book a test drive by sending an email to opelsales@cil. com.mt or by calling 2269 2122. To learn more about Opel models, visit opel.com.mt or the Facebook page Opel Malta. XIII maltatoday, Sunday, 22 February 2015 Motoring Opel starts the New Year by collecting honours