Holden's flagship Caprice long wheelbase luxury sedan is now Saudi Arabia's Car Of The Year.

Leading regional motoring publication Saudi Auto bestowed the honour on the Chevrolet Caprice Royale, the highest of Holden's four long wheelbase variants prepared for the Middle East market.

The award comes as Caprice continues to hold commanding leadership in the Australian-made luxury market and achieves record sales in the Middle East region.

Saudi Auto Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Bakur Azher, said the award was further recognition of Caprice's special place in the history of the Gulf region.

"This is a car with more than four decades of tradition in the Middle East, yet it refuses to age. It appears as young and energetic as ever," he said.

"This fact is supported by the public's continued love of Chevrolet and its growing affair with the Caprice Royale in particular."

Saudi Auto cited the combination of power, sophisticated looks, spaciousness, advanced body structure, safety technology and value for money among attributes that contributed to the award.

Caprice continues to have a huge following in the Middle East, ever since the first model appeared almost 40 years ago. Holden assumed responsibility for providing vehicles for General Motors under the Chevrolet brand to the Middle East in 1997 and introduced the Australian-made Caprice in 1999.

The current Holden-supplied Chevrolet range includes the Lumina LS, Lumina S, Lumina SS and Lumina LTZ based on Australia's top selling car, the Holden Commodore. It also provides Caprice in four versions - the LS, LTZ, SS and Royale - and Lumina Coupe S and SS based on Holden Monaro.

The Middle East is Holden's largest export destination, with 22,357 vehicles sent last year to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, Qatar and Syria. Saudi Arabia was by far the largest single destination with 11,908 vehicles sold.

Holden last year achieved its second highest export sales on record, with 36,069 second only to 1973. The company is on track to break that record in 2004.