The judging panel praised the all-new Caprice which emerged after three days of solid testing as a clear winner from the other finalists in its class.

The process undertaken by Autocar’s team of judges involved three days and nearly 36 hours of analysing and testing.

“The Caprice represents unbeatable value given its list of standard features, size and that six-litre V8 engine,” Autocar Editor and chief judge, Damien Reid said.

“Given that it’s an all-new model, our judges were impressed by the improvement in build quality, ride and overall refinement over the previous model. As it was judged against its competitors the panel found this latest version had retained many qualities which makes this style of car so popular to Middle Eastern customers,” Mr Reid added.

GM Holden despatched its first shipment of all-new generation export versions of Commodore, Statesman and Caprice to its largest export market, the Middle East, in September 2006.

The cars, prepared as the Chevrolet Lumina and Chevrolet Caprice, are exported throughout the Middle East as part of Australia’s longest and largest automotive export programme.

GM Holden Export Manager, Emma Pinwill, said receiving the Best Luxury Car Award was an important milestone for GM Holden’s export programme to the Middle East.

“In 2005, more than 30,000 Holden vehicles were shipped to the Middle East. These cars became major sellers, which enabled Holden to invest $190 million in the development of the WM series."

“So it is a great honour to be recognised in the Middle East as our success there has supported GM Holden in taking the WM series to a whole new level of design and engineering.” Ms Pinwill said.