HONDA cars are hot in the awards sector this week.

The little Jazz has just been voted Car of the Year by weekly motoring maga-zine, Auto Express.

The car not only wins the supermini category against the cream of the crop of today's small hatchbacks in the publication's New Car Honours, but it gains the highest accolade of all, that of Supreme Honour.

The award was presented to Honda (UK)'s director and general manager, Ken Keir, by the magazine's editor-in-chief, Dave Johns.

He said: "Our winner this year is a car charged with taking its maker into a new area of the market. It's a machine that impressed us with its style, innovation and refreshing sense of fun.

"Although the Jazz range is small in comparison to some of its rivals, the model is a fantastic piece of pack-aging that answers its design brief to the letter and introduces a host of new ideas to an area of the market already overflowing with new metal.

"The new Honda is a car that has already ruffled feathers within the indus-try thanks to its spacious interior, hi-tech powerplant and fabulous build quality."

Honda has also scored in the Motor Industry, the Motor Trader Industry Awards taking the coveted Training Award for the performance of its UK training operation, the Honda Institute.

The award was presented to Pauline Wiseman, the head of the Honda Institute by Mike Allmond, manag-ing director of ReMIT Ltd, who sponsored the award.

The award was open to all companies in the UK auto-motive sector where the judges looked for evidence of a systematic approach to investment in the work-force as well as innovative and successful training methods.

In Honda they found it. The Honda Institute pro-vides personal development programmes for the 10,000 people within the com-pany's three franchised networks of cars, motor-cycles and power equip-ment.

Structured training pro-grammes result in turnover among its People First recruits of less than eight per cent per year com-pared with 30 per cent across the network as a whole.

It also contributes to-wards reduced dealer costs and 20 per cent higher levels of apprenticeship partici-pation, with a drop out rate well below 10 per cent.

Extensive training facili-ties are provided for all staff, from motorcycle mechanics to sales executives and in addition, last year more than 800 training events were held in Honda franchised car dealerships throughout the UK.

Curtis Hutchinson, editor of Motor Trader said: "In an industry where staff turnover is high, morale is often low, and where training is not always a priority, it's good to report an exception.

"Honda recognises that having good staff is crucial to success, and with the Honda Institute it is really making a difference."

Auto Express road test editor Oliver Marriage said: "The Honda Jazz has rewritten the supermini rulebook.

"This all the more impressive considering Honda, unlike its experienced rivals, has never built a proper super-mini before.

"Innovation is the key to the Jazz's success the Japanese newcomer is a packaging masterpiece."