The awarding ceremony was made in front of more than 200 representatives from various automakers around the globe and Scottish motoring journalists. The gala dinner of said event was held at the five-star Fairmont St Andrews resort.

Scottish Car Award aims to recognize the achievements of newly launched cars, which are enveloped in 8 categories ? small, luxury, family, diesel, sporting, drop top, MPV and SUV. The competition is now on its 9th year. So far, it has imbibed a prestigious reputation that makes automakers desire even a single award.

The competition assessed the vehicles on the range of their qualities involving safety, monetary value, Scots appeal and performance. Having what it takes to be Scots auto champion, Jaguar XK Coupe emerged as the champion in the Dove Publishing-sponsored Sporting category. Its mighty rivals include BMW'S Z4 and Audi RS4 Coupes.

The Jaguar XK, which was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September of the previous year, uses powerful Jaguar XK8 car parts accessories as well as XJ's new aluminum chassis.

Other category winners of said competition were: Small ? Fiat Grande Punto; Luxury ? Lexus IS; Family ? Skoda Roomster; Diesel ? SEAT Leon TDI FR; Drop Top ? Mazda MX-5; MPV ? Ford S-MAX; and SUV ? Audi Q7.

?The ASMW is delighted to award Jaguar with the Scottish Car of the Year title for 2006. The past 12 months have seen some exceptional new cars come onto the market but none could match the Jag. Beautifully built, beautiful to look at and sensational to drive ? Jaguar's XK Coup? is something very special indeed," said Stephen Park, President of the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers.

"I feel especially honoured to have collected Jaguar's third Scottish 'Car of the Year' accolade, particularly for the new XK which we believe is a truly deserving winner," says Geoff Cousins, Jaguar's UK Managing Director, after receiving the award.