The Peugeot 307 is a product of the French car manufacturer, Peugeot. Originally designed as a small family car, the model was first introduced in 2001 as the successor to the Peugeot 306. Using a reworked version of the platform used for the Peugeot 306, the Peugeot designers focused on making the car far more spacious, thereby increasing its appeal to the family market. The model was first presented to various European markets, and then later taken to Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, and Asia. The Peugeot 307 cars followed the body style first seen in the Peugeot 206 and the Peugeot 607 models, having upswept front lights and a steep bonnet that gave way to an extremely sloped windscreen. Although originally designed as a hatchback, the 307 was released in 2003 as a cabriolet version in order to compete with the flood of coupe cabriolet models being offered, at the time, throughout Europe. Again, in 2005, the design was reworked in response to competition from rival models that were released after the 307. The front of the car, including the front bumper grill, the lights and the bonnet was completely restyled. These reworked versions are among the most sought after nearly new Peugeot 307 cars available. Peugeot also manufactured a rally car based on the 307 model. This car achieved three victories during the World Rally Championship season of 2004. This model has also been driven in the World Touring Car Championship race series, the British Touring Car Championship race series, and Danish Touring Car Championship race series. The Peugeot 307 was named 'European Car of the Year' in 2002. Peugeot 307 sales topped 200,000 by the year 2008 when full production of this model ended. Sales of the Peugeot 307 continued throughout China and South America for a further 12 months.