Car Design of the Year Awards 2007

This year there was a close battle between the BMW Concept CS and the Mazda Taiki, with only 7 percent of votes between them finally. In the end, over 51 percent of readers awarded the BMW a top three ranking. However, this also represents an excellent and consistent result for Citroën, who came second last year with the C-Metisse, and for Mazda, who previously came third with the Ryuga concept. Congratulations to all three design teams - your concepts are highly rated by CDN readers.

The award was presented to Adrian van Hooydonk, Director Design, BMW Cars, for the BMW Concept CS that debuted last year at the Shanghai Motor Show. "This award means a lot to us and the team" said van Hooydonk, "There was a lot of sweat that went into this design so we were pleased with the very positive reaction to the car, especially that from Car Design News". Indeed, recent press reports have indicated that BMW are now developing the concept CS into a flagship production model, although this was not confirmed by van Hooydonk.

Car Design of the Year 2007 - Production

What a result for Fiat Group! For the second year running they've won the production car category, and this year they won the top two places. The Fiat 500 was the clear winner here, with 50 percent of readers giving it a top three ranking. The result for the Fiat is more remarkable, given that the other top five contenders were all luxury models costing far more than the baby Fiat.

Roberto Giolito, Head of Fiat Design, accepted the award together with Lorenzo Ramaciotti, Design Director of Fiat Group Automobiles. "We are really pleased to receive this award" said Ramaciotti, "it's the second year in a row that Fiat Group have won, last year with the Alfa 8C at the top end and now the Fiat 500 at the lower end of our range. Plus the Maserati in second place this year. So if we could win again in two year's time that would be really nice!" The CDOTY award adds to the baby Fiat's growing accolades, including the European Car of the Year award.

The Car Design of the Year award is significant because it focuses on the views of practitioners of car design, including a number of design chiefs. While other 'Best Design' awards are largely made up of votes from journalists, the difference here is that more automotive designers and students of car design read Car Design News than any other media, so CDOTY is very much 'by designers for designers'.

This is the third year that we've run the awards. Previous winners have included the Saab Aero X concept, the Alfa Romeo 8C and Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

By CDN Team