Car Design of the Year Awards 2008

Last year we asked you, our loyal readers, to choose your favorite automobile design from a shortlisted selection of 10 production and 10 concept cars unveiled in 2008, and in the process find our Car Design of the Year (CDOTY).

Well, we asked and you answered. The survey was completed by over 1000 readers and the votes have now been tallied. The Best Concept Car design of 2008 goes to BMW's innovative GINA, and the Best Production Car award is to be bestowed upon the Chevrolet Camaro.

BMW's GINA concept, which garnered a convincing 35 percent of the vote, was officially unveiled in June last year, though it was originally created nearly a decade ago. A revolutionary flexible textile cover forms the car's outer skin and stretches across a moveable substructure. The new material offers designers a significantly higher level of freedom in terms of both design and functionality. A true landmark in concept car design.

In second place, with 24 percent of the reader votes, is Mazda's Furai - a striking future sports car concept created under the direction of Franz von Holzhausen, former Director of Design at Mazda's R&D Design Center in Irvine, CA. Quite possibly the least likely of our contenders to ever make production, the Furai owes much of its impressive visual drama to a combination of racecar proportions and next-generation ‘Nagare' (or Flow) surface treatment.

Third place in the concept car category goes to the Chrysler ecoVoyager. Its distinctive mono-volume design, expansive cab-forward passenger cell, sweeping, elongated DLO and teardrop profile earned it 19 percent of the vote.

The Chevrolet Camaro wins this year's CDOTY award for Best Production Design, having secured 26 percent of the vote. This retro-inspired sports coupe, which made its public debut in July 2008, stayed remarkably faithful to the 2006 NAIAS concept car. Its bold lines define tight surfaces, while the low horizontal swage of its predecessor and shallow glasshouse give the car a menacing poise. Arguably somewhat derivative, it is nonetheless a very contemporary and highly successful design. 

In second place is another design that made it to production with remarkably few changes over its concept precursor: the Fisker Karma. This low-slung luxury electric sedan with supercar proportions secured 19 percent of the reader vote despite making its first public appearance at the NAIAS in Detroit last month.

The Opel Insignia, designed under the direction of Mark Adams, Vice President Design at GM Europe in Rüsselsheim, Germany, gained 16 percent of the vote, earning it third place on the podium.

We will be presenting these awards to a senior member of each winning design team at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Judging by the cars unveiled at the recent NAIAS, 2009 appears to be off to a good start, with cars such as the Volvo S60, Lincoln C concept, Cadillac Converj and Audi Sportback already looking like strong contenders for next year's Car Design of the Year.

By Eric Gallina