The Kia Optima Sportswagon and Mazda MX-5 RF have received “Best of the Best” titles at this year’s Red Dot Awards for product design, while the Kia Niro and Kia Rio also nabbed wins in their respective categories.
At this year’s awards, more than 5500 products from 54 countries were submitted across a range of categories, from household appliances to vehicles and furniture, with the 2017 presentation ceremony to take place on July 3, 2017, at the Aalto Theatre in Germany.
Continuing the success of its sedan counterpart, which won the same award last year, the Optima Sportswagon was awarded the highest “Best of the Best” honour. Meanwhile, the smaller Rio hatch got a ‘Red Dot’ stamp and the Niro hybrid SUV received an honourable mention.
Meanwhile, the MX-5 RF also repeated the win of the soft top version in 2015, taking out a “Best of the Best” distinction.
Kia has won 18 Red Dot awards since 2009, with models including the previous-generation Optima (2011) and the Sportage (2016), while Mazda’s count climbs to six since its Kodo design language was introduced in 2012 – the Mazda 6 (2013), Mazda 3 (2014), CX-3 and Mazda 2 (2015) are all previous winners.
The Red Dot Awards were first launched in 1955 by the Design Centre of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, and cover three main categories; product design, communication design and design concept.
While the MX-5 RF is already on sale in Australia, our market misses out on the more practical Optima Sportswagon, developed primarily for European markets.
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