MX-5 MAKES HISTORY, AGAIN!
06-SEPTEMBER-2006

The Mazda MX-5 has made history by winning Wheels Magazine’s prestigious design award in the same year as it was voted Wheels Car of The Year.

Now in its second year, the Wheels Automotive Design Awards is a collaboration between Wheels, Australia's leading motoring magazine, and the Australian Design Awards, a division of Standards Australia, that recognises and rewards the best in automotive design on the Australian car market every year.

Beating rivals that are up to four times more expensive than the MX-5 including Porsche Cayman S, Jaguar XK and Audi A8, the MX-5 impressed judges for its "outstanding achievement in form, as well as function," said Wheels.

There are three categories in the program: Interior Design, Exterior Design and the overall Outstanding Automotive Design. In order to win the overall award the MX-5 had to demonstrate excellence in both interior and exterior design.

"Clever repackaging has resulted in a car with very obvious parentage, but increased interior space," noted Graham Paver, one of the judges on the panel.

Peter Robinson, another Wheels judge concurred, stating, "It’s all that it should be. It retains the MX-5’s character in a more contemporary form."

Each vehicle was evaluated by twelve judges, recognised in their field for design or automotive knowledge, on the following criteria: innovation, intelligence of design, visual impact and form, functionality, originality, quality and design manufacture, ergonomics and semantics, safety and environmental considerations.

Ged Bulmer, Editor of Wheels and a judge for both the design award and Car of The Year, commenting on the differences between the two awards, noted, "You find yourself looking at panel gaps, running your hand along edges, looking for things like aperture operation [and] safety openings. In COTY, you just don’t have time, because of the dynamic focus... For me, this is about the visual coming together, but also about how things feel… It’s quite a different process."

The Mazda MX-5 was recognized in 2005 as the World’s Most Popular Roadster by the Guinness Book of Records. To date, more than 750,000 have been sold worldwide.

Priced from $42,870, the MX-5 provides stylish design without losing driving dynamics for people seeking an affordable roadster experience.

"This is a great recognition for the MX-5," Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson said.

"We have always known it is a great looking car, but to win convincingly in such a competitive pool is a wonderful achievement for Mazda and the MX-5’s Program Manager Takao Kijima and his team."

The MX-5 will soon welcome a new member into its family, a powered retractable hard top version known as the MX-5 Roadster Coupe.

On sale in September, this vehicle provides MX-5 drivers with yet another option in the range.

***Information Correct at Time of Publication***

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