Opel Astra Wins Red Dot Design Award

The Astra can add the red dot to an expanding trophy case that started with the Goldenes Lenkrad (Golden Steering Wheel), by Germany’s AutoBild and its European affiliates and has expanded in recent weeks to three important awards in Spain and a viewer’s choice prize in Romania, proving that the Astra is valued throughout Europe not only for its sleek lines but also for its innovative technologies.

The Astra, developed at Opel’s European Design Center in Rüsselsheim, continues the natural evolution of Opel’s design language, ‘sculptural artistry meets German precision’ first introduced on the Insignia and bringing it newly interpreted for the compact class.

This prize is added to the impressive list of awards already attributed to the new Astra since it went on sale in December 2009. So far, the elegant compact has received 16 awards, including the 2010 Golden Steering Wheel award. The Astra was also named 2010 Car of the year in several countries like Spain.

The international red dot design award – presented since 1955 under the aegis of the Design Zentrum North Rhine Westphalia in Essen, Germany – ranks among the largest and most renowned design prizes in the world. It is granted to products by an international panel of design experts who base their criteria on degree of innovation, functionality and formal quality.

Red dot awards have been presented to many companies known for their innovative design, including Apple, Nokia – and Opel. Five other Opel models –the Insignia, the Flextreme Concept , GT, Astra GTC, the 1998 Astra G – already are featured in past red dot design yearbooks archived in the center’s museum in Essen.

This year, some 1,636 companies from 57 countries submitted 4,252 entries for the coveted red dot.

Credits: wilswong