Aston Martin’s Vanquish, the Jaguar F-Type and the 2014 Mazda6 have all been named finalists for the 2013 World Car Design of the Year Award. The eventual winner will be announced during a press conference on March 28 at the New York International Auto Show.

A jury of 66 automotive journalists representing nearly every continent selects the finalists every year. For specific categories, such as Design and Green Car, a panel of experts in each field reviews every vehicle candidate and provides recommendations for the jurors. The design experts were: Masatsugu Arimoto (Japan), Silvia Baruffaldi (Italy), Gernot Bracht (Germany), Sam Livingstone (UK) and Tom Matano (USA). Jurors then voted on the experts’ recommendations.

A surprise but welcome announcement, the 2014 Mazda6 outlasted Renault, Land Rover and Volkswagen in the latest round of the voting.

An evolution of the TAKERI Concept, Mazda’s new mid-size features the brand’s KODO “Soul of Motion” design language, which is inspired by the movement of animals in the wild.

The World Car of the Year awards were inaugurated in 2003 to reflect the reality of the global marketplace as well as to recognise and reward automotive excellence on an international scale, and are intended to complement, not compete, with existing national and regional Car of the Year competitions.

Profile of Design Experts

Masatsugu Arimoto:
Masatsugu began his career as a vehicle designer at Nissan Diesel Motors; then a subsidiary of Nissan and now called UD Trucks under Volvo’s ownership. He then became a senior editor of Japan’s Car Styling magazine. In 1988, he turned to freelance design journalism and consultancy. As Japan’s foremost automotive design commentator, Arimoto is chairman of the Japan Auto Colour Award program, a juror on Car Styling’s “Car Design Awards” as well as judge on the Automotive Brand Contest 2012 held by German Design Council.

Silvia Baruffaldi:
Since 1988, Silvia has been working for the bimonthly magazine Auto & Design, where she is currently Managing Editor. Ms. Baruffaldi also contributes design articles to Il Sole 24 Ore, an Italian financial daily newspaper, and to the magazine InterAutoNews.

Gernot Bracht:
Gernot is a former designer at Renault who now teaches at Pforzheim design school. He also works as a freelance designer for various automotive-suppliers and is an illustrator, cartoonist and painter.

Sam Livingstone:
Sam has been Director of the consultancy Car Design Research Ltd since 2000, with clients including the design groups of Audi, Toyota, Renault, Pininfarina and SAIC. Sam is also Senior Tutor in Vehicle Design at the Royal College of Art in London, a judge on the Louis Vuitton Concept Classic, Guild of Motoring Writers Design Writer of the Year 2011 and one of the 2012 IF Transportation Design Award judges also.

Tom Matano:
Tom has been an Executive Director of the School of Industrial Design at Academy of Art University in San Francisco for the past 10 years. Prior to this, he held design positions at General Motors Design in Michigan, GM Holden’s in Australia, and BMW in Germany. In 1983, he became a Chief Designer at Mazda North America. From 1999 to 2002, Matano worked with Mazda Headquarters in Japan, as an Executive Designer in the Global Advance Studio and the General Manager of Mazda Design. Matano managed the Chief Designers group that creates the entire Mazda car line designs, as well as the European and North American studios. His accomplishments at Mazda include the MPV, MX 5, RX 7, Miata “M-Coupe” concept car, Miata “M-Speedster” concept car.

Tags: Aston Martin Rapide, Aston Martin Vanquish, car design, design award, Gernot Bracht, Jaguar F-TYPE, KODO, Masatsugu Arimoto, Mazda6, New York International Auto Show, Sam Livingstone, Silvia Baruffaldi, Soul of Motion, TAKERI Concept, Tom Matano, World Car Awards, World Car Design of the Year