New York 2010: Volkswagen Polo wins 2010 World Car of the Year award

Awards season is finally winding down with the 2010 World Car of the Year and World Performance Car of the Year being handed out this morning at the 2010 New York Auto Show. After whittling the fields down to three finalists in each category, the panel of 59 international journalists voted one last time to crown the World Car of the Year.

While the Toyota Prius, Volkswagen Polo and Mercedes-Benz E-Class were nominated, it was the Polo that took home the gold for 2010 World Car of the Year.

On the performance vehicle front, the nominees were the Audi R8 V10, Porsche 911 GT3 and Ferrari California, with the Audi winning top honors.

They also handed out a Design award for a group of finalists including the Citroen C3 Picasso, Kia Soul and Chevrolet Camaro. That honor went to the Camaro. (U-S-A! U-S-A!)

The Green category saw Volkswagen's line of diesel-powered BlueMotion vehicles beat out the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight hybrids

Top 20 Best-Selling Vehicles of 2009

Mouse over the clock in the lower right-hand corner of your PC. Alternatively, if you're a Mac user, look at the little iCal widget down at the bottom of your screen. Whoa, look at that! It's 2010. January 6th, to be exact. And that means the final sales tallies of all automakers for the year-that-was are in. As you may have noticed yesterday, none but Subaru, Kia and Hyundai are likely to be entirely pleased with their YTD performances, falling as they did compared to sales in 2008.

Wouldn't you know, though, that not one of those three upwardly trending automakers earned a single spot on the Top 10 Best Selling Vehicles chart? To see a Korean automobile on the list, you need to expand the search to the Top 17. This fact reminds us yet again that by and large the American population tends to be a rather predictable bunch.

Think you can guess what the best-selling vehicle of 2009 was? We won't lie... you probably can. In fact, it's been the same vehicle for the past 28 years straight

[Source: Examiner.com]

Top 20 Best-Selling Vehicles of 2009

First, let's get numbers 20–11 out of the way. There are a couple of interesting highlights, such as the Chevrolet Impala, which drops four spots from 2008 down to number 12 as its Bowtie sedan stablemate, the Malibu, jumps in at number 13. We also see the Toyota Prius at number 16, falling just shy of 150,000 units sold in 2009. Finally, note the GMC Sierra at number 18. Interestingly, when the Sierra's 111,842 sales are added to its Silverado sibling from Chevrolet, that platform outsells the Ford F-150 rather handily. As you'll soon see, though, Ford does indeed have the last laugh once all full-size truck sales are counted.

• Chevrolet Cobalt: 104,724
• Toyota Tacoma: 111,824
• GMC Sierra: 111,842
• Hyundai Sonata: 120,028
• Toyota Prius: 139,682
• Toyota RAV4: 149,088
• Ford Focus: 160,433
• Chevrolet Malibu: 161,568
• Chevrolet Impala: 165,565
• Ford Escape: 173,044

Number 10 – Dodge Ram: 177,268


Number 9 – Ford Fusion: 180,671


Number 8 – Honda CR-V: 191,214


Number 7 – Nissan Altima: 203,568


Number 6 – Honda Civic: 259,722


Number 5 – Honda Accord: 290,056


Number 4 – Toyota Corolla: 296,874


Number 3 – Chevrolet Silverado: 316,544


Number 2 – Toyota Camry: 356,824


Number 1 – Ford F-Series: 413,625

Tokyo 2009: Toyota Prius claims Japan Car of the Year title

For the past 30 years, Japan has declared a car of the year, an award given to newly released or redesigned vehicles released from November 1st of the previous year to October 1st of the current year. More than 60 jurors composed of Japanese journalists receive an allocation of votes, and the car with the most votes comes away with the crown.

This year the Toyota Prius narrowly edged out the Honda Insight, continuing the recent trend of environmentally-friendly winners. Other notable winners included the new Volkswagen Golf, which was named the Import Car of the Year, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, which was declared to have the Most Advanced Technology. The Nissan Fairlady Z won the category of Most Fun, and finally the Subaru Legacy took top honors for Best Value.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the award, the Tokyo Motor Show also organized a display of past winners, starting with the Mazda Familia 3-door Hatch Back in 1980-1981 and finishing with last year's winner, the Toyota IQ.

Dow Jones names BMW the greenest automaker - for the fifth year in a row

There's a lot of competition to be seen as the world's greenest automaker – just look at the branding efforts surrounding the Toyota Prius or the Chevrolet Volt for examples – but if you look at the way an automaker designs, builds and recycles its products, then BMW is the top dog.

At least that's the case if you're consulting the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World, which has declared BMW Group to be the "most sustainable automobile company worldwide." If this sounds familiar to you, well, perhaps you were reading the site last year – or perhaps it's because BMW has won the title for five years in a row now. In fact, BMW reminds us it is the only automaker that has been listed on the Index since it was created in 1999. Guess the DJSI likes BMW's responsibility – the Germans call it Verantwortung – a lot.

[Source: BMW]

PRESS RELEASE:

BMW Group named most sustainable automobile company worldwide for fifth consecutive year.
The latest Dow Jones Sustainability Index World once again ranks the BMW Group as super sector leader.

* 04.09.2009

Munich. The SAM Group today published its latest evaluation for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI). For the fifth consecutive year, it rated the BMW Group as the leader in its industry, making it the world's most sustainable automobile manufacturer. The BMW Group is the only company in the automobile industry to have been listed in this important sustainability index family every year since it was established in 1999.

"We are delighted that the BMW Group is super sector leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World for the fifth consecutive year.This proves once again that we are well on our way to establishing sustainability as the guiding principle for all our processes. We refined our sustainability strategy in the first half of 2009 – this was the next logical step and another important milestone," said Dr. Norbert Reithofer, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG.

The Board of Management of the BMW Group declared sustainability one of the company's core strategic principles back in 2000. At the BMW Group corporate sustainability is firmly entrenched throughout the entire value chain: from the development of fuel-saving and alternative vehicle concepts through clean production processes to green recycling practices. The BMW Group also accepts responsibility for its roughly 100,000 employees and is involved in social projects outside of its plants.

In recent months the BMW Group has taken further important steps towards further improving sustainability. Each and every proposal today is measured against the corporate goal of sustainability. At the highest management level a Sustainability Board was established in summer 2009. This board, which comprises the entire Board of Management, determines the strategic alignment for sustainability issues. Twice a year it meets to discuss and adopt the strategies and activities proposed at operational level.

Further information on BMW Group's sustainability activities are available at: www.bmwgroup.com/responsibility

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The SAM Group analyses the economic, environmental and social performance of approximately 2,500 companies and selects the best in each industry for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. General sustainability criteria are considered as well as industry-specific challenges such as climate change. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index was the first global sustainability index to be created, in 1999, and has since been published each year by the SAM Group, based in Zurich, in cooperation with Dow Jones Indexes and STOXX Limited. More information is available at www.sustainability-indexes.com