The old Russian saying "Count your chicken in the autumn when they're hatched" doesn't always apply to other fields. Nowadays it's fashionable to take stock in spring.
Village of the Year
This year the Village of the Year award was given for the 5th time, so it was decided to have a really grand ceremony in The Ritz-Carlton Moscow, with prominent suburbia development market players in attendance.
This season's unusual feature was developments from various Russian regions (that is, other than Moscow countryside) competing for awards in practically all nominations. As a logical culmination, the Grand Prix went to the Sunny Coast project in the Leningrad region. For the first time in 5 years the top award - the Village of the Year - left Moscow region. Other interesting nominees included the Earl's Ponds (winner in the Luxury Villa Community nomination) and Archangelskoye (winner in the De Luxe class).
House of the Year
This one was chosen through Internet voting. Internet users could vote for the most interesting (in their opinion) of the 12 nominee projects at www.domgoda.com. The award went to "Sail" - albeit not the one in Dubai but in Khodynskoye field in Moscow. It's a 5-section 24-storey building of a quite unusual shape: the arc on the plan is supplemented with the arc in the silhouette spiralling into a circle, bringing to mind images of an ear, a mountain, a wave, a snail and even a whale.
Car of the Year
The organisers of the Car of the Year in Russia 2008 competition arranged for an almost universal plebiscite. Winners in 19 nominations were chosen based on the voting by 104,722 Russian motorists.
The winner in the City Car nomination was Peugeot 107; the best Small Car became Opel Corsa, the Small Medium Class award went to Mitsubishi Lancer X. Honda Accord for the second time in a row has won in Medium-Class Cars nomination, while Toyota Camry became the top business-class model - also for the second year running.
The Executive Class award went to Lexus LS 460, and Maybach won in the Premium Executive Class nomination. Audi A5 was voted the best of the best coupes, and Audi R8 won in the Premium-Class coupes category.
Mercedes-Benz SLK was the winner in Convertible Cars and Roadsters. In the Premium segment of this group the palm went to BMW 6 Series Cabrio.
Volvo XC 70 Cross Country was voted the best off-road estate car. Winners in Light Off-Road Vehicles (up to 2,100 kg), Medium Off-Road Vehicles (up to 3,000 kg) and Heavy Off-Road Vehicles (over 3,000 kg) were Nissan Qashqai, BMW X5 and Range Rover Sport, respectively.
Nissan Navara was chosen as the best pickup. Ford S-MAX and Volkswagen Caddy received awards as best minivan and best small commercial automobile. And finally, the trendy Ford Mondeo was voted the New Model of the Year.
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