Ward's Automotive has picked its best interiors of 2008--and Chevrolet, Jaguar, Suzuki, Chrysler, Mazda, and Audi will be bringing home trophies.

The "Interior of the Year" awards for this year were chosen from a field of 36 vehicles and 13 manufacturers by the editorial staff over at Ward's. Criteria included materials, ergonomics, design, aesthetics, value, and fit. According to Ward's, the best Economy Car interior is in the Suzuki SX4, which has "attractive faux metallic trim"; it proves an "inexpensive car doesn't have to be a cheap one."

The Chevrolet Malibu wins among Popular-Priced cars for its "upscale aura" and "harmonious design," while the Jaguar XF takes home the prize for Premium-Priced cars; it "exudes luxury and personality as if it were creating it by photosynthesis."

Audi's TT took home top honors for Sports Cars for its "soft, high-quality materials and precise switchgear," while the Mazda5 won out in the Popular-Priced Truck category and the Chrysler Town & Country for Premium-Priced Trucks. A handful of special awards gave kudos to the Volvo C30, Infiniti EX35, Hyundai Sonata, and Dodge Journey.

Are you convinced by some of their choices? Among TheCarConnection.com's editors, the Chrysler Town & Country in particular is a funky choice for its overwhelming plastics, though it has more features than a topographical map. What about the Mazda CX-9 or even Ford's King Ranch F-Series? Tell us which interior you think deserves a win in a comment below.

In the past week, I've driven new vehicles with the best and worst interiors in the business. The worst one? You can guess for yourself, but think lots of black plastic, nylon carpeting that would make Cher's wardrobe point and laugh, and plastic controls that snick and snap like an overachieving box of Rice Krispies.

But that car, at long last, is the huge exception. Car interiors have gotten so good, even the cheapest on the planet stand a fair chance of winning over shoppers just from the style and shape of their cabin. Think MINI's Cooper and Clubman--or even Scion's xB, with decent materials and way-cool bins for everything.

My own personal favorite is the King Ranch version of the Ford F-250. Sitting at least a foot above the useful slot at the ATM, with the diesel engine rumbling like a school bus, it would be difficult to see this as luxury transportation. This one's nothing like the Ford F100 that my father used to shuttle us around to sports and school. (For one thing, there's no blue dial telephone laying in the footwell...I still don't have an answer for that one.) Slip into it and the tailored Castaño leather fits so perfectly with the F-Series' style, you wonder why Ford hasn't tried a similar treatment on the Explorer or even on a passenger car. (That goes along with the mystery of why Ford keeps Harley editions to its trucks, and doesn't spread it over some passenger cars.) Yes, it's expensive, as it's part of a $3640 package, but that includes adjustable pedals, big mirrors and a power sliding rear window.

There's one other car that wows me with its bargain-luxe treatment - the Saturn Aura, with its morocco-brown leather. You can't find a finish as nice as this unless you customize your Conti GT, and from what I gather, that job's roughly the price of the entire Saturn sedan.

We're interested in what you have to say. (We're not the only ones looking at interiors. Winding Road asked which interior you liked best the other day, drat them.) What's your favorite car interior? Tell us in a comment below. And while you're at it, tell us which one you like the least.

At the North American International Auto Show there's a bewildering number of new designs — including quite a mix of production premieres, production-bound 'concept' prototypes, and even a few unhindered, let-the-designers-loose concepts.

To our untrained eyes, it's often hard to judge them at first glance, especially amidst all the bright lights and auto-show hype. We can separate the hits from the duds with our gut feelings — and by asking whether a concept fits its purpose and has nice proportions — but to get a better sense of which new designs are hits and which may be misses, we checked in with Imre Molnar, the dean of the College for Creative Studies (CCS), which has one of the top automotive design programs in the country and is based in Detroit.

“The principal theme this year has been sustainable transportation and environmental concern,” said Molnar without hesitation, explaining that the industry is already being affected by a number of concerns, including new fuel efficiency regulations that were recently approved. “It's very encouraging to see them put green so high in designers' thinking.”

Chrysler introduced three new concepts, all using under-development plug-in hybrid technology but each with a different 'range extending' powertrain element. Molnar said that the Dodge ZEO and Chrysler ecoVoyager concepts were hits. The ecoVoyager he described as “attractive and compelling,” while the ZEO is, he said, “unusually angular for a sporty car,” but a clear evolution of the previous Bee concept. The design of the Jeep Renegade concept wasn't quite as refined, he said, but still good.

Purely from the standpoint of shapes, surfaces, and proportions, Molnar chose the fast-looking Mazda Furai as his favorite from the show. The latest in a series of concepts that develop Mazda's future design direction, under the supervision of Lawrence van den Acker, the general manager of Mazda's design division, the Furai is more abstract than the thinly veiled, production-bound prototypes now commonly called concept cars.

“Mazda's doing flamboyant expressions of the brand rather than focusing on practical design exercises,” said Molnar, and he's excited to see what will come of it. The cars, he said, are “extremely adventurous and very sophisticated.” The Furai, he says, is “a true concept car, with wild, pret-a-porte styling that's audacious and very thought-provoking, with a good 'wow' factor.”

Another one of Molnar's picks, though for purity of purpose and straightforward appeal more than for the appeal of its sheetmetal, is the Toyota A-Bat, a small, car-based Toyota pickup concept with an frugal hybrid powertrain. “It's the most exciting concept, with regards to 'it has to be made,'” said Molnar.

On the other hand, Molnar was disappointed with the production-bound Fisker Karma, the 100-mpg plug-in hybrid luxury sedan shown publicly for the first time at Detroit. Molnar commended Fisker's design work at Aston Martin and BMW, but said that the Karma's proportions and surfaces just don't work well from a design standpoint.

Noteworthy, but neither a hit nor a miss, is the Ford Explorer America concept. It follows a very purposeful, boxy shape, albeit with rounded edges, according to Molnar, and it's a further evolution of the memorably named Synus concept from 2005. The new concept manages to make ordinary sheetmetal look more sturdy, like billet material, just by the form taken by its surfaces, Molnar said.

Molnar also likes the design of Volkswagen's Passat CC, even though it's a completely different approach. “It has a very organic, biological form,” said Molnar, adding that the design owes a lot to the trends started with Chris Bangle and his BMW concepts from earlier this decade, with curves that look like they're derived from nature. “The CC has very sophisticated surface forms,” he said.

Why the wide range in design today, both in terms of up-close details and the shape of sheetmetal? Up until the last three years or so, according to Molnar, you could relate the way things looked to the manufacturing technology of the time. But with the widespread use of the five-axis CNC mill, times have changed and recent designs have been able to allow any combination of organic surfaces with creases and sharper edges. “Now the technology can give us any shape,” said Molnar.

Over at the main site, we're talking about concept cars. Rex Roy chose ten from the remote and near past that for whatever reason, weren't built. Chrysler's Norsemen never even made it to an auto show, while the bastardized Pontiac Aztek we did finally get was so far from the concept design as to be a totally different car. We've chosen our ten - now tell us the ones we missed in the comments section below, and we'll cobble together a reader's version of the list for you.

Ten Concepts Detroit Should Have Built --TheCarConnection.com

There’s no doubt that we’re more interested in subcompacts, here in the days of $2.50 a gallon gas. But can Chevrolet make it happen where Toyota, Honda, even smart, have such a head start? The brand will test the waters at the New York auto show with a trio of 1.0-liter concept cars—which you can vote on at vote4chevrolet.com. After the show, no doubt, hundreds of GMers will spend thousands of hours dissecting the data from the poll and from the show, trying to figure out if enough people would buy something from Chevy instead of a Yaris, a Fit, or an xB. There are good signs for Chevrolet—the Aveo’s been a solid success. And the lessons from the Aveo are already being put to use with the Trax concept (the other two names will be revealed in New York). The Trax, for example, has been designed in South Korea to meet all relevant regulations in all markets. That means U.S. safety, Europe pedestrian, Japan emissions. Will it fly worldwide, under a bowtie logo? We’ll let you know as we cover the New York show.

GM Has Trax Concept for New York—TheCarConnection.com