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Volkswagen designer gets 2011 lifetime achievement award

Volkswagen Group designer Walter de'Silva was chosen for this year's Lifetime Design Achievement Award at EyesOn Design, which ran over Father's Day weekend in the Detroit area. About 260 invitation-only vehicles were in attendance at Sunday's car show on the grounds of the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores. They were chosen based on this year's theme of "Designing for the Future." Only car designers who have previously won the Lifetime Design Achievement Award were allowed to vote on a winner for 2011.

Nissan NV200: Nissan’s take on the London Taxi

Nissan is taking on the Black Cab market with the Nissan NV200 London Taxi, expected to go on sale in 2014 from around £30k. It may not be the biggest market in the car world, but the profile of the London Taxi makes it a worthwhile target for car makers. Mercedes recently took on the traditional Black Cab with their Vito-based taxi and did a very good job – but at a price; the Mercedes Vito Cab costs around £42k, almost £10k more than the traditional London Taxi.

Best of the Best for 2012: Audi A7 and Land Rover Range Rover Evoque

Each year, hundreds of new cars and trucks pass through the Autoweek garage for evaluation by our editors. We bring our enthusiast eye to what we'll admit is a relatively enjoyable task of sorting through all of those test cars, looking for those few stellar models that deserve additional consideration for our top honors. For the second consecutive year, we've applied all of that accumulated knowledge and seat time to pick Autoweek's Best of the Best/Car and Best of the Best/Truck for 2012.