Honda Motor Co.’s 2009 Accord Tourer grabs one of the highest honors in the world for design quality, the 51st International Red Dot Award.

The annual Red Dot Award is given by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany to products in 11 categories. There were some 3,000 entrants from more than 51 countries, and the sought-after ‘Transportation’ category high quality design award went to the Honda Accord Tourer, the automaker’s newest estate car.

"Faced with the greater number of high-quality products, our international jury of acknowledged experts this year found the task of selecting the winner to be particularly challenging. This distinction explicitly acknowledges your creativity and innovative drive, and pays tribute to the high quality standards of your product," said Peter Zec, initiator of the awards, in congratulations to the second largest Japanese automaker.

This is actually the third time the Japanese automaker has received the nod on this particular award, the first being for the sporty Honda 2000 in 2001 and the chic Civic in 2006. The official distribution of awards is set on a grand scale in Essen on June 23.

The award aims to prove that a station wagon can be both practical and good looking. This is an effort to defy the common notion that wagons are boxy.

The future for these awards will be even more challenging as automotive design moves into the next phase where consolidation is key, at the same time consideration for safety, environment, more performance comes to the fore, according to the Trend News Agency.

“We have a growing customer base and the popularity of Accord has helped to drive this,” said Honda U.K. Corporate Operations Manager Harvey Hughes in an interview.

The next generation Accord will go on sale in the United Kingdom this summer. The production versions of both the Saloon and Tourer have debuted at the Geneva Motor Show this month.

Last year, Accord won praises in the What Car? Reliability survey which made it grab the prestigious award of ‘most reliable model’ in Fleet News’ FN50 industry survey. This success is mirrored by the car’s rapidly improving status in the corporate sector, with 62 percent of all Accord sales in U.K. going to fleet.