While many consumers who are looking to purchase a new automobile have some degree of familiarity with designations such as “AJAC Award Recipient for Canadian Car of the Year”, they likely have little idea of the methodology behind the award.
To be able to learn about the award; who is involved in the selecting and how is the decision made, one needs to take a look at the annual tradition held each October called “Test Fest”. Organized by the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC), Test Fest brings together most of the just under 100 members of AJAC together in one location, over 5 days with the single goal of testing every new or newly designed automobile for a particular model year that have been offered by manufacturers for judging.
These members, who are all professional automotive journalists use a sophisticated judging and review system to determine which of the submitted cars will be awarded one of 11 segment titles. Each of these 11 category winners, will then be judged against each other on the 5th and final day of testing with the goal of determining what are Canada’s Car and Truck of the Year.
The 11 category winners are announced at the end of the 4th day during a press conference, while the final two awards are not revealed until the beginning of the Canadian International Auto Show which is held each February in Toronto, ON.
To get a sense of how Test Fest works, I travelled to Niagara on the Lake at the invite of AJAC and prepared the following video report:
The 11 category winners announced last night were as follows:
CITY CAR: Ford Focus EV
BEST NEW SMALL CAR (under $21k) Mazda3 Skyactiv Sedan
BEST NEW SMALL CAR (over $21k) Hyundai Elantra GT
BEST NEW FAMILY CAR (under $30k) Honda Accord Sedan
BEST NEW FAMILY CAR (over $30k) Ford Fusion Hybrid
BEST NEW LUXURY CAR: Cadillac ATS
BEST NEW PRESTIGE AND PERFORMANCE CAR (over $75k) Porsche 911 Carrera S
BEST NEW SPORTS/PERFORMANCE CAR (under $50k): Ford Focus ST
BEST NEW SPORTS/PERFORMANCE CAR (over $50k): Porsche Boxster
BEST NEW SUV/CUV (under $35k) Ford Escape 1.6 L EcoBoost
BEST NEW SUV/CUV ($35k-$60k) Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2.0T
Some of the above category winners have already been featured in the Enviro Dad Test Drive (Accord, Focus EV) while others will be scheduled and reviewed upon hopefully before the Canadian Car and Truck of the Year announcements are made.
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