In just two days, one car will be recognized as the best in Canada.
This Thursday, February 16th at around 8:20 AM during Media Day at the 39th Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, one of three finalists will be recognized as Canadian Car of the Year for 2012. The award is given by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) and is one of the most sought after and prestigious awards given out to automakers in this country.
The process to select the Canadian Car of the Year began back in October as all AJAC members travelled to Niagara on the Lake to participate in their annual Test-Fest. For one week members took over the runways of a local airport to test out each and every new vehicle design offered in Canada for 2012. Once testing was done and rankings were both collected and independently analyzed, winners in 11 different categories were announced. From those category winners 3 were selected as finalists for Canadian Car of the Year. The 3 finalists for this award are:
The actual winner of the award is a closely guarded secret and will not be revealed to anyone until the announcement is made this Thursday. I will be in attendance to hear the announcement, but given that I AM NOT a member of AJAC, yet have had the opportunity to fully test each of the finalists over the past few months, I wanted to share my pick to receive the award.
Based on the list of finalists selected by the members of AJAC for Canadian Car of the Year, my vote goes to:
THE KIA OPTIMA
Rationale:
I’ll start by saying that all three finalists are excellent cars. While the fact that all three finalists this year are Korean has drawn a fair amount of attention and publicity, it really should no longer come as a surprise. Hyundai and Kia are so far removed today from the quality of vehicles that they first brought to North American, that any comparisions between then and today are grossly unfair.
The Hyundai Elantra has been on a roll of late. In January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it received the very prestigious award of being recognized as North American Car of the Year. The Elantra is a well designed compact car that was completely re-designed for 2011. Offering a new look both inside and out, the Elantra provides attractive styling, a well powered yet fuel efficient engine and many amenities that once were restricted to higher price categories. When I reviewed it for the Enviro Dad Test Drive, I found it has opened my eyes to what Hyundai had become, but left me not completely satisfied. While a great car I personally preferred the all new Chevrolet Cruze in this category over the Elantra.
The Hyundai Accent, like its larger stable-mate has generated a lot of buzz. This sub-compact which comes as either a sedan or a 5-door hatchback had also been completely re-designed for 2011. Offering significant room for its size along with a strong ride and attractive design, it has achieved broad appeal amongst young drivers as well as urban dwellers. When I had the chance to spend time in the Accent, I found it to be fun to drive but lamented somewhat as to how externally it looked like a smaller version of the Elantra, which in turn, looked like a smaller version of the mid-sized Sonata. To me, there just wasn’t enough distinctiveness amongst the brands to warrant special attention beyond what it justly deserved for being good cars.
The re-designs of both the Elantra and Accent were impressive and they deserve to be a finalist, but to my mind their redesigns paled in comparsion to what Kia did with the Optima.
While it’s true that the Optima is techically a re-design and re-branding of their former Magentus nameplate, the gap between what the car was versus what it now is to my mind is mind-boggling. When I first saw the Optima at last year’s Toronto show I was stunned to see such a gorgeous design carrying the Kia brand. Over the past several months I have had 4 different opportunities to test out the Optima. I have had the chance to test out each of the three engine platforms available (2.4 Litre 4 cylinder, 2.0 Litre 4 cylinder turbo & gas-electric hybrid) as well as 3 different trim levels (EX, EX Luxury & SX) so I have had more than enough opportunity to see just how different this car is. The Optima is gorgeous inside and out, thanks to the brilliant design work of chief designer Peter Schreyer. On several occasions I had random conversations with people who just couldn’t believe this was a Kia. The car isn’t just gorgeous, but it performs too! It’s 2.0 Litre 4 cylinder turbo pumps out 274 horsepower while still maintaining decent 4 cylinder fuel efficiency. The Optima Hybrid recently earned the Guinness Book of World Records designation for Lowest Fuel Consumption by a Hybrid, which only adds to the allure of this model further! It’s premium audio system was exceptional and you’ll find pricing options topping out at just under $34K for the SX Turbo or just under $36K for the premium version of the hybrid. This car didn’t just leave it’s former shell, it pulverized it and yelled “I’m all new” better than anything else I’ve seen this year.
Right now I have no idea who AJAC will give it’s award to. Based on some of the other awards I’ve seen handed out the Elantra may go in as the slight favourite, but for my money I’d expect to see the executives at Kia getting up on stage early Thursday morning.
I’ll be there and will Tweet live the results (follow me at either @MMPerspectives or @Enviro_Dad to keep tabs) so you’ll know just as soon as I will.
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