Award winners
Honda Accord and Chrysler Pacifica named Car of the Year and Utility Vehicle of the Year
The Honda Accord sedan and Chrysler Pacifica minivan have been chosen as Car and Utility Vehicle of the Year respectively by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC).
To be eligible for the top awards, vehicles had to win in their respective categories. The Accord took top spot in the “Large Car” category, while Pacifica won in “Minivan.”
Accord, which also won the North American Car of the Year award at Detroit last month, beat out Mazda3 (“Small Car”) and Volvo S90/V90 (“Large Premium Car”), while Pacifica topped Mazda CX-5 (“Small Utility”) and Mazda CX-9 (“Large Utility”).
So, close but no cigars for Mazda this year. Voting was done by AJAC members who regularly test-drive vehicles during the year.
Mark Richardson, president of AJAC, noted significant changes to the test program this year.
In the previous 30-odd years, only vehicles judged sufficiently “new” or heavily revised were eligible. They were all brought to a judging event, the “Test Fest,” where all contenders were subjected to a same day/same conditions back-to-back evaluation.
This year, Richardson said the winners “were not selected from among the best new vehicles on the market. (They) were evaluated alongside every vehicle that can be purchased in a Canadian dealership that AJAC journalists tested and submitted ballots for throughout all of 2017.”
The objective was to make the evaluation process more comprehensive, and to evaluate the vehicles under a broader range of conditions.
Stephanie Wallcraft, vice-president of AJAC, added that the winners “are the result of a total of 2,293 test drives completed by our expert journalists from coast to coast, in all four seasons, and throughout the highly diverse roads — and weather conditions — that Canadians experience when they drive their own cars every single day across the country.”
Jean Marc Leclerc, senior vice-president sales and marketing for Honda Canada, accepted the Car of the Year trophy, saying, “We’re honoured and humbled to receive this recognition from a group of respected automotive journalists in Canada. We’re both proud and thankful for all of our associates who supported the production and development of this vehicle and for our passionate customers who have supported the Accord for the past 40 years.”
William Levasseur, vice-president, marketing, for FCA (Fiat Chrysler Alfa Romeo) Canada, accepted the utility vehicle award on behalf of the employees at the Windsor Assembly Plant where the Pacifica is built.
His boss Reid Bigland, president and CEO of FCA Canada, added, “There’s an extra air of significance when one of our homegrown products wins a domestic award.”