AJAC names 9 winners in categories for car of year
At a press conference Tuesday at the Toronto Congress Centre, the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada revealed the winners of nine “Best New” category winners on the road to the naming of the Canadian Car/Utility Vehicle of the Year.
As program directors, including me, received the sealed envelopes from Jeff Palmer of the accounting firm KPMG, we learned that the nine awards had been split between seven manufacturers.
Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen scored wins in two categories each, with Chevrolet, Honda, Kia, Mazda and Volvo finishing first in the rest of the categories.
While the entire industry eagerly anticipates learning what vehicles will be named the Car/Utility vehicle of the year, these category wins may be even more important for the shopping public.
These awards include vehicles from the same market segment that have been tested back-to-back against their direct competition, ultimately making these awards directly relevant to a consumer who is shopping for a vehicle from a specific category. The category winners are: Small Car: Honda Civic Family Car: Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen 1.8 TSI
Sports/ performance under $50K: Volkswagen Golf R
Sports/ performance over $50K: Mercedes-AMG C 63 S
Prestige/ performance: Mercedes-AMG GT S Coupe Pickup: Chevrolet Silverado SUV/CUV under $35K: Mazda CX-3
SUV/CUV $35K-$60K: Kia Sorento
SUV/ CUV over $60K: Volvo XC90
The Canadian Car and Utility Vehicle of the Year will be announced in February to open the Canadian International Autoshow in Toronto. Rally of the Tall Pines wraps up Canadian Rally Championship At 9 a.m. Saturday in Bancroft, Ont., 28 competitors in the Canadian and Ontario rally championships head onto the roads surrounding the town to begin the final event of the season.
The field consists of a broad spectrum of rally cars that range from a pair of 1988 Volkswagen Golfs right up to the fire-breathing Subaru Canada Rally Team WRX STI of perenni- al champion Antoine L’Estage and his co-driver, Alan Ockwell.
The duo have actually already clinched the Canadian championship. They did it with a win at the Rocky Mountain Rally in Invermere, B.C., on Halloween weekend. The pair dominated that event, despite having mechanical problems on the first stage, which were repaired at the first service point.
This is L’Estage’s eighth Canadian Driver’s Championship and Ockwell’s fourth win of the Co-Driver’s Championship.
Saturday’s marks 15 years since the start of Ockwell’s career as a navigator and co-driver and is the 100th rally for the Etobicoke resident.
Tall Pines is the best opportunity for motorsport fans who are curious about rally to come out and experience the sport. Get directions and the full schedule at tallpinesrally.com. Europeans love their wagons and, frankly, so should we As excited as I was that my choice of the Volkswagen Golf Sportwagon as best new small car over $21,000 in last week’s special Wheels section was validated when the car was also named Best New Family Car by AJAC journalists, I was more excited by a short note from a Wheels reader.
Clive Richards said of the Sportwagon: “I have one — and love wagons. Was just in Europe and noticed that every manufacturer had a wagon, so many on the highways.”
Richards went on to report that these wagons are very popular with police forces, as he spotted many in use as police cars in Italy, Switzerland and Germany.
In fact, the tour bus he was on was stopped and the driver given a breathalyzer — something that apparently is random but routine.
Perhaps it’s time for Canadian consumers to start considering smaller, European-style wagons instead of the SUVs and crossovers that our market is obsessed with. Hathaway named most popular of NASCAR Canada drivers This week, NASCAR unveiled the names of the 2015 Most Popular Driver Awards for its regional touring series, including Jason Hathaway, who won the title for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.
The award recipients are chosen based on the results of fan voting, with more than 34,000 votes being cast this year. Hathaway edged out Alex Tagliani by104 votes, the second year in a row that Tag has been runner-up. Freelance writer Gary Grant is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. To reach him, email wheels@thestar.ca and put his name in the subject line.