The Honda Civic has been named the 2016 Canadian Car of the Year and the Mazda CX-3 is the Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year.
The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) revealed the award-winners at an early morning press conference on media preview day at the Canadian International Auto Show (CIAS) 2016.
The Honda Civic Sedan scored a whopping 798.9, edging out the Volkswagen Golf R and Volkswagen Golf Sportwagon.
Jerry Chenkin, President and CEO of Honda Canada Inc. accepts the award for Honda
Accepting the award was Jerry Chenkin, President and CEO of Honda Canada Inc. “This is an amazing, amazing experience,” said Chenkin, who thanked AJAC for the award. “I also want to thank our Honda dealers across Canada for the fabulous job they do in taking care of our customers.”
With a score of 769 points, the Mazda CX-3 beat out the KIA Sorrento and Volvo XC90 to claim the crown in the utility vehicle category.
Vincent Reboul, Director of Marketing for Mazda Canada was on hand to accept the award
Vincent Reboul, Director of Marketing for Mazda Canada was on hand to accept the award. “This award is a great honour to everyone at Mazda Canada but especially to the CX-3 engineers and designers who listened to our consumers needs and wants to come out with this winning combination of design, fuel economy, and great fun driving dynamics,” said Reboul.
The category winners represent the voting results of more than 70 AJAC journalists who gathered in Clarington, Ont. in October for an annual event known as “TestFest.” This includes real world driving on public roads in which the AJAC journalists test out vehicles in their respective categories, generating 1,911 test drives, and producing 110,000 data points.
The results were compiled and kept confidential from even AJAC until press day.
