Two ‘Best New Technology” award winners, and finalists in the Canadian Car of the Year and Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year Awards have been announced by The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC).
The technology awards were announced last week at the Montreal International Auto Show, with the Best New Safety Technology for 2017 award going to Volvo Pilot Assist II, Large Animal Detection, Run-off Road Mitigation.
Mazda G-Vectoring Control (GVC) is winner of the Best New Innovation Technology for 2017 award.
The Best New Technology awards are judged by a panel of 12 automobile journalists who are all technology specialists. They are part of AJAC’s Canadian Car of the Year awards program which was created in 1985 to provide sound, comparative new vehicle information to consumers.
This year, the top three finalists vying for the Canadian Car of the Year award are BMW M2, Hyundai Elantra and Volkswagen Golf (Alltrack).
The top three Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year contenders are Chrysler Pacifica, Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 4MATIC and Subaru Forester.
Eight “Best New” category winners were eligible for the awards after AJAC’s ‘TestFest,” a rigorous four-day, test drive evaluation by more than 60 automotive journalists.
“TestFest is the most intensive new-vehicle evaluation process on the planet,” says Gary Grant, co-chair of the the Canadian Car of the Year committee.
Co-chair Justin Pritchard says that the testing process has generated 1,384 test drives and more than 100,000 data points.
“It is important to note that every aspect of this testing data is shared online via our website, so shoppers can see how any given vehicle won its category, or how it stacked up to the category winner,” says Pritchard.
Winners of the Canadian Car of the Year and the Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year awards will be announced on February 16.
