CCOTY Press Release: Canadian Auto Experts are Gearing Up for an Intensive Fall Testing Program

TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2014 /CNW/ - The stage is set for the 28^th round of the Canadian Car of the Year (CCOTY) awards to take place this fall in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The annual event hosted by the Automobile Journalist Association of Canada sees the most important new vehicles each year brought together in a single venue to be tested, back to back against their competition, by a large panel of Canadian auto reviewers.

The CCOTY program, which is open to new-this-year models, sees the highest-scoring vehicle in each testing category declared a winner, before all category winners re-compete for the overall title of Canadian Car of the Year and Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year. A field of dozens of vehicles is narrowed down to a handful of top-scoring finalists, and then just two overall winners.

Last year, the Mazda 6 and Jeep Cherokee took top honors with the highest scores through two rounds of testing and evaluation.

This year will put the new Honda Fit and Nissan Micra head to head for testing in the 'Small Car Under $21,000' category, while the all-new Subaru Legacy, Toyota Camry and Chrysler 200 will go head to head in the 'Family Car Under $30,000' category. In all, new-car offerings across fifteen vehicle categories will be tested and scored in this year's event. The full list of vehicles and categories is available on the AJAC website.

But category winners, and the overall winning vehicles each year, are far from the only important results to come from the intensive annual testing program.

"Our program is absolutely testing-based," explains CCOTY Co-Chair Justin Pritchard.

"We've got dozens of experienced vehicle testers driving dozens of vehicles, back to back, over the course of several days. This testing process generates thousands of data points across dozens of voting fields. We share every aspect of this testing data online—so shoppers can see how a given vehicle won its category, or how it stacked up to the category winner".

"Whether you're interested in one of this year's category winners, which we'll announce in December, or another model from a previous year, every bit of our testing data and voting data is shared online, along with tools to compare vehicles across various categories and years. Our performance data, which is factored into every vehicle's overall score, is also published".

The goal is, ultimately, to provide highly relevant consumer-driven information for Canadian shoppers to take with them in the marketplace.

Interested in checking out the highest scores for acceleration, refinement, cargo space, value, steering or interior ergonomics, as assigned by a panel of Canadian auto experts, for the next vehicle you're considering? Head to www.ajac.ca. Testing and voting data from this year's panel of competitors will be online shortly after the event, in late October.

SOURCE: Automobile Journalists Association of Canada

For more information, please contact the CCOTY Board of Directors Co-Chairs, Justin Pritchard, [email protected], or Gary Grant, [email protected].