AJAC GETS SOME CANADIAN CAR OF THE YEAR PICS WRONG

The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada has announced their exhaustive group of award winners for 2010 and, naturally, The Good Car Guy’s disagreements cut a huge swath through the list. Officially, GoodCarBadCar.net has no problem (okay, few problems) with traditional means of automotive journalism, plenty of issues with the way AJAC’s testing works out, and a significant caveat given the lack of opposing award systems like The Bad 8 and The Bad 8 Supersize.

For starters, labelling twelve vehicles as winners clearly marks out the others as losers. The Good Car Guy, on the other hand, loves to mark out the best available cars and SUVs in addition to the worst, leaving you to decide if the vehicles in the middle might be right for you. So unlike AJAC, The Good Car Guy will not be calling the Nissan 370Z Roadster a loser. Nor will GoodCarBadCar.net link the Jaguar XFR to losership status. Nor will GoodCarBadCar.net find any excuse to act as if 99% of the domestic American automotive industry sucks.

That being said, congratulations to the winners – all of which are cars I’d be willing to own or test, listed below with the challengers. Asterisks indicate The Good Car Guy’s preferred winner(s). After all, The Good 12 v3.0 is coming up in December and we don’t wanna know the whole story, do we? Of course not.

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Small Car (under $21K)

Hyundai Elantra Touring
Kia Forte Koup
Mazda 3 (winner)

Small Car (over $21K)
Honda Insight
Kia Forte
* Kia Soul
Mazda 3 Sport (winner)
Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback
Nissan Cube
Volkswagen Golf

Family Car (under $30K)
Ford Fusion
Subaru Legacy
Toyota Prius
Volkswagen Golf Wagon TDI (winner)

Family Car (over $30K)

Ford Taurus

Buick LaCrosse

Ford Fusion Hybrid

Luxury Car (over $50K)
BMW 335d sedan (winner)
Cadillac CTS SportWagon
Mercedes-Benz E350

Prestige Car (over $75K)
Porsche Panamera Turbo (winner)
* Audi R8 V10
* BMW 750i
* Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid

Sports-Performance (under $50K)
* Chevrolet Camaro
Ford Taurus SHO
* Hyundai Genesis Coupe
Mazdaspeed 3
Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliart
Volkswagen GTI (winner)

Sports-Performance (over $50K)
Audi S4 (winner)
Jaguar XFR
Mercedes-Benz E550 Coupe

Convertible
Audi A5 (winner)
Lexus IS350C
* Nissan 370Z

SUV/CUV (under $35K)
Chevrolet Equinox
Subaru Outback (winner)
* Toyota Venza

SUV/CUV ($35K-$65K)
Acura ZDX
* Audi Q5
GMC Terrain
Lexus RX350
* Mercedes-Benz GLK350 4Matic
Volkswagen Touareg TDI (winner)
Volvo XC60

SUV/CUV (over $60K)
Acura MDX
* Audi Q7 TDI
* Cadillac SRX
Lexus RX450h (winner)
Lincoln MKT