The annual Canadian Car of the Year awards kicks off on Monday, October 22nd with the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada’s (AJAC) ‘TestFest.’ 

TestFest is a week-long evaluation process by Canadian AJAC journalists to determine which vehicles are the best in their respective category and to eventually determine the overall Canadian car(s) of the year. 

Testing is performed through a back-to-back format of all cars in their category on “real world” driving on public roads to fully capture the differences between the vehicles in real-life situations.  For an impartial evaluation, each voting journalist performs the same test on the same roads for the same amount of time. The goal of the awards is to assist the Canadian consumer in making the best buying decision and that is why the tests are conducted on regular roads at normal speeds.

All of the tests are conducted on the Niagara District Airport in Niagara-on-the-Lake. In total there are 80 journalists voting on 60 vehicle nominees under 11 categories.  It will be quite the busy airport as there will be three identical vehicles on hand per nominee totalling 180 vehicles ready for testing.

Voting is completed through a detailed rating form with 21 separate evaluation parameters that focus on styling, occupant environment, performance, and vehicle dynamics. Each parameter is rated using a 0-10 rating scale. Once all the ballots are received they are tabulated by the international accounting firm KPMG. The results are kept confidential and revealed at the awards press conference where the category winners are announced as well as the overall nominees for Canadian Car of the Year where the eventual winner(s) are announced at the 2013 Canadian International AutoShow in February.

Last year’s overall winners were the Hyundai Elantra for car of the year and the Volkswagen Touareg TDI Clean Diesel for utility vehicle of the year.

Here are the nominees for the 2013 Canadian Car of the Year awards:

City Car:

1) Ford Focus EV

2) Mitsubishi i-MiEV

Small Car under $21K:

1) Chevrolet Spark

2) Dodge Dart

3) Kia Rio LX+

4) Mazda3 Skyactiv Sedan

5) Nissan Sentra

6) Toyota Prius c

Small Car over $21K:

1) Chevrolet Sonic LTZ 5-dr Hatch

2) Ford CMAX Hybrid

3) Hyundai Elantra GT

4) Mazda3 Sport Skyactiv Hatch

5) Volkswagen Beetle

Family Car under $30K:

1) Chevrolet Malibu Eco

2) Ford Fusion

3) Honda Accord Sedan

4) Mitsubishi Lancer AWC

5) Nissan Altima

Family Car over $30K:

1) Chevrolet Malibu

2) Ford Fusion Hybrid

3) Mercedes-Benz B 250

4) Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid

Luxury Car: 

1) Acura ILX

2) BMW 3-Series

3) Buick Verano

4) Cadillac ATS

5) Lexus ES350

6) Lexus GS

Sports Performance under $50K:

1) Chevrolet Sonic RS 5-door

2) Fiat Abarth

3) Ford Focus ST

4) Honda Accord Coupe

5) Hyundai Genesis Coupe

6) Hyundai Veloster Turbo

7) MINI Roadster

8) Scion FR-S

9) Subaru BRZ

10) Volkswagen Golf R

Sports Performance over $50K:

1) Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

2) Ford Shelby Mustang

3) Mercedes-Benz SLK 55

4) Porsche Boxster

Prestige Performance over $75K:

1) BMW M5

2) Chevrolet Corvette 427

3) Porsche 911 Carrera S

4) Mercedes-Benz SL 550

SUV-CUV under $35K:

1) Chevrolet Trax

2) Ford Escape 1.6 L EcoBoost

3) Honda CR-V

4) Hyundai Santa Fe Sport

5) Mazda CX-5

6) Subaru XV Crosstrek

SUV-CUV $35K-60K:

1) Acura RDX

2) Chevrolet Traverse

3) Ford Escape 2.0 L

4) GMC Terrain Denali

5) Hyundai Santa Fe Sport 2.0T

6) Infiniti JX

7) Lexus RX350

8) Nissan Pathfinder