Mazda AJAC Canadian Car Awards

[wongpres]

There is a huge annual AJAC Canadian test fest where journalists around Canada choose Canada's car of the year. This year's event took place from Oct 29-Nov 2. Mazda had 4 cars in the 4 categories and WON all 4!

- Mazda3 sedan Best New Economy Car
- Mazda3 Sport (hatch) Best New Sports Coupe or Sedan < $35,000
- Mazda6 ('04 model in Canada) Best New Family Vehicle
- RX-8 Best New Sports/Performance Vehicle

The overall car of the year will be announced later but the odds have got to be for a Mazda. From what I've seen, odds on favourite is the Mazda3.

Mazda Canadian sales are going to take off.

 

[sjdmp5]

I just saw that. The 3 sedan and 6 had no competition in their catagories. But the 3 Hatch 3 beat out the Acura TSX, Dodge SRT-4 in the under $35,000 catagory. The real surprise was the RX-8 beating the WRX STI. Mazda does have a great line up and I hope they have a Mazdaspeed 3 out for 2006 when my lease is up.

 

[nufsaid]

sjdmp5 - how'd you know there was no competition? The website www.ajac.ca doesn't list any comparative test and performance data - says it will later in December! Interested in what the competition for the Sport was, as that's my love for now.

 

[sjdmp5]

I meant that the 3 and 6 were clearly the obvious choice and that they had no real competition in their class. The 3 sedan was up against the Chevrolet Aveo & Optra, the Lancer Sportback, the Saturn Ion, the Suzuki Swift and the Toyota Echo Hatch. The 6 was up against the Chevrolet Epica & Malibu, the Mitsubishi Gallant, the Nissan Maxima, the Suzuki Verona and the Toyota Prius. The 3 Sport beat out the TSX, the SRT-4, the Pontiac Grand Prix and Toyota Solara. I don't know what the final subjective tests and hard data are either. I'm waiting too

 

[nufsaid]

I noticed ajac lists the performance data and voting results. Appreciated anyone's knowledgable comments on them.

 

[AVE_ENG]

No wonder Mazda hasn't done much marketing of the 3 here yet. They don't have to.

 

[Mazda3]

The voting is pretty good, but these guys can't drive worth a s***!!
0-60 in 8.9sec???
The automatic under half throttle would do that. This car is a sub 8sec 0-60 car, but other than that a pretty impressive showing.

AVE_ENG,

There is a reason why they haven't promo'd the 3 yet. Mazda has recieved huge complaints in the past of creating too much hype on vehicles before they get here, only to have them show up two months late and anger potential customers. Some of which bought something else in the meantime. This time around they scheduled the cars to arrive in dealers in late November, with the advertising campaign scheduled to start in Janurary. This way every dealer will have a big supply when the hype starts. Look for a huge publicity campaign to start in Janurary!!