Canadian Car of the Year is Mazda6

By Bill McLauchlan

The votes have been counted and the decision finalized! The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) kicked off the 2014 Canadian International Auto Show today in Toronto by announcing the 2014 Mazda6 as the winner of its Canadian Car of the Year (CCOTY) award for 2014.

To take the award the mid-size 6 topped two other finalists, its Mazda3 in-house rival and the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. Other category winners, eligible for the CCOTY kudos, trophy included the Kia Soul, Lexus IS350 AWD, Infiniti Q50 Hybrid and the new Mercedes S Class.

The Truck of the Year title went to Jeep’s new Cherokee, gaining the nod over Kia’s Sorento and the Acura MDX. 

(CNW Group/Mazda Canada)
Kory Koreeda, president, Mazda Canada, accepting the 2014 AJAC Canadian Car of the Year award for the Mazda6.

The journey began at AJAC’s TestFest last October, when the Mazda6 handily won its category (Best New Family Car over $30,000), alongside its stable mates, the Mazda3 and Mazda3 Sport, which also scored top marks in their respective categories. The strong march toward victory continued when the Mazda3 and Mazda6 were nominated as finalists for the award, finally culminating in the AJAC CCOTY win for Mazda6.

In all, eight individual TestFest car category winners were announced in early December – each earning the right to be a finalist for the prestigious overall winner award.

“Today, the Mazda6, our flagship vehicle, etched its name in history by winning the overall AJAC Car of the Year award,” said Kory Koreeda, president, Mazda Canada. “This impressive achievement confirms what we already knew – the Mazda6 is nothing short of a Game Changer, once again raising the bar and outclassing other cars in its segment.”

The Canadian Car of the Year is one of the most coveted automotive awards in the automotive industry, and represents the collective voice of more than 80 of Canada’s top automotive experts. Vehicles are judged on a large variety of objective and subjective qualities, meaning there is no single factor that determines a win. Instead, the vehicle must represent an overall package of quality, value, comfort, fuel economy, and many other factors that are critical to the Canadian consumer.

The third-generation Mazda6 features ground-breaking technology; i-ELOOP, the world’s first capacitor-based brake energy regeneration system to power all the vehicle’s electrical systems, along with the front collision-detecting Smart City Brake Support (SCBS) system, make their first appearance in the Mazda6 – as does SKYACTIV Technology an umbrella term for a host of performance-oriented, fuel-saving engine, transmission, body, and chassis components first introduced in the 2012 Mazda3 and fully-incorporated into the 2013 CX-5 compact SUV.