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Best new cars of 2010
PIERRE LOUIS MONGEAU/AJAC
Contenders for Best Sports/Performance Car under $50,000 line up at the Niagara airport, ready to be judged by AJAC's auto reviewers.
The competition is known as TestFest and is organized in Niagara-on-the-Lake by the Automobile Journalists' Association of Canada.
The vehicles are all driven and tested back-to-back under similar conditions by AJAC's automotive reviewers, and marked anonymously on how they rate in up to 23 different characteristics, including price, roominess, performance and handling.
This year, 70 reviewers – automotive writers from Canada's media – tested 51 different models in a dozen different classifications. Remember, these are not every new 2010 vehicle, but only those models that are all-new for 2010, or have been significantly revised for this model year.
There are no Honda Civics or Toyota Corollas, for example – Canada's top-selling cars – because their 2010 versions are essentially the same as the 2009 versions. There were three different versions of the Mazda3, however – Canada's No. 3 best-seller – because it's a major revision on the car of last year.
Two other vehicles were entered for judging at TestFest, but disqualified as ineligible: the Lexus HS250h was not expensive enough to qualify as a Luxury vehicle, and the BMW Z4 was only entered as a manual transmission car, when its chosen category, Convertibles, demanded that it be presented as an automatic. But we drove those two as well, anyway. Hey – they were there, and the keys were in them.
At the end of testing, the total points awarded to each vehicle were counted and the car with the most points in each category was declared the winner of its class.
There'll now be a fresh round of judging of each of the winners so that in February, at the Toronto AutoShow, the Car of the Year and the Utility Vehicle of the Year will be declared from among them.
The Wheels team of auto journalists was part of the testing. Today, read what we thought of all the vehicles in all but the two performance categories. And on Saturday, in Wheels, read what we thought of those quick cars, and the entries for Best Green Technology and Best New Technology.
Best 2010 Small Car Under $21,000
Best 2010 Small Car Over $21,000
Best 2010 Family Car Under $30,000
Best 2010 Family Car Over $30,000
Best 2010 SUV/CUV Under $35,000
Best 2010 SUV/CUV $35,000 to $60,000
Best 2010 SUV/CUV Over $60,000
Best 2010 Luxury Vehicle Over $50,000
Best 2010 Prestige Vehicle Over $75,000
Best Sports/Performance Car Under $50,000
Best Sports/Performance Car Over $50,000
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