Honda Fit Wins AJAC's 2009 Best New Design Award

TORONTO, Feb. 11 /CNW/ - The Honda Fit won the "Best New Design" awardfor 2009 as presented by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada(AJAC). The award was handed out as part of the 2009 Canadian Car of the Year(CCOTY) awards that opened the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto. "We thank the AJAC members for this design award," said Jerry Chenkin,Executive Vice President of Honda Canada Inc. "We built the Fit to meet theneeds of our customers, and their response has been overwhelmingly positive.The Fit combines a sleek, aerodynamic design for enhanced fuel efficiency witha roomy interior for excellent passenger and cargo space, proving that greatstyle and value are not mutually exclusive attributes." Canadian independent designer Paul Deutschman, Humber College automotivedesign professors Ken Cummings, and Bruce Thomson, as well as Automobilemagazine's design critic Robert Cumberford were appointed by AJAC as a panelof design experts. Their task was a difficult one: create a short-list of four"Best New Design" finalists from the full-slate of fifty-six entries in theCanadian Car of the Year awards program. Their top four finalists were the Audi A4 ("Distinguished as it is on theoutside, it is the superbly finished interior of the A 4 that lifts it wellabove its class rivals. That the model offers a wide variety of powertrains isicing on the cake. Despite its compact size, the A 4 has real presence andprovides is owner with a real sense of occasion." - Robert Cumberford), theHonda Fit ("It speaks well of Honda's far sightedness when they triumphed onthe market in the mid-Seventies with a little hatchback (then called theCivic).... over 30 years later their little hatchbacks are still flying offthe dealers lots. Every generation needs an affordable, efficient, honestworkhorse and this is the best available in North America" - Paul Deutschman),the Jaguar XF Supercharged ("Ian Callum and his team have designed a car whichis patently "Jaguar", yet they have managed to do so without trotting out oldnames or hackneyed design motifs." - Bruce Thomson), and the Volkswagen PassatCC ("The Volkswagen Passat CC represents an opportunity for regular folks todrive a Teutonic, elegant, four-door sedan with more than a passingresemblance to its German competitors for half the price."- Ken Cummings). AJAC journalists then selected the winner from the design expert'sshort-list based on a combination of aesthetics, function, and brand essence.Each parameter was rated separately for each of the design finalists. Theaesthetics score reflects the sheer beauty of the design. The function scoreassesses the manner and degree to which it accommodates the practicalrequirements of the vehicle type. And brand essence considers its success inconveying the image, heritage, and values of the specific brand. "The intent of the AJAC Best New Design award is to identify and rewardthe vehicle that exhibits the best balance of form and function", said RichardRussell, chair of AJAC's 2009 Canadian Car of the Year awards. AJAC's annual Canadian Car of the Year awards program was created in 1985with the purpose of providing consumers with sound, comparative information onvehicles that are new to the market. For that reason, the vote results that determined today's winners areavailable to consumers as a resource buying guide on the AJAC web site. Alsoavailable are the comparative test data derived from the journalists'extensive five day evaluation of over 160 new vehicles in Niagara-on-the-Lake,Ontario in October. This annual event is known in the industry as "TestFest".Shell Canada is the official fuel supplier of the event. The rigorous TestFest evaluation program includes real world driving onpublic roads - exactly where consumers drive so that the test and vote resultsposted to the AJAC web site are directly relevant to potential car and truckbuyers. Still looking to buy a 2008, 2007, or even a 2006 vehicle? AJAC archivesthe comparative test data from previous years on its web site. Photos from today's award announcements, the October 24th categorywinners, and the TestFest evaluation event, are available for print andbroadcast media under - Canadian Car of the Year - Photo Gallery - on the AJACweb site. In addition, our AJAC journalists who evaluated the brand new models atTestFest are available across Canada for interviews to talk about the voteresults and comparative data. Media are invited to visit the AJAC web site andlog-in under "Ask An Expert", then choose the "Media" link to access interviewinformation once validation has occurred.

Source;
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2009/11/c7493.html