This past week I spent a few days in Niagara-on-the-Lake driving a few dozen vehicles in order to cast my vote for Canadian Car of the Year (CCOTY). As a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) who regularly test drives and publishes reviews of vehicles I’m eligible to vote in these awards. Vehicles are broken down into categories (i.e. Family car over $21,000 and Minivan). The winner of each category is then eligible to win over Canadian Car of the Year.

There are several categories and it’s impossible to drive every car in every category over the two days allotted to testing so I drove four categories: Luxury car over 50K, Performance car, Small car over $21K and Minivan.

The following are my picks and runner ups for each category. The actual winners based on votes from all jurors who drove the same categories will be announced on October 29.

Follow the jump to see my picks. Continue reading →