As part of their annual TestFest event, the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada invited a group of journalists who are not AJAC members to Niagara on the Lake yesterday to get a taste of how the organization chooses the Canadian Car of the Year. Some of us that took the short flight from downtown Toronto were auto journos in our own right, while others working in other niches.

The day began with an short lesson in the history and methodology behind TestFest and then the group moved on to the fun important stuff: the cars. First up, representatives from each auto manufacturer gave a short talk about their electric vehicle programs and then the guests partnered up with an AJAC member to spend the rest of the day testing cars.

The guest journos had their choice of all of the new models and were able to drive whatever car they wanted on the same drive route that AJAC members use to evaluate each car. SUV’s were able to do a short tour of an off road test track to see how they coped with the mud after a week of rain. Some of us were able to ride shotgun for a few laps of the high speed vehicle dynamics track that was set up on the NOTL airport surface.
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