Civic, CX-5 claim AJAC's top honours at busy CIAS media day

The Canadian International Auto Show kicked off in Toronto Thursday with a bang.

The day started with Honda Civic winning 2016 Canadian Car of the Year honours and Mazda CX-3 earning the nod for 2016 Canadian Utility of the Year according to the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC).

The annual ranking of vehicles this year was generated from 1,911 test drives, producing over 110,000 data points and 1,701 category ballots.

But that flurry marked just the beginning of what was a particularly busy media day at Toronto’s Metro Convention Centre.

This year’s show included 40 vehicle premieres – two of which represented North American premieres.

And while there were nearly a dozen concept cars revealed, it was a particularity light showing of truly out-of-the-box concept vehicles. A few no notable exceptions included Hyundai's Santa Cruz truck concept and the Volkswagen's sleek GTI Roadster concept vehicle.

Canadian AutoWorld staff were there talking to all the executives and will have a full rundown of the stories behind the show in our next issue.