The winner is … everybody!

- January 21st, 2010

Do you ever wonder what an award signifies in the recipient?

Is that recipient actually better than the competition or simply just able to buy the award or influence the judges? Is the award earned or bestowed? Are the judges biased in some way?

The auto industry is used to this kind of speculation over favouritism, mostly because its media members hand out so many awards. Just about every media outlet and organization hands out an annual award to some manufacturer, and those that don’t are usually exploring how they can, in light of what their competitors are doing.

I’m usually sceptical about awards from a sole media property because there is always the possibility that said award results from the amount of advertising the recipient buys in the outlet handing out the award. It may not be the case, but the relationship is there so there’s that “guilt by association” thing.

Motor Trend magazine started the Car of the Year award trend back in the ’40s and continued unchallenged for some time. Today, there are so many awards, it’s hard to think of a vehicle that hasn’t won an award in any given year.

On the one hand, it proves that there’s a vehicle to suit every need. On the other, it dilutes the value of awards in general.

In Canada, we have a pretty good program through the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada. Based on some of the better auto awards programs from various countries, it features judging by 60+ car reviewers like me – who drive the vehicles week in and week out – so there are no publishers or managers trying to swing the vote toward companies that advertise in their outlets. Further, we work for competing media outlets and disciplines, so even though some may vote along advertising revenue guidelines, they are but drops in the overall bucket of votes.

The votes themselves are weighted in various ways to attempt to level the playing field for all entrants, and some vehicles are subjected to different types of evaluation (SUVs off road, for example, and sports cars on a high-speed track).

And all the testing is done back-to-back over the same route on the same day, so it removes influences of terrain and weather.

So if you’re going to put your purchase faith in an award winning vehicle, you can trust the weight of the AJAC stamp of approval.

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1 comment

  1. Of course, auto industry has introduce these kind of offers which have attract the buyer.

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