Published test data are a treasure of useful information
As I write this note, I’ve just returned from spending the better part of a week at the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada’s (AJAC) annual TestFest in Niagara on the Lake, ON. TestFest is a mammoth event that brings together virtually all the new vehicles on the market and most of Canada’s automotive journalists for four days of intensive vehicle evaluation and testing. It’s a highly sophisticated program, the end results of which are the selection of the ‘Best New’ vehicles in an array of classes and, ultimately, the Canadian Car and Utility Vehicle of the Year.
Why should you care? Well, if the brand you’re selling happens to be one of the winners, you can expect more traffic in your showroom, almost immediately. The winning manufacturers typically trumpet their success in multi-level advertising campaigns. And surveys conducted for AJAC over several years confirm that winning an AJAC award has a major influence on both awareness of the winning vehicles and customers’ eventual purchase decisions.
But, even if your brand is not a winner, there is another reason. The AJAC program is totally transparent. It’s not just a matter of a few people sitting around a table and choosing the vehicles they like best. They actually test the vehicles and rate them on more than 20 different characteristics. And all the results are posted on AJAC’s website (www.ajac.ca), under the Canadian Car of the Year tab.
That means that consumers can look at a breakdown of individual scores and determine how they relate to their own individual needs – and it just may be that those needs better match the characteristics of a non-winning vehicle. It’s a tool you can use as well, both to determine your product’s advantages and to show customers how different vehicles compare.
You can read more about the process and the class winners in ‘In the News’ (page 10), and check out photos from the event in the Gallery at www.canadianautodealer.ca.
