This just in from Canada....

"Unlike American or European car awards, our Canadian program follows a sophisticated voting process based on back-to-back, real-world testing. Our vote and test results are made available to the consumer to help him or her make an informed decision when buying a new car."

The winners are:

Best New Economy Car

Mazda Protegé ES:
The Protegé ES comes with a new 2.0-litre (130-horsepower) engine that meets ULEV emission standards. A five-speed manual transmission is standard and an electronically controlled four-speed automatic is an option. Super-value standard features include anti-lock brakes, a lockable 60/40-split fold-down rear seatback, power windows, mirrors and door locks, cruise control and fog lamps. The award-winning OptiSpace interior design allows exceptionally good rear seat passenger room, for a small car, and Protegé led the economy cars in all AJAC performance tests. "

as announced at www.canadiandriver.com

 

Economy car?!? Don't they mean performance sedan??

Man, those are some pretty complete options! The new cars are (as is to be expected...) so much better equipped than the first gens were!