BMW takes home an award from AJAC’s Canadian Car of the Year Awards 2011. The BMW 5 Series Sedan won best luxury vehicle over USD50,000. The competition was tight this year as BMW went head to head with Audi’s A6 and the Mercedes E class. Congratulations to BMW for getting this design award! Here is the official AJAC press release listing all 2011 winning cars:

The overall 2011 Canadian Car of the Year, the 2011 Canadian Utility Vehicle of the Year, as well as the Best New Design and Best New Technology for 2011 will all be declared at approximately 8:20 am on Thursday, February 17th at the Canadian International Auto Show in the south Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto.

Eleven category winners are competing for the top honours after being announced last October during the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada’s (AJAC) annual “TestFest.

It’s a tight race. General Motors won three of the eleven categories while both Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen Canada each garnered double wins. Other category winners were the BMW Group, Hyundai Canada, Porsche Canada and Toyota Canada. See list of all eleven category winners below.

Seventy of Canada’s top automotive journalists spent four intensive days at the Niagara Drive Centre located at the Niagara District Airport conducting back-to-back comparative testing of 144 “all new” or “significantly new” 2011 vehicles. No easy task. Their vote results were determined from more than 40,000 individual data points established in the testing. That information includes not just specifications and features but actual performance data and subjective ratings on up to 23 different characteristics – from interior roominess and comfort to ride quality and handling ability.

The seventy journalists are all members of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) whose primary purpose is to provide consumers with sound, objective, comparative data for use as a resource buying guide when considering the purchase of a new car, truck of SUV/CUV.

The journalists’ vote results were compiled on-site by the international accounting firm KPMG and kept confidential even from AJAC until the winners’ press conference. KPMG will return on February 17th at the Toronto show with four envelopes that announce the 2011 overall winners taken from the category winners below:

2011 Canadian Car of the Year Awards

Category Winners – By Manufacturer

BMW GROUP

BEST NEW LUXURY CAR (over $50k) BMW 5 Series Sedan

FORD MOTOR COMPANY

BEST NEW SMALL CAR (under $21k) Ford Fiesta

BEST NEW SUV/CUV ($35k-$50k) Ford Edge

GENERAL MOTORS:

BEST NEW SMALL CAR (over $21k) Chevrolet Cruze

BEST NEW FAMILY CAR (over $30k) Buick Regal

BEST NEW SPORTS/PERFORMANCE CAR: Cadillac CTS-V Coupe

HYUNDAI CANADA

BEST NEW SUV/CUV (under $35k) Hyundai Tucson

PORSCHE CANADA

BEST NEW PRESTIGE CAR (over $75k) Porsche 911 Turbo S

TOYOTA CANADA

BEST NEW MINIVAN: Toyota Sienna

VOLKSWAGEN CANADA:

BEST NEW FAMILY CAR (under $30k) Volkswagen Jetta TDI Clean Diesel

BEST NEW SUV/CUV (over $50k) Volkswagen Touareg
Source: BMW Blog