Protege wins again
 

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??
:p
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!