Welcome Back! Two years ago, we embarked on a rather ambitious project to expand our annual Ignition New Vehicle Buyer’s Guide into something much greater than what we had done before.
Instead of just covering the luxury and performance segments like had done with our previous buyer’s guides, we expanded its reach to include vehicles from across all categories.
Our goal was to create a new car buying tool that would be relevant to anyone shopping for a new car in Canada.
Packed with information covering all aspects of buying a car, from insurance advice and tips from the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) to the top-rated safety picks from the respected Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the U.S., and fuel consumption and emissions data from Natural Resources Canada, we aimed to arm new car shoppers with as much information about the process as possible.
And then there are the listings – individual descriptions for every light duty new vehicle on the market. All told, we jammed more than 330 individual entries into the guide in each of the past two years.
It was a lot of work, but we did our best to put out an accurate, relevant, insightful and informative guide that we hoped would resonate with the new car shopping public.
And it did – big time.
By the time it was all said and done, the 2016-2017 guide was the best-selling automotive magazine issue in Canada on newsstand in 2016.
The 2017 edition was received with the same enthusiasm, making the Buyer’s Guide the best-selling automotive magazine in Canada for two years in the row! The success we enjoyed last year has only served to encourage us to aim higher with the 2018-2019 edition. And because we’re firm believers in not fixing what isn’t broken, much of what you will see in the following pages is similar in structure and content to what we delivered over the past two years.
Obviously, a great deal of updating has taken place for each vehicle entry, the market information we’re including in the front of the book section and the general presentation of the material.
We’re pleased to be working with great partners once again in Natural Resources Canada and Kidney Car. Both organizations have valuable insights regarding the car ownership experience and we’re pleased to be able to share their knowledge with our readers.
As for the listings themselves, we’ve updated their look and the relevant information such as pricing but have kept the vital information you need.
In terms of organization, our 349 entries are divided into the same seven categories we’ve been using over the past two years: Small Cars, Family Cars, CUV/SUV/Minivan, Pickup Trucks, Performance Cars, Luxury Cars and Luxury SUVs.
Our List of Lists section – where we pull out specific features car shoppers often look for, such as all-wheel drive and manual transmissions, and put them into their own lists – is back to help you quickly find the convertible or 4WD vehicle you’re looking for.
As I believe I said last year, there’s a lot to digest here but the guide isn’t designed to be consumed all at once. What we hope it will do is serve as a resource that will provide the sort of information and insight that you’ll want to return to over time.
In addition, every car, truck, SUV and Minivan contained in these pages is also online at http://guide.ignitionmag.ca, an ideal resource for comparisons, updated vehicle information, extra photos and more.
Many thanks for once again allowing us to be a part of your car-shopping journey and we hope this guide, whether in print or online, will prove to be helpful along the way.
Ignition 2018-2019 New Vehicle Buyers Guide will be available in August 2018.
Lee Bailie
Group Managing Editor
editor@prnmag.com