Well yes and no I guess.
It's voted on at Testfest by all AJAC members. Many buysers take it into consideration when shopping apparently... It means that journalists thing it's the best new car this year.
I would say mostly no and somewhat yes.
NO
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I believe the AJAC testing process (which started in October of last year, BTW) has enormous value, mainly because the journalists involved take it very seriously and are for the most part pretty good judges of automobile goodness. They get concentrated seat time, back-to-back, in a variety of models during the test fest, but also evaluate the cars over a period of several months before the final votes are in. I would suggest, for example, that it has as much value (if not more) than Motor Trend magazines's much-vaunted "Car of the Year" and "Truck of the Year" awards.
YES
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No question about whether the winning manufacturer gets to make advertising hay out of the award!