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The 2011 Canadian International Autoshow in photos

Posted by: nick on: February 26 2011 • Categorized in: Cars

Sadly I never even finished my 3 post text-heavy coverage of the Detroit Autoshow from January, but at least I can do up some brief coverage of the Toronto Autoshow. Tom and I did our yearly pilgrimage last weekend. As always, the show was packed, in fact its a much ‘larger’ show than Detroit, all be it less important to the industry. Detroit also lacks the hooligans posing on the hoods of cars throwing up gang signs, go figure on that one.

ANYWAY… here we go.

We started off with the boys at Mercedes. The C/A4-A5/3-series segment has, as always, been one of the most important to the industry. Mercedes face-listed C63AMG is really looking fantastic, and is the real ‘heavy hitter’ in the segment:

I'd still buy the M3...

Onward to Volkswagen, who is intent on making more and more crap in our market to become the next Toyota. Aside from joining into an argument with a *very* rude Volkswagen rep who was intent on explaining that the Routan was not really a Chrysler (well not so intent after being argued with he said he ‘Didn’t care what we thought’), Volkswagen was debuting (well Canadian debut) the 2012 Big-Jetta, er Passat.

The 2012 Big-Jetta

Having sat in one in Detroit, the interior quality is worse than the previous gen Jetta, as are the engine choices and suspension. The only ‘decent’ engine is the TDI. Onward to the real Toyota, who is too boring to really discuss. One of their most boring displays was the Lexus LS, who’s interior seems to wow people who like “80s luxury” (how could you even compare it to an S-class, 7-series or A8) and who’s engine bay is as sterile as can be:

Wheres the 'no user serviceable parts' sticker?

Tom had snapped the one side back down, someone had obviously pried it up. They had some (tons of) other cars too, but I’m totally not interested in discussing them. Next up was Audi. Audi had two big unveils, the A7 and the TT-RS. The front of the TT-RS was pretty mean looking, and the current (2nd gen) TT isn’t as terrible a Golf derivative as it’s first version was (a fancy leather wrapped Beetle)

Don't call me a fast Golf!

The A7 was a nice looking car, but kinda boring drivetrain options considering its market position. Not totally sure where it slots between the A6 and A8, a sportier (but still 4 door A8?). It’s not even one of the now-trendy 4-door coupes. Onto BMW, who I won’t spend too much time on. They had a lounge for customers which featured rather nice drinks and snacks. The 1-series M was of course the big draw, as was a matte finished M3. I hope to take a 1-series M out in May and review it, so we’ll discuss it then. The big reveal was the X1, an SUV for people who dislike station wagons, like this new pig-nose look, and don’t mind a lot of cheap looking plastic.

Because you don't like station wagons?

Buy a Volkswagen Golf Wagon (not the hatch, the wagon), it’ll be an equivalent drive, more space inside and frankly isn’t hideous. Spend the rest of the money on coke. Onward to Nissan who had some silly concepts (as they always do) as well as the unveil of the NISMO 370Z. Amongst the actually upgraded engine (software/induction/exhaust), brakes and suspension, you net yourself a ridiculous spoiler and a pair of coffee-can exhaust tips. I’m sure this was a big deal to the sort of people who drive around with sunglasses, a baseball cap and use way too much hair gel.

Rice rice baby

Next up is Hyundai, who I didn’t take any photos of. They were showing off the Genesis Sedan and Coupe they are so proud of. We were rather amused with all the electrical tape under the hood of a Genesis Coupe. Hyundai, who lacks an innovative bone in their corporate body, had their Genesis Coupe 3.8 painted in Interlagos Yellow. Onto their buddies over at KIA, who were showing off a bunch of dreadfully boring cars, including a “Toronto FC” edition of some SUV thing. I guess you might want a painted valve cover…. My big amusement was that their kiosks did not feature activated (cough pirated) versions of Windows…

KIA powered by warez Windows?

GM had all the Corvettes out. I have to say the Z06 is one awesome looking car now, and the ZR1 is an insane performer. I never thought I’d see the day where Corvettes were really appealing packages. They also had the coolest display of the entire show, a guy tearing down and rebuilding the LS7 (7L V8) from the Z06. He could do it in about 4 hours. Pretty awesome.

The 7L V8 of the Z06 is an awesome beast

Ford’s big thing was the new Focus, which I covered pretty well in Detroit. I really like the car. They had a video stream of Ken Block drifting the rally version on loop. The one cool display they did have was a cutaway of one of the hybrid+CVT four bangers they’re shipping. Was one of the best cutaways I’ve seen.

Fantastic cutaway

All and all was a good show. I will leave you with some car porn:

Not sure that'll take a speed bump...

What a beast!

The 250GT was a stunning car

The Giulietta is a seriously cute car

Abarth!

Proper GT500

North American (Detroit) International Auto Show 2011 part 1 of 3

Posted by: nick on: January 17 2011 • Categorized in: Cars

Nestled in the heart of America’s motor city, the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) is often the home of big reveals in the automotive industry. This year saw very few big reveals when it came to concepts, but it did show off many of the next generation versions of everybodies favourite consumer models. I’m going to break this up into 3 posts, mostly because I’m pretty crunched for time today, and want to get stuff out there as I go.

Let’s start with my good friends over at BMW, this will likely be the longest section, be warned :P. If you wanted to see the the hideous 2009 5-series ~~Gran Turismo~~ hatchback or the rather bland 2009 7-series, they were there. The rather nice looking new M-sport package on the 550i (pictured right) was present. Definitely the focus was on the new F-platforms, instead of the meat and potatoes 3-series that makes up the bulk of BMW’s sales. The new 6-series convertible made its debut, and frankly of all the new platforms, its the best looking and probably the only one I say is an actual improvement. It’s a bit obscene that with a starting price of $90k it’s still a rag top, but BMW probably has a market for it… Sadly the M3 was not present, most likely so not to overshadow their big ‘reveal’…

…the 1-series M (1M, 1-series M Coupe, depending on who / when you ask). Unlike the other 1-series coupes, its a very good looking car in person, not quite as disporportionatly tall as pictures lead you to believe. Sitting inside it gave me mixed feelings, as an owner of the Z4-derived ‘M Coupe’. The interior is nice though features some lesser-quality materials, keep in mind it’s a 1-series at a 1-series price point. Clutch travel is improved (a bit shorter), shifting feel is lessened (less ‘oldschool’ but probably an improvement TBH) but overall it felt much less cockpitty. The seats are fairly standard sports sedan faire, not the racing buckets the Z4 M Coupe got, and the sitting position is rather pedesterian. Considering that many of these will become daily drivers, the car is quite practical thanks to the comfortable driving position and decent trunk space. Sadly the backseats, in my opinion, are a bit useless due to the lack of leg room and thus a waste of weight. Overall it’s a different car than the previous ‘M Coupe’ tried to be, its far more comfortable and practical and at a very low price point (well the lowest an M car has seen at $47k USD), with similar performance. Can’t really judge anything else enthusiast-wise until I drive one, probably mid to late 2011. Either way, it’s really an awesome offering, and from what I’m hearing now they won’t nearly be as limited as initially intended.

Next up is Ford, who was my favourite exhibiter at the show this year. The big focus for Ford was… the new Focus, which was not a new reveal, but will be going on sale shortly. Otherwise known as the ‘World Focus’, the Focus in Europe has been a very different car since 2004, in fact based on the Mazda 3 platform. Ford USA has been dragging on the 1998 Focus platform with facelift after facelift, finally merging the two products. The proper Focus will be available here in early 2011, with the newly revealed ST (seen right) model going on sale in 2012. The ST model looked fantastic, a seriously hot hatch. Ford’s big crowd draw however was the Mustang BOSS.

The Mustang BOSS is a bumped up Mustang GT with a whole smorgishboard of upgraded parts, producing 444HP out of its 5L V8. Ford had a dyno setup where they did continuous dyno runs all day with lucky participants in the passenger seat. One amusing thing Ford touted about the BOSS was that it had FOUR exhaust pipes, ok nothing really interesting there right. Well Ford has placed the additional pair of these exhaust pipes infront of the rear wheels, to increase the sound within the cabin. A bit corny but I’ll give it a pass… This package at $41k USD is exceptional. What was actually appealing to me was BOSS Laguna Seca addition, which was a stripped out track version, which loses the rear seats for a partial cage. Frankly, this would make a seriously good weekend track car, much cheaper than anything else on the market. I was a bit disapointed that the Laguna Seca version maintained the additional cabin-sound-producing tail pipes, and didn’t lose them for weight savings.

Onto Honda, who really didn’t have a huge presence. Their big feature was the CR-Z and their silly CR-Z Si concept. This car is a pig and is a good example of whats wrong with Honda’s looks-fast-goes-slow product lineup, in my humblest opinion. They had a bunch of kiosks setup with Gran Turismo 5, so you could try your hand at driving a CR-Z around the Ring. It’s a Honda Insight Hybrid with an “attractive” body guys… Of course the actually important thing from team Honda was the next-gen Civic concept. Sadly little was really revealed aside from a pair of very finalized looking concept cars. They look more revolutionary than evolutionary, and I’d say its definitely an improvement, allbeit nothing ground breaking. Good looking cars.

Last but not least for this post, we’ll talk about Porsche. This was Tom’s favourite display of the show. Sadly, Porsche had taken its 918 RSR Hybrid race car home after its big reveal, so even on the first day of the open show, it was gone. Because of that, Porsche had nothing really new to share. They had the Turbo S, an upgraded Turbo for those who really need even more car, but really, I think is just a bit steep north of $200k. They had the Cayman R, which is a fantastic package. Also on display was the Speedster (pictured right), a car that reminds me of the Porsches I lusted after in my childhood, but is both exceptionally over priced and completely sold out (356 units) as far as I know, on display for its gorgeousness alone. The real gem of the Porsche line up was the 911 GTS (pictured left). Wedged between the Carrera S and the GT3, it’s a car with the oomf of the Speedster, but at a much more reasonable $112k. My darling the GT3 and his evil older brother the GT2 were both not present, but they’re hardly consumer models.

In the next segment, I’ll post my thoughts on Mercedes, Hyundai, Chevy, Range Rover, Bently and Volkswagen, followed by a final post with Audi, Chysler, Toyota, Hyunadi, Tesla and everyone else.

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The 2011 Canadian International Autoshow in photos

North American (Detroit) International Auto Show 2011 part 1 of 3

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