Canadian International Auto Show
 

Hey, so has anyone gone this year or planning to go?
I went on Tuesday cause it was that Super Tuesday when tickets are only $12.00!

Anyways was a fun time with the wife. Some cars really impressed me while others really unimpressed me.

Lets start with the cars that really impressed me.

1. Mazda Miata
For the price, I think the car loos beautiful and interior looks very nice and feels like your in a special car. My wife also thought it was a nice car. They had the RF model in gray which also looked beautiful! Also it was comfortable and had a nice seating position.

2. Alpha Romeo 4C
They had it locked, but exterior wise it was one of the prettiest cars.
Interior looks very nice but can't say how comfortable it is or anything like that.

3. Acura RDX
This was probably my favorite cross over SUV of the show. I think Acura made it very nice inside and out. Not much more to say since I'm not big into SUV's haha.

~ The car that stole the show for me ~

Acura RLX
Yeah...I honestly never sat in one before because when I was shopping for my Accord, Acura only had the TLX in the showroom and I didn't like how it had less leg room in the rear than the Accord. The guy told me about the RLX but when I heard the price i said no thanks haha.

But...the RLX...now after the show....talk about a spacious and comfortable sedan. I was always turned off by the price tag, $65,000+ but now I'm actually looking to buy it. It really impressed me and my wife :wub:

~Okay time for the cars that unimpressed me.

Nissan GTR
Dare I say it....I was unimpressed. I never sat inside the R35 but I had friends who told me the car felt cheap inside. I always told them "guys it's not about the inside, it's about the engineering"
Well...here i was smiling waiting t get inside the GTR.
Once I got in I was just like ....really? $127,000? Really? I know it's fast but damn...Nissan sure cut corners haha. Anyways yeah...lets just say I'll buy the RLX over this any day haha :D

Range Rover Sport
No idea what version it was but it was blue, low and expensive. However inside the cabin I didn't feel like I was in a $120,00 car. Also it felt very uncomfortable.

Toyota 86
My God Toyota...I don't know how they could screw up such a great car.
Where to start....the steering wheel feels like it's out of a corolla. The interior suede feels disgusting to me and looks ugly. The 86 badge looks tacky. The seats I don't like. The front I don't like. Overall the car just looks tacky and like they had 50 people just slap on random parts to make it a "refresh". If I was shopping now, I'd buy the BRZ and never look at the new 86 twice.
~ In fact the yellow BRZ actually looked really cool! :wub:
*This is my opinion, if you have the new 86 and love it, that is what matters most and ignore the haters cause there is always someone who doesn't like a certain car haha :D*
~

Anyways, don't want to make the post too long. Just thought I'd share my thoughts on this years show. Oh one more thing. I'm actually a Volvo fanboy and the booth was actually popular this year which made me happy....but even as much of a fanboy that I am....Acura guys...ACURA! haha :)

Im also not digging the Toyota 86 I think they ruined the car IMO

I guess it varies from person to person. I can't stand how Acuras look and I love the 86. It turns heads and bodies everywhere I go, and it's bone stock. I love the front end.

As for the autoshow, I went last year and I think that'll be the last time. When I saw crowds gathered around that awful tesla van with the silly gullwing doors, I lost all hope in autoshows and left.

Going to be hitting it up Friday.

Super excited to see the Nebula. Will be putting down a deposit on one too...














just kidding im broke

You know what actually, I didn't see Tesla there. Either I missed them or they must of had 1 car hiding somewhere? haha

That was a really cool car! It's a concept though right?

Nope!
That was its debut, what you see there is the production model!!!

Nice thoughts on the cars at the Auto Show, very similar to my impressions. I went to the VIP industry night on Thursday, but didn't get to see most of the cars. I went back on Saturday morning with the wife (she had $10.00 tickets through work) and really enjoyed it!

I also thought the AR 4C was gorgeous - wish I could have sat inside, looks amazing. One of the other show-stoppers for me was the Lexus LC500/500h - gorgeous inside and out, I loved the design cues and the concept-like look.

The 2017 86...yeah, if I bought a twin today hands down it would be a BRZ with a performance package. I would still go WRB though, the pale looking yellow on the series yellow car didn't do it for me. The one thing I do like on the 86 is the grand-luxe 'suede' dash piece over the BRZ 'leather' one.

Something about the stitching on the outer edge looks terrible to me on the BRZ one, but on the 86 the stitched name looks cool. However, I do think it looks awful in the '17 86 though, as there are NO matching suede/alcantara parts in that interior so it looks out of place. If you swap that in an old car, I think it would be right at home with the alcantara seats on a monogram :)

Actually the top part of the door card also has that same suede like material. I love it, my girlfriend loves it and constantly tells me to never touch it lol

This was last year. But I'm sure they should have had it there this year as well. It was in the exotics section. An electric van in the same room as McLarens, Paganis, a Singer 911 and Veyrons... travesty

Tesla was outside beside the Ritz Carlton, No clue why lol.

Anyways, does anybody know that brand that was in the Exotic section?
I believe it was between the bugatti and the lambo?

It had a really cool symbol, totally forgot what it was called.

There was nothing between the Bugatti and lambo, but the stage also had a Bentley, Rolls Royce and Aston.


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Yes you are right, thanks for the correction.

It's just that the rest of the inserts (door speaker, door arm rest and knee pads) are still the 'leather' material so it's mismatched.

The older cars were all uniform


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Ah ok. I guess it's a good thing that I never sat in the previous model haha

Haha it's all preference - I'm not hating on it, I still love some of the changes so don't get me wrong :)

Pluses and minuses for both


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I went on Friday and took about 800 pictures, give or take. I look forward to this every year, obviously being a car guy, but also because I work in the industry, so this is essentially my trade show!

I spent a lot of time at the Kia booth, as I have left my sales job at Hyundai and am starting back with Kia again (spent 5 years with them before) and wanted to brush up on the product.

I must say, the new Stinger GT is absolutely gorgeous. I just wish they'd had one open to sit in! The new Cadenza is really nice too; too bad nobody buys them. My Dad has a 2014 Optima Turbo and I'm really going to push him to replace it with a Stinger when he's ready. I can't wait until they arrive at my showroom so I can try one out.

I agree with the OP's thoughts on the Toyota 86. However, I was impressed with the updates to the BRZ interior. Padded and stitched knee-pads, speaker covers, and gauge cluster hood from the factory, along with the padded and stitched main dashboard trim piece. Really brings the interior upscale quite a bit. If the padded dash trim piece will fit my 2013, that's something I would love to grab in the future. I wasn't too keen on the "BRZ" stitching on the seat backs, but meh. The new steering wheel, in my personal opinion, is at least better-looking than the previous one, but I still don't jive with the fact that they added buttons. The screen in the gauge cluster looks cool too, but of course the car was off so I couldn't try it out.

Otherwise, I was obviously pretty smitten with the Bugatti (took about 50 pictures of that car alone), and was pretty excited that there was not one, but TWO F40's in the show this year. My dream car! I think they dropped the ball in not having them parked together though, because the lighting in the room where the black one was parked was AWFUL and made it hard to get good pictures of it. It would have also been a sight to see two of them parked side-by-side, as that is something I can't say I have ever seen in person before. But I understand that the Ferrari's in the exotic area are all from Remo Ferri's personal collection, whereas the black one is not (saw it at a Cars and Coffee meet in the summer and had a chance to chat with the owner).

That 250 LM was something else too. That car probably has an 8-figure price tag, and yet the F40 beside it was garnering more attention.

All in all, a great show this year!

Is the owner of that yellow FR-S on here? The one parked outside of the exotic area.

Complete with black headlight stickers.
That's not the production car.

Found it, It's called Karma? https://3bntxw295kc031i6zl2nl2wh-wpe...2015_logo.jpeg

He's not but I know him I'll give him shoutouts from you.

Yes that's Karma, in all its glory returning from bankruptcy.

But I was looking at my pictures and there was only the brands I mentioned next to the Bugatti - thought the karma was somewhere else, so I was mislead by the question sorry.


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Karma Revero

I thought that's the Fisker

Used to be. Fisker went bankrupt. Someone else bought the rights to the tech and design, and decided to just make the name of the car into the name of the brand instead.

If the brand fails, that will be the most ironic brand-name to ever exist.

They have done the same with the BRZ except even worse with the riced up interior, I actually dig the suede in the 86 more. And the new steering wheel is absolute trash compare to our old one, too thick yet there's no grip at the 9 - 3 position.

The design team really didn't do Tada's retirement justice.

If I were to shop for a new car now I'll go with the Miata, the sales even gave me a Miata brochure when I sat in the RF and everything felt perfect, only beef is that the driving position sits a tad higher than the BRZ.

PS if you think the RDX was the nicest SUV at the show, you obviously didn't sit in the XC90. That is by and far the nicest new SUV on sale right now. Couldn't believe how amazing the interior is.

I agree. Volvo is my favorite luxury car brand hands down. I've owned the XC90 before.

The new one is the best looking inside and out compared to other SUVs.

My only issue and why it's not on my top list is the screen. They emphasized too much on a touch screen. I've test driven the new one and the screen had it moments when it lags or is not that comfortable to use. When your parked it's fine. But once your driving you see how this new touch screen trend begins to fall apart.

I don't want to deal with it...I'm already mad that my Accord doesn't have a volume knob haha. Thankfully they still kept the steering wheel volume controls since the touch screen volume slider is ridiculous.

Also long term reliability....my previous XC90 that i bought brand new and drove it up to 185,000km had only 1 issue. The rear parking sensor crap out. Wth this new XC90....there is a lot of tech going on and I feel like a lot of it will start to have issues including the beautiful touch screen.

I'm waiting....maybe they will revise it but I doubt it. I'd just prefer if they kept certain things that you use often physical.

I'm also keeping my eye on the new XC60 reveal, though I guarantee the interior will be exactly like the XC90 & S90.

One other thing...even though I'm a Volvo fanboy....Acura felt more comfortable. Especially when comparing the S90 Vs. RLX for me haha.

Yeah, also loved the new Miata. Great car for sure! I'd love to experience driving it :thumbsup:

It's Chinese now.

That Navigator with the single gull wing door and moving staircase was pimp. But the XC90 is legit.

I could live with the screen, because let's be honest, that's the trend now. And it's only going to keep moving in that direction. Although, it shows that Honda at least listens to complaints, as they added the volume knob back into the CR-V for the redesign. LOL. I also commend Honda on being the only manufacturer who has enough common sense to put the heated steering wheel button ON THE STEERING WHEEL!! That is such a simple little thing that is so smart.

Back to the XC90, I just couldn't believe the quality of the interior. Most cars these days, even luxo cars, will naturally have some unattractive materials or pieces here and there in the interior. It feels like every single surface and material used in the XC90 and S90 was top-shelf, from the wood-grain with the rough, "open-pore" feel, to the gorgeous aluminum speaker covers on the doors, all the way down to the materials they use for some of the switches. It's all interesting, high-quality, well-put-together, and very enticing.

And that's not even mentioning the seats! some of the most comfortable, supportive seats I've ever sat in. I'd love to try them out long-term, as I'm 6'5 and change with minor lower back problems, and I think they would be a joy.

How do you clean the dash if you cough up mucus. Sorry it happens, swade.

Went twice, once on last Sunday before Family Day (with the boys) and then again on this past Friday with the lady, made a nice day out of it.

Took lots of pictures on Sunday with the DSLR, as Sunday night was not busy at all... next best thing if you can't get media passes.

Just put an order in on a 2017 BRZ after test driving the 2016. I must concede that the 2017 BRZ looks fantastic in person. The interior updates are certainly welcome, and I love the new headlights and taillights too. Definitely glad I waited for the '17.

The full album of my best of photos is here, however here's the Inazuma BRZ that everyone wants to see (Facebook's photo compression is awful unfortunately):

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...70&oe=592A6AE6

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...aa&oe=59369EDB

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...19&oe=5942825E

Waiting to see what the 2018 has to offer... Hopefully the same performance package but with whatever colour we want.

I was taught to cover my mouth when I cough. Seems like a etiquette problem. Not a materials problem.