March 2: Toronto Auto Show Recap

Bugatti Veyron

Let's start with the ultimate eye candy and one of the three cars at the show that you'll probably never see on the street (and hopefully you'll never see the butt ugly Pagani Zonda). Apparently there is one of these $1 million plus Bugatti supercars in Canada on the west coast. For a carguy, just to see this and the Aston Martin One-77 was worth the price of admission. In my opinion what made this year's Toronto Auto Show so interesting was the huge number of  new intros or "soon to be new" intros. Almost all of the manufacturers were showing a car that will hit the streets shortly. Some examples.......

Buick: Verano, Encore (pic below)
Mercedes: SL, C Black series coupe
Chev: Spark, ZL-1, Malibu
Dodge: Dart
Ford: Fusion, Lincoln MKZ
Acura: ilx
Lexus: LFA, GS
Audi: Allroad (pic below)
Infiniti: JX
Scion: FR-S
Subaru: BRZ

And those are just the ones I remember (age has something to do with it).

                 Buick Encore

Audi Allroad

The Toronto Auto Show is different in that it adds some features that aren't seen at many new car shows, it gives us a history lesson. This year Triumph was the featured marque and there were some excellent examples of their past sportscars and a couple of really cute little trucks (where were the sedans?). Also shown were the finalists from various cruise contests around the area and a winner was chosen, a '69 Camaro Z-28. As I said different from other shows.

Also, was it my imagination or were there more open doors on the high dollar stuff? I hate to lie about trading in my Rolls-Royce Phantom, just to sit in a 5 series BMW.

Ever wonder what most African dictators drive? Stay tuned.

Until next time.......