Feb 19: The auto show

 The Toronto Auto Show, aka the Canadian International Auto Show. The big one. Our local auto show is a great place to see what's new, what will be in the showrooms in a few months and a few concept cars. But putting the Toronto show in perspective, it is probably one of the top twenty shows in the world, but not necessarily in the top ten. Want to see the concept cars that were at Detroit last year, then Toronto is a good place to be. But unlike Detroit, Toronto has some other features, like the classic car display that, make it a visual feast for any car person.

Now to the cars and what better place to start than with the upcoming new Ford GT. This yellow rocket is a stunner from any angle. Will it be worth the $400 large asking price? Good question, but early indications are that it will. As an aside, I work out with the driver that has done much of the early track testing of this beast. He also recently won his class at the 24 Hours of Daytona. I'll leave it to you, to figure out to whom I'm referring.

Like I said, Toronto is a good place to see the concepts that made a splash at last year's Detroit show. Not surprising then that, Buick brought their gorgeous Avenir. Their very lastest show car, the Avista, was holding court in Chicago, which gets many of the Detroit debuts. The reason? A huge market and I believe, over double the attendance of Toronto's event.

If you are reading any of the local papers, you can see many of the Toronto show's cars, so I'll focus on the ones that appealed to me, after all, it is my blog. Right? I mean, where else are you going to see pics of this cute little trucklette from Toyota, their Urban Utility Vehicle? The whole back end opens up, so that this practical little rig, can be used for any number of purposes. With all the small panel trucks coming to market in North America, we should expect to see an entry from Toyota in the very near future.

 By the way, all these pics are courtesy of my brother's ipad, so blame him if the clarity is not always 100%. Seriously, he was the one who got me interested in cars as a little gaffer, so much of our chats revolve around cars. A great relationship, but I'm glad he lives in Kingston not Toronto.

Convertibles are always attention getters, as who hasn't at one time or the other envisioned themselves cruising the highways and bi-ways with those cancer causing rays shining down on them? And would you care, if your ride was this Lexus concept? Behold the upcoming RC cabrio........

But, not all convertibles are what they appear to be..........

Notice anything different about this Ford Fusion? Yeah, you got it. This is actually a sedan with the centre of the roof cut out for display purposes. Not sure what feature they were highlighting, but someone felt that this would show it off to better advantage. Got my attention, didn't it?

As I mentioned, the Toronto show has some different features, which separate it from many of the other shows. Features, like the classic car display.........

......featuring prize winning examples of hits from the '30's up to the '60's. Nothing like nostalgia to bring back those old memories, is there?

Bad lighting (I'm sorry), but what we have here is the Mustang Cobra Jet, which was unveiled last November at the Las Vegas SEMA show. What is it? Well, the second picture shows it in its natural habitat.

The Cobra Jet is a turnkey drag car, built by Ford in a very limited run of fifty units. For around $100K US, one gets a car that is ready to race, complete with no back seat and a roll bar. If you know anything about quarter miles times, this one turns them in the eight second range. Mighty quick for a "stock" car.

What we have here is the VW Dune. A strange take on the Beetle. Strange because it looks like a small suv, what with its raised stance and fender flares. But in reality, this is merely a costumed front wheel drive bug with pretensions. Will it sell? Now, that is a very good question. I like it, but I haven't seen very many of the standard Beetles around town, so I have no idea (sorry, but you expected a visionary's viewpoint?).

I get electric vehicles, but I'm still amazed at how many very expensive Tesla's I see in my neighbourhood. With over 50 thousand vehicles sold last year, I think that this is an amazing number for a small company, and I don't care how smart or worshipped Elon Musk is. This Bolt is Chevy's bargain priced new electric..........

Yeah, I know, no electric is bargain priced. The future? Certainly they will be a factor, but I wouldn't count on the electric car sales being much more than about 20% of the market. Battery prices have to come way down, along with some plan for disposing of the dead ones, when the inevitable happens.

And as Monty Python would say, now for something completely different.........

.......the Hyundai Enduro concept. This one has been floating around the car show circuit for the past two years, with no clear explanation of what it is or whether they plan to build anything remotely similar. Are they waiting for realty to catch up with the future? Is it a future Veloster being given the VW Dune treatment? Who knows. We'll just have to wait and see.

And finally a piece of eye candy........

......the VW Vision GTI concept. Now, you just know that this one will never see the light of day, but it sure is a fun piece. Even if there were once a hope (there wasn't), VW's current problems would take this off the front and back burners and consign it to the "what might have been" pile. In any case, it's great looking.

The Canadian International Auto Show. My take? Ignoring the local press, who glorify this event, it was as usual, an interesting show. Worth my and anyone else's time (providing they like cars and not trains).

Until next time.......