Whats going on at the 2007 Toronto Autoshow?

[Mike The Canadian]

does anybody have any idea whats going to be there and when?

[CARBIZ]

I worked the Auto Show yesterday. Had a good laugh: Toyota and GM are side by side in the Skydome. (I refuse to call it the Rogers Center - Ted Rogers stole it from the taxpayers. We paid over $100 million for that albatross, and he buys it for $24 million! Scam!) Traffic looked down to me.

Big disappontment: the '08 Malibu is up on a platform, roped off. No fanfare. Kinda sad where it is. Why can't we touch this thing? The Camaro is there again, still a mule - no guages (gages south of the border.) Still can't touch it. Still roped off. Do I hear SSR?

GM's show is much flashier than Toyota's. Toyota's space is kinda small, actually. Mitsu is off to the side, like a referee. A cute guy at XM that I was talking to informed me that Mitsu has the hottest chicks. I took a quick look on my way to lunch and I guess he is right: lots of high skirts and high heels. Takes your eyes off the vehicles, I guess.

GM's "rallye room" access is behind Toyota. More chuckles there. We can watch the sheeple fussing over the Camry in white (no chrome - makes the ugly grille, well, less ugly). I was told that we are not allowed to pee on the carpet in the Toyota section this year. We have to use the washrooms behind the Toyota section. Damn!

The Monte Carlo is shoved behind a pilar in a darkened back area of the Chevy spot. Wow. Talk about the drooling great-grandfather being shunted to a back room at a family gathering! They have the Cobalt SS coupe and sedan there, but no SC that I could see. The $19,995 Malibu ( a super deal up here, folks) is a lonely place to stand. The $19,995 Uplander is also shunted to a back corner. GM is embarassed, I am embarassed, everyone is embarassed.

While I shovelled free food in my face, I listened to a general sales manager talk to some of the people he knew. They were discussing a guy who has sold Toyotas who they recently picked up for their dealer. The guy was asked why he defected. His answer surprised me: he didn't like the clientelle at the Toyota store and he has a family member who works at the Oshawa plant. Probably got a lot of grief there.

Didn't have much time to look around. My back was killing me. I hid out in a CTS before I mounted the stairs to get out of there. Yeah, my back was that bad. I brooded over my former boss' widow (he sold Cadillac for 20 years before becoming our manager) recently dumping her leased Alero GLS and ordering a BMW 3 series ( I ranted about this about 6 weeks ago in a thread here). Why didn't she consider this CTS? It is gorgeous. I am 6'2", the back seat was great. The front seat helped my back. It was under $50k. Her f'ing husband made his millions SELLING these damned things. Sigh.

I left. Chrysler haunts the north building, as always. I am sorry, but their display looks desolate this year. Are they kidding me with the Compass and under Fugly Jeeps? Five years ago I was depressed at how GREAT the Chrysler line up looked, compared to Chevy. Now, I just hope the rumours about the DCX/GM thing are unfounded.

Even though the P-B-GMC worries me, as a Chevy seller, I am very happy I don't sell Chrysler!

Or Ford.

[ToniCipriani]

Not much actually, but still much better than last year.

- G8 isn't there.

- New CTS

- New Malibu (the gray one)

- Saab Aero X

- Holden Efijy

- A riced out Solstice (the green one)

- New Vue

- Production Lambdas, all could be sit in minus the Enclave

Other some notable:

- Alpina B7

- BMW 3-Series Convertible

- An orange Ford Mustang GT-R

- Ford Taurus

- Mazda CX-9 (real thing looks like a hybrid of an Outlook and an Enclave in real life, and I'm not kidding.)

- Mazda Kabura

- Mazda brown concept (can't remember name)

- Mazdaspeed 3

- Jaguar XKR

- Audi R8

- Maserati MC12

[!!!TED!!!]

Is it me, or was there very little people at the show yesterday? It seemed completely dead at the north building (haha ghost-like at Chrysler).

The GM/Toyota split in SkyDome (damn you Rogers) was interesting, but I agree with what Biz is saying. The Monte in a corner was sad.

One real highlight is the Saab Aero X, which must be seen in person!

I will go again this evening.