Toronto Auto Show Pics

[amit]

hey folks the Toronto Auto Show was on from Feb 17 to 26 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center in downtown Toronto. Me, Devarishi and ambylimo were at the show armed with a camera to shoot the exotics and beauties on display. It took us almost 6 hours to go through the whole display and we had to rush through the last few makes due to time limitations. So, here is a brief report and pics of the show. Lets start with the domestics.

General Motors : Never been a fan of their products and as usual the GM display had all it's boring cars around. These guys really had a tacky show put up for visitors. Every hour there would be a guy who would walk down the spiral staircase playing the guitar while a background voice would go booming about their fantastic products. Since GM was a sponsor of the Canadian olympic team at the Turin winter olympics, there would a bunch of guys who would 'snowboard' across the display in mid air hanging from a wire making all sorts of noises to attract attention. The GM display was right next to VW and I had to tolerate this display 8 times in my 8 hour shift. . Still, there were some exciting cars, mainly concepts.

Camaro



GM Sequel Concept



Buick Velite The old man's car got a convertable concept.

[amit]

Ford

Ford GT This one had to be there at the show.



Ford Shelby Concept



Ford Mustang The legend was on display on it's sedan and spyder variants. However, interior quality disappointed with flimsy switchgear and hard plastics. Otherwise the design of the insides was pretty good and looked beefy. The exteriors of course are retro and sexy.





Ford Fusion The Fusion is supposed to be selling quite well and it was clear that the car was a typical mid-size family sedan. Good in everything but would probably exel in nothing. Build quality was pretty average with the doors giving the flimsy Koran or Maruti feel!



Interiors seemed okay and ergonomic but quality of plastics and switchgear disappointed again.



Some concept car. Forgot the name.



Lincoln Zephyr I believe this car is built on the same platform as the Fusion which incidentally is built on the Mazda 6 platform.

[amit]

Acura had it's full range of sleek and sexy cars on display. Some of the best ones were clicked.

Acura MDX



Acura RL Looks great , has great interiors with fantastic quality of plastics and switchgear. The RL really impressed us. I am not a very big fan of big luxo sedans but this one is right up there with the best. Would definately pick this over the Lexus.






Acura TL Easily the sleekest and sexiest Acura in the market. I'd buy this car with my eyes closed!

[amit]

Aston Martin



Audi Q7



Audi RS4

[amit]

BMW

BMW 3 The Canadian Sports Sedan of the year had as expected a huge crowd of people surrounding it. Took a while to get a chance to sit inside and touch/feel the beemer. Came away impressed.



Interior was typical german but Mercedes, Volvo and Audi interiors felt way better.



Z4 concept coupe



BMW M Roadster

[amit]

Ferrari and Masaerati had a small display of a few cars right next to Lamborgini. The cars were obvioulsy cordoned off and locked so no interior pics of these cars. Makes sense to lock such exotics or else the auto show would be begun and ended at the Ferrari display!

[amit]

Honda Fit: to be launched this year as a entry level car priced below the Civic.



Interiors felt flimsy.



Accord Coupe



S2000



Civic

[devarshi84]

great pics man. I suggest you do a brief write-up on each too.

[amit]

I suggest you do a brief write-up on each too

Hey you were at the show too. Why don't you help me out here?

The stand out cars according to me were the Hyundai Azera, new Santa Fe, new Nissan Sentra, VW GTI, upcoming VW Eos (even got a video of it's folding metal roof which i was hoping to upload here), Lexus GS and of course the Lamborginis.

The biggest disappointment was the new Hyundai Accent.

I have pictures of all these cars but there doesn't seem to be much interest in this thread so I am thinking not to overload the forum with them.

[karthik247]

Coolpix man...Mustang and the Camaro just looks so cool.

[satish_appasani]

Great pics. Please post pics from Mercedes.
Don't forget Hyundai Accent

[devarshi84]

Originally Posted by satish_appasani

Great pics. Please post pics from Mercedes.
Don't forget Hyundai Accent

you wouldnt wanna see the accent. believe me Its biggest flaw is the car itself.

Originally Posted by karthik247

Coolpix man...Mustang and the Camaro just looks so cool.

Dont go on the pics buddy. IF u see the camaro in real you will faint. asbsolutely stunning it is.

[amit]

Hyundai had one of the most interesting displays at the show. The new Santa Fe , Azera, Sonata, Accent and Entourage were all there. While the Santa Fe, Azera impressed, the new Accent was probably the disappointment of the show!.

Hyundai Santa Fe The all new 2007 Santa Fe looked impressive. The SUV looked as good as any avaliable in the market and was distinctive. Looked totally non-Korean. Since it was put up on a ramp, it wasn't easy to see the interiors but it was clear from the glimpse of the insides that Hyundai had upped the game with the new model like they always do. Interior plastics looked of good quality and the entire set up looked really plush. Take a look at some pics.



Hyundai Azera The Azera was voted Canadian car of the car over 35,000 dollars and it easily deserved the accolade. What impressed me about the car was the build quality and the interiors. The doors felt nice and beefy, much better then Ford doors and interior was plush and comfortable. Dashboard plastics were top notch and ergonomics was excellent. Design and layout of of the controls was impressive. Overall the insides gave a neat, logical layout and felt like any European car. The problem for the Azera is the price. At that price point it has a number of cars to compete against and Hyundai doesn't have the brand to pull it off against more established competition. Take a look at the competition, Honda Accord V6, Toyota Camry V6, Nissan Altima, Mazda 6 and then a number of European marques like the new VW Passat , Volvo S40, Audi A3 which I know is a small hatchback but it will give you the coveted four ring grille, same with the Mercedes B class. Heck stretch your budget a bit and you can put yourself in a Mercedes C class or even a base BMW 3. It will be interesting to see if the Azera pulls it off.



I wonder why the tacho was stuck at about 800rpm even though the engine was off! Even the temperature needle was at a higher level.



Impressive dash.



Sonata: Hyundai had a double at the Canadian car of the year awards. The Sonata bagged the award for the best family car under CAD35,000. Lot has been written and seen about the car so just a glimpse.



Accent was the disappointment of the show. The car didn't make any impression on me whenever I saw it on the road. It looked smaller then the old Accent and spacewise turned out to be cramped, which was a surprise since many reports on the car talked about more room.

I am 5' 10", I sat on the drivers seat adjusted it to my comfort level and immediately got into the seat behind the drivers seat. This is where the problem started. I literally had to squeeze through. The front seat fouled up the space and I had to squeeze my foot in. When I finally got into the back seat the front seat fouled with my knees and leg room was totally cramped. The Accent is going to be a chauffer driven car in India and Hyundai will hopefully have the good sense to do soemthing about it. The trunk space on the other had was huge. Maybe for the Indian variant, Hyundai can adjust the trunk space so that it liberates more room for back seat passengers. Or maybe like reports said, Accent will be entry level mid-size car priced with Ikon 1.3 and Indigo and Verna will be the bigger mid-sizer. Lets see.

here is the 3 door Accent hatch.



There have been many pictures of the Accent sedan so didn't bother to click all the angles. Instead focussed on the insides.

[amit]

Lamborgini left us speechless. It was a privelige for us that we got a chance to look at the exotic Italian beauties from such close range. I will let the pictures do the talking!

[amit]

Mazda had it's full range of cars right from the car that beat the Civic to become Canada's largest selling car, the Mazda 3 to the latest Mazda 5 MPV. However, two cars stood out.

Mazda RX8 This brilliant little sports car had all of us rushing to sit in it and touch/feel it. Boy, it was impressive. Interiors felt great with quality feel of the plastics and switchgear. The cabin is a great place to be. Exterior of the car though subjective looks great to me. Quite a looker this baby, both inside and out.



Senku Concept : Really outlandish and many many years away from becoming a production reality if it ever will be considered as a production car. Wasn't impressed and did nothing for us so didn't bother to find the good and abnormal stuff about it.