Topic: 2014 Montreal Auto Show Comments Thread

[Blueprint]

I was, as usual, there at 10 am on the Friday morning of Day 1 at the Montréal Auto Show. Left at 4pm and still had to skip two booths to make it home on time.

Definitely, safety features were on everybody's mind, as frontal protection was turned up a notch. Two, in fact. Styling in general was sleeker, with sweet curves and lovely attention to details. Suspenders hint at curve hugging delight. Underpinnings are so streamlined into the overall looks booth after booth that you have to wonder, "Are there any underpinnings?". Fabrics were universally stretched, neat and tidy - pleats are out. Big-bore show-off-ism seems out this year, except in one booth that still honoured big cubic inches and raised suspenders. Plenty of hybrids were around. Booth after booth, grown men had to stop and stare.  In short, most new models on display would trick your parents into thinking that you've matured (should you bring them home), but under the urban good looks seems to lie the promise of more, ahem, fun.














Well, that's it for my review of the "product specialists". In a later post, I will mention the cars.

[wing]

LOL, Hybrids?  eek

[Blueprint]

LOL, Hybrids?  eek

Half Asian, half dark-skin, environemently-friendly outcome 

[wing]

Oh... phew.

[normancw]

I was, as usual, there at 10 am on the Friday morning of Day 1 at the Montréal Auto Show. Left at 4pm and still had to skip two booths to make it home on time.

Definitely, safety features were on everybody's mind, as frontal protection was turned up a notch. Two, in fact. Styling in general was sleeker, with sweet curves and lovely attention to details. Suspenders hint at curve hugging delight. Underpinnings are so streamlined into the overall looks booth after booth that you have to wonder, "Are there any underpinnings?". Fabrics were universally stretched, neat and tidy - pleats are out. Big-bore show-off-ism seems out this year, except in one booth that still honoured big cubic inches and raised suspenders. Plenty of hybrids were around. Booth after booth, grown men had to stop and stare.  In short, most new models on display would trick your parents into thinking that you've matured (should you bring them home), but under the urban good looks seems to lie the promise of more, ahem, fun.

Well, that's it for my review of the "product specialists". In a later post, I will mention the cars.

 

[Blueprint]

I was, as usual, there at 10 am on the Friday morning of Day 1 at the Montréal Auto Show. Left at 4pm and still had to skip two booths to make it home on time.

Definitely, safety features were on everybody's mind, as frontal protection was turned up a notch. Two, in fact. Styling in general was sleeker, with sweet curves and lovely attention to details. Suspenders hint at curve hugging delight. Underpinnings are so streamlined into the overall looks booth after booth that you have to wonder, "Are there any underpinnings?". Fabrics were universally stretched, neat and tidy - pleats are out. Big-bore show-off-ism seems out this year, except in one booth that still honoured big cubic inches and raised suspenders. Plenty of hybrids were around. Booth after booth, grown men had to stop and stare.  In short, most new models on display would trick your parents into thinking that you've matured (should you bring them home), but under the urban good looks seems to lie the promise of more, ahem, fun.

Well, that's it for my review of the "product specialists". In a later post, I will mention the cars.

 

You had to be there  2.5 hr train ride from Ottawa and you're there. Don't miss the "tuning" section - great mods!!

[Scaerio]

Maybe one day the car show circuit will clue into the fact that cawcksukkers like me and women buy cars too...

[Fobroader]

Maybe one day the car show circuit will clue into the fact that cawcksukkers like me and women buy cars too...

Lmfao...you know what I like about you, your subtlety hahahaha.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

[Scaerio]

Maybe one day the car show circuit will clue into the fact that cawcksukkers like me and women buy cars too...

Lmfao...you know what I like about you, your subtlety hahahaha.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

From 9 to 5 I am a diplomat, after hours the gloves are off! 

[5 Wheel Drive]

Taking Wednesday off to head there for the show.  There's lots I want to see.  I missed it last year, silly me decided to go on a cruise instead.

Looking forward to it...and going to Dunn's afterwards for smoked meat!

[Blueprint]

Despite the size of the show (claimed 500+ cars), I found that many manufacturer displays were incomplete - many cars were not there at all.

At Nissan, absent were: cube, Quest, Titan, Frontier, XTerra (not sure there was a Maxima and Versa sedan either). They had a locked GT-R on the floor though. No Fit at Honda, no Chargers, 200 and Avenger at Chrysler. A 42k$ Patriot? Really? Toyota had its entire fleet, but only had two Corollas, their most important name plate, both higher trims than what they sell usually (LE Eco, S). No Navigator, MKT and MKS at Lincoln. If it doesn't sell well, it wasn't there it seems.

Kudos to Ford for having the guts to show base-model car: a fleet-special 18k$ Focus S with one option (PowerShift) and a Mustang coupe with only two options (block heater, aptly-named "Absolutely Green" colour). Even Mercedes-Benz went frugal with a plain-jane B250 with metallic paint and no other box checked.

Mazda had one of the worst displays - only GT trims in leather and un-powered power seats. Why put 4 Mazda3 GT's, no GS and a lone GX on 18" alloys in a remote corner? The stuck-on-the-dash display is a basic radio with buttons in the GX, looks mighty bad.

Jaguar / Land Rover were good sports and had EVERYTHING unlocked and powered up. Now I need a Range Rover. Mercedes had everything accessible too, except the SLS and SL. Ditto at BMW.

Price tag wower of the day: a RAM HD dualie, a few bucks below 80k$.

My personal temptations? (not counting post #1): a base Trendline Passat 1.8 TSI manual, black, and a base Accord LX manual, also in black. Someone followed my shopping pattern...

[5 Wheel Drive]

Hate getting into a car at the shows with power seats that aren't powered up.  It seems the people moving the cars in are either 5 foot nothing or 7 feet tall.  Either I don't fit, or can barely reach the pedals, and can't move the seat...

[Blueprint]

Hate getting into a car at the shows with power seats that aren't powered up.  It seems the people moving the cars in are either 5 foot nothing or 7 feet tall.  Either I don't fit, or can barely reach the pedals, and can't move the seat...

Mazda and Chrysler had the worst displays for that, and a few others had power only to some cars. General rule: most manufacturers had power seats working. Not sure after a few days though - the Range Rover was telling me to start the engine as the battery was running low. I wish.

[Patrick_D1]

Hate getting into a car at the shows with power seats that aren't powered up.  It seems the people moving the cars in are either 5 foot nothing or 7 feet tall.  Either I don't fit, or can barely reach the pedals, and can't move the seat...

Mazda and Chrysler had the worst displays for that, and a few others had power only to some cars. General rule: most manufacturers had power seats working. Not sure after a few days though - the Range Rover was telling me to start the engine as the battery was running low. I wish.

Keeping the cars powered gets really expensive, so not everyone does it. You need to wire in a master switch with a power pack and drill  through the booth's floor. None of the cars are running on battery (the ground cables are removed and zip-tied down).

[Blueprint]

I was, as usual, there at 10 am on the Friday morning of Day 1 at the Montréal Auto Show. Left at 4pm and still had to skip two booths to make it home on time.

Definitely, safety features were on everybody's mind, as frontal protection was turned up a notch. Two, in fact. Styling in general was sleeker, with sweet curves and lovely attention to details. Suspenders hint at curve hugging delight. Underpinnings are so streamlined into the overall looks booth after booth that you have to wonder, "Are there any underpinnings?". Fabrics were universally stretched, neat and tidy - pleats are out. Big-bore show-off-ism seems out this year, except in one booth that still honoured big cubic inches and raised suspenders. Plenty of hybrids were around. Booth after booth, grown men had to stop and stare.  In short, most new models on display would trick your parents into thinking that you've matured (should you bring them home), but under the urban good looks seems to lie the promise of more, ahem, fun.

Well, that's it for my review of the "product specialists". In a later post, I will mention the cars.

 

Now, if I was a pro with a genuine blog, I could have done something like this:

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140117/CARNEWS01/140119862?utm_source=DailyDrive20140117&utm_medium=enewsletter&utm_term=article1more&utm_content=20140117-Women-of-the-Detroit-auto-show&utm_campaign=awdailydrive

...except that Montreal content was way, way better 

[random006]

Excellent reporting, Blueprint.

I hope to head down on the last day, Sunday, with my son.  Looking forward to it.

[Blueprint]

Excellent reporting, Blueprint.

I hope to head down on the last day, Sunday, with my son.  Looking forward to it.

Thanks! The tuning section is back in force, and some of the cars are actually interesting instead of being just plain ridiculous. The "rat-style" Beetle was nice, as was a true-to-the-spririt Rat Rod. A suicide-door '60s Lincoln was awesome, while the V.I.P. style vintage Benz 280SE was a but weird.