Official 2008 Montreal Autoshow discussions

[wing]

This is CanadianDriver's official thread for all thing Montreal autoshow.

[mwqa]

Reusing a thread title? 

I've added pictures of the 2009 autoshow in the gallery. Once everything is approved I can fix it up.

It stops at the Nissan Cube (no Kia Soul shots, etc.) because my camera batteries ran out and all my extras, scavenged from old TV remotes and other devices, turned out to be dead.

Here are some of the more interesting pics.

[mwqa]

I'll mix things up and put some quick impressions down. Just to confuse wing. 

Very few concepts this year. The only one I noticed was the Scion Fuse. 

I really like the Saturn Astra (sat in it again this year). Pity it isn't being sold by a car company that is solvent.

As for the new cars, I hate their raked windshield, short window design. The dashes go on forever. What can I say - I like cars with low, short dashes. (Long live the Aerio!) The new design elements typified by the new Toyota Matrix and the Mazda 3 just don't make sense to me.

By cutting across the BMW/Smart area, totally missed the Chrysler exhibit. Oops!

It seemed a lot more cars were locked this year.

The Nissan Cube rocks.

Overall, the show was very well spaced out and quite pleasant to walk through. The best of the three years I've been going (the first felt too crowded and last year Kia was stuck in a tiny room).

[random006]

The Cube was interesting but I found the ergonomics completely off.  The driver's arm rest gets in the way of the center mounted gear shift, for one.  Even after adjusting the seat downwards, it still seemed a bit off.

The show was not as interesting as in previous years, at least for me.  Perhaps because the novelty of a car show had long since worn off, perhaps because I went with a few specific goals in mind - at least one of which was not met , perhaps because there were still too many locked cars, ... I don't know.  I was disappointed in not being able to sit in a Kia Soul; I guess I'll have to wait until I go back to the dealer for my car's servicing, like mwqa wrote.  One nice thing about the smaller crowds seen last night was the speed at which we got in and were able to move from car to car.  Even the exotics and oddities on display weren't surrounded by a sea of people.  BTW, the show's official "tour" started with the exotics this year; something that I don't recall being done in previous years.  Certainly I never started with that part of the show in the past; I always liked to leave that for last.  For those who have never been to the Montreal show, there is a path laid out to follow, complete with arrows on the floor and actual barriers when they really want you to follow the route.  The most annoying part of that little bit of planning is that you cannot avoid the room full of knick knacks, junky accessories or "miracle products" and the hucksters who sell the stuff.  Yuck.

The GM area seemed almost deserted, although there were a few people looking around.  Groups of young kids (17 to 25?) were looking at some of the big trucks and the Pontiac offerings but not much else.  The Astra was on prominent display, as was the Vue, with at least 2 Vues and 3 Astras on display.

As mwqa wrote, we bypassed the Chrysler display altogether.  The omission was purely by accident but when we both realized that we had missed their area, neither of us cared enough to go back.  I can't speak for mwqa but in my case is was no great loss.

Speaking of locked cars, why do they persist in doing that, in a year when most car companies should be pulling out all the stops to keep the cars rolling off the lot?

[mwqa]

Some more shots from the show - I don't have the patience to fiddle around with the gallery or outside links - sorry 56k-ers. I'm one too! 

[mwqa]

More of the Cube.

I have Insight pics, but CTC seems to have beaten me to the punch! 

[rrocket]

^^I REALLY dig the Cube too.  But no Nissan at the Detroit show.....

[wing]

Cube about the same size as the Scion xD I think???

[mwqa]

I think you're thinking of the Xb.

It is larger than the 1st generation Xb.

It's boxier than the latest generation, which is longer and has a lower roofline. I don't know what the powerplant is in the Cube, but I think it's a 2.3 in the 2nd gen Xb.

I see both around Montreal sometimes and a dealership here sells them.

[wing]

No, I'm thinking of the xD, but if you say it is bigger than the xB than it sure is bigger than the xD.  The xD is tiny, like a Yaris box.

[articsteve]

That Citroen is fantastic.

[carcrazy]

Actually the xD is reasonably looking for a Scion IMO.