Christopher Brian's Photography has added a photo to the pool:
I don't have much to say about this Clarksonmobile. I certainly agree with Richard and James about this car. That said, I get why it is the way it is and think it's neat for being the way it is but it wouldn't be my choice for sure.
The Toronto International Autoshow, One of my favourite frustrating places to be. The crowd was pretty bad on Family Day but what do you expect when the government says you have the day off go do stuff? Anyway, this is my review of the parts of the show that I did not take pictures of.
First let's get the biggest bit of ugliness out of the way. Porsche, where were you? A Pfaff booth with a handful of used modded cars does not cut it. Especially when you have just released an update to one of the most important cars in the world. You're the reason I fell in love with this show 30 years ago and have been almost every year since. Where were you? BCE Place is NOT the car show. That made me sad.
Second bit of ugliness belongs to GM but it's more typical than a glaring bit of ugliness like Porsche's absence. You still don't have a clue do you? Singing and dancing, while fine for some things, doesn't belong at a car show. Stop it. You do it every year and every year it annoys me and does nothing to help you sell cars. There was nothing overly exciting in your area. Your F150 Raptor competitor while a nice truck is no Raptor competitor, you managed to make Foose boring and you Cadillac range is more confused than ever. You're doing waht Chrysler started years ago which is banking on nostalgia to sell cars, that's fine as a limited range but does nothing to make forward looking interesting cars. Hey, at least yours aren't made out of old MB parts. I can fix you GM, I won't even charge you that much. Seriously, contact me, pay me and I can fix you.
I'd like to make fun of Chrysler for being... well Chrysler but now with an overpriced and underpowered Italian subcompact to make you look cool but I can't because one of the better surprises of the show is the Jeep. Not the old Mercedes they call a Jeep but the actual Jeep Wrangler. Finally it has a decent engine and it is a relatively decent looking product compared to what else is around. I'd actually consider one. Otherwise Chrylser was Chrysler.
VW did the standard VW thing with one exception: the Golf R. About freaking time that's available in this country! Good job VW for keeping it understated looking while still being a real interesting car. New Bug looks alright too. Definite improvement in the interior.
Mazda displayed why they're floundering, they've got nothing but the Miata (neat but too expensive). Honda bored me. Honda always bores me. Toyota too, except for the Toyobaru. thing they collaborated with Subaru on and are calling a Scion here. Would have been much smarter placed as the new Celica. The Subaru version looks slightly more interesting than the adolescent tone of all things Scion. Oh yes, the Tacoma is easily the best "small" pickup these days. Very nice. I like the Tundra as well but that's an awful lot of money compared to what you can get from Ford.
Speaking of Ford, I like the Aston Martin Fusion. New Focus is decent too. Taurus is ok but far too big. You do trucks well can't say much against you there. New Mustang iterations are all ok but very much limited to what they are, there's nothing groundbreaking there.
Volvo... the Chinese haven't ruined them yet. Although nice enough Volvos always seem about 20% too much. And 9 times out of 10 if a Volvo driver is a terrible driver. I know there are exceptions but I can count them on one hand. The only worse drivers are Pontiac drivers (Grand Prix/Am). 10 times out of 10 they're bad drivers.
BMW was much like MB, still doing the things they do with little surprise. The new Mini is as ugly outside as it is on the inside.
Hyundai wasn't interesting but it's nice to see them making Toyota and Honda have to work to keep their value cars viable options for people and make GM look foolish. I didn't go in the Kia display.
Infiniti, you're really milking that G platform eh? By the way, the exhaust tuning is too much. Far too noisy for a car that is slowly lumbering away from a stop. It sounds as fake as it is.
Other minor notes: The Triumph hall of classics would have been far more interesting if there were more than Triumphs there. I can understand why people would not want to bring their classics to the show though. I have further proof that the people of Toronto are in a single word inconsiderate. I saw a lot of trash left behind in the cars, including under hoods and there were countless knobs, buttons and other interior bits ripped off. Keep it up people and all the cars will be locked. The poor VW GTI looked like it had been stripped on the inside.
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