I did not check out all the exhibitors at the show so I do not know if there is any free swag.


-only spent 30 minutes at the show as part of my lunch break from work haha.


My gosh, the line up to get into the convention centre was so long! It was at least a two block line up of people before the 12pm opening time.

Beware of the sales reps at the GM exhibit! Women kept asking people to fill out a contest form on their tablets for a "chance" to win $75,000 credit to buy an American car.

I made a detour away from the GM area to go straight to the exotic cars haha.

Hobz, there is a sick MC20 coupe near the front entrance of the show.

A two tone yellow and black Maserati.

I only sat inside the GR Corolla and the Prius. The starting MSRP price of $51,391 for the GR Corolla is way overpriced for a 3 cylinder hatchback.

I wish that I had more time to be at the show. -no time to sit inside the VWs.

The biggest surprise for me was seeing Mercedes have a booth at the show. The Best or Nothing is their slogan?
Well, their booth was not the best but it was not nothing haha.

Putting the G580 on some fake steep terrain did make their booth stand out a bit from other manufacturers. I'll give them some credit for creativity.

Maserati is dead to him.

Masterbati

Pardon my ignorance, but what's the point of a car show normally? I'm trying to understand how something like this would be profitable for the organizer or the vendors. Surely these shows don't make money, do they? Is it purely just a form of Marketing?

Or are these shows super successful and there's absolutely a net benefit from being there? I suspect there has to be a benefit because this show happens every year.

(Thanks for the pictures btw, they were cool to see)

My guess is that the Vancouver Auto show is a way for car manufacturers and some dealers to market their products and generate some sales?

I did notice "sales lead" forms at the Dilawri Mercedes display. Perhaps Dilawri decided to bring Benz back to the Auto Show as a way to help generate potential sales?

When I was at the Toyota display, I saw some Toyota staff asking people if they are interested in test drives of any vehicles at that display.

It's marketing. Some people who are car shopping can just look at everything new in the same space instead of dealership hopping. Some people are excited about new tech, new engineering.
It's 100% marketing and definitely translates into sales.

I stopped going because they have barriers on most cars that you actually want to sit in. The ones that you can sit in ... you don't really want to or need to. The ones you kinda want to, you can probably do it at a dealer. Eg. Porsche.

So why go? Unless you have free tix, something to do.

We're all car enthusiasts here, so we're naturally more in touch with new cars than the average person.

That said, I still like to check in on the new car market occasionally, and an auto show is a great way to see a variety of makes under one roof without the hassle of salespeople inside a dealership.

Long ago, in a time far far away, we used to go to car shows to see what future products would be. Also to Hamsup those car booth girls.

Nowadays it seems like an utter waste of time

Hey Jason can you post up the copy for free? I'll read all 280 pages of it. If I buy it, there's a money aspect so I might just hate it because I paid for it. If you post it up for free, it's unbiased.

I want to believe that it's not as bad as the reviews say it is. I see two four star reviews from other countries.. what's funny about this is when I used to pitch Google MyBusiness management packages, we told people that 5 stars are worse than 4 stars due to authenticity.

whoa whoa whoa... disposable income? this is my investment youre talking about hahaha

this was her xmas present. she actually wanted to buy it but it was sold out.

:badpokerface: what sauna girl

agreed.
oh look, cars i cant afford maybe they'll let me sit in it. whats the point?!?!

i enjoy the dealership walk.
i have zero interest in going to these auto shows but SEMA is on my bucket list.

I went to the auto show yesterday - it's spring break and it was something to do with the kid (she had a great time climbing into everything and pushing all the buttons) - the ticket was $11 for me but it's a shell of what it used to be. It's not even half as big as it was when it moved to the convention centre.

No Honda/Acura, no Mazda, no BMW, no Mercedes, no Porsche (the Porsche club was there though), no Stellantis (nobody misses them though).

I got to check out a few cars that I've been interested in though - the Crown Signia, the EV9, EV5 (that thing will sell like mad when it shows up), the Nautilus.

I wouldn't have otherwise gone if my kid was in school but it was interesting to see some cars that I otherwise would never look at and/or make general observations about cars like...

- The Maverick is pretty neat, they do a nice job of cost cutting.
- Rear load floors keep moving up and up and up. I was surprised at how small a lot of SUV trunks were and it made me appreciate Honda's packaging (and the trunk of my RDX) a lot more.
- Ride heights for ICE cars keep going up too especially for Subaru, GM, and Ford. It's become a competition to make their cars harder to climb into. EVs, OTOH, are getting lower to the ground which is great.
- Door panels and trim pieces for commodity brands seem to be getting cheaper and cheaper for the brands that were there. Honda and Mazda are way ahead of the other brands in terms of quality
- 3rd row access in SUV really sucks ass. We need to replace them with minivans that are a size smaller than the Odyssey/Sienna.
- The Ioniq5 didn't change their seat design in the refresh which is the deal breaker for me. I love everything about it except for the seats, they fit my wife and I terribly.
- I hated the new Murano. I think it's ugly and the view out is terrible. Material quality is much improved but it didn't feel premium which is what they were aiming for.

Mercedes was at the auto show in the form of the dealership display from Dilawri. Their corporate display is not at the show, again haha.

I only noticed the electric G wagon, G580, on the fake steep terrain at their display.

If I had more time during my lunch break from work, I would have gone to the VW display to check out the electric hippy van. The ID.Buzz.

-had a quick glance at the two tone, white and blue ID.Buzz at VW.

-sat inside the GR Corolla. -decent interior.

The manual version of the GR Corolla at $51,391, and of course the automatic, are way overpriced for a 3 cylinder engine.

Crossing the border was fine, no issues, wasn't charged duty.

Coming back on the Canadian side the CBSA gal was a little spicy, asked more questions than usual, but other than that it was totally fine.

There is literally no one coming back on the Canadian side, four windows were open, not a single car going through any of them, quickest border return I've ever had.

That's the only thing I'd be careful about if you're bringing anything back you don't want to declare, those CBSA agents looked bored as fuck.

I've never imagined myself being a pick up truck guy, but somehow I like the Maverick, and it actually seems likes a pick up truck I can live with. It would definitely come in handy during some of my IKEA trips.

Are the ever taller rear load floors a result of the manufacturer packing the (hybrid) batteries in the trunk? or is that a function of the cars getting taller ride heights?

Back in Jan or something, there was a promo to get 1/2 price tickets to the auto show. I didn't realize at the time that the auto show was taking place during Spring Break. Otherwise, I would have bought tickets and take a vacation day to bring my kid to the show too. Would have been a fun family thing to do.

Same, it's definitely a neat little thing. It's basic but perfectly fine for an urban car and similar money to a Civic. If I ever needed a pickup this would be an easy choice.

It didn't seem like it - the worst offenders (that I can remember) were the Murano and Nautilus. In a number of cases it was for a subwoofer (Murano) or spare tire.

I forgot to mention - I totally do not get what people see in Subaru's SUVs. They are so meh. No power, pretty ugly, and not particularly nice inside. Other than the outdoorsy sales pitch I see nothing good about them.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/20/klar...ad-of-ipo.html

We are so fucked.

I blame gen Z for the instant gratification/clout lifestyle even if it means going into debt.

At this rate there’s gonna be financing at grocery stores

i have a 2019 forester and i love it. put some a/t tires on it and it can pretty much go anywhere.. i take it on rugged FSRs to get to trailheads, it goes uphill in snowy conditions no problem, even a 3 years ago when we had like 9" of fresh snow i was driving through unplowed parking lots (mind you i have a small lift on mine).

but best of all the rear cargo is pretty big with the seats down. i regularly take 2x material up to 8' long (even 9' before) and all sorts of building materials in it. bagged gravel, concrete, etc... since i know it's a rugged car i treat it as such and i dont cry over scuffs on the inside plastic wheel well areas. it's been an incredibly practical car for me.

sure you could do a lot of this with a rav4 or any suv but i just feel like the forester is just slightly better at this stuff than its competitors.

this is a recession indicator

Maverick is amazing but pricey if you more than a work truck.

- XL AWD Hybrid + tow and safety package = 41k ... or same as Hybrid Civic these days.
- XLT AWD Hybrid, heated mirror, heated seats, tow package, and driver assist = 46k.
- Lariat with Adaptive cruise and non cloth seat = 50k.

After 9k EV incentive & employee pricing, XLT lightning was 57k MRSP. Less from an Alberta dealer that needs to sell EVs to get Diesel 250/350 allocations.

- Add $4-6000 value with included charger installation AND a charger that can do home power backup with the lightning
- Net 52k + $13 in gas savings per 100km compaerd to maverick

plenty of room back there for scissoring!