Topic: 2014 Edmonton Auto Show

[PJungnitsch]

We had a hurried hour and half at the Edmonton auto show last week. A few thoughts:

Interior of the new Kia Soul, very nice:



The gf hates the squareness of the outside styling, I couldn't get over how nice Kia interiors are now. Has the solid quality look and operation of old Honda's.

Every vehicle pretty much had a large screen, I think that backup camera argument is moot, the screen is going to be there anyway.



The inside of the new Micra is definitely a step down from the Kia, but in a 'not bad for the price, cheap cell phone better than expected' kind of way.



Surprising amount of room in the back of the Micra, with the front seat set for me there was lots of room behind:



Tiny cargo area though, without the seats folded. It looks like a great city car, appears at least miles up from the old Accents, Aveo's et al.

Worst interior of the show award goes to the Camaro. Old school GM awfulness, like the Chrysler interiors were when Mercedes was gutting the company. Gorgeous as ever on the outside though.



Corvette was much nicer, probably showing the where things will go.

[Fobroader]

I went on Saturday.....saw a few things I liked...a lot I didnt....way too many people. I have to start going on Thursday night.

[PJungnitsch]

The Spark is just too weird looking for me, inside and out, but the Sonic seemed like a nice job for the price:



Of the pickups the Raptor stood out, beautiful truck, just a great job with the styling. The various leather 'King Ranch' type interiors of the high end trucks from each brand were gorgeous. The 1794 edition Tundra probably has the nicest leather I've seen yet. One strange thing, the new GM's pickups all seemed to have the steering wheel offset from the seat:



The gf was mostly interested in SUV's, and their interiors ranged from the spacey (Ford Escape)



To the conventional (Forester)



One thing she noted was the new RAV had the center console controls almost out of reach, which appears to be a deal breaker:



Anyway, it was a fun couple hours, sitting in everything from heavy duty pickups to Corvettes:

[PJungnitsch]

I went on Saturday.....saw a few things I liked...a lot I didnt....way too many people. I have to start going on Thursday night.

Yeah, that's what we did, it was the only thing that worked with our schedule that week. Turned out great, hardly any people, free parking, could sit easily in anything you wanted.

[johngenx]

And all this time I thought you were a dude!

[PJungnitsch]

 

[Hammy]

The center console on the Camaro does look like they tried really hard to make it look like total crapola.  I think the section under the horrible screen came from a PS1.

[PJungnitsch]

It's not so much the design as the terrible, terrible quality of the plastic. There must have been some leftover from the pile of lunchboxes they melted down to make Cavalier and Caliber interiors.

[Black Hatch]

Good thing you started this topic.
I was at the autoshow on Saturday and spent about 4 hours.
Mostly trying more 3rd rows  (might update that later)

I was mostly playing around with the cars that had their electronics powered.
Unfortunately pressing the push-start the car kept saying key not found.   
But I flashed people with the high-beams all the same.

Some highlights

Corvette Stingray
You can change the speedometer/tachometer from track to sport mode
Goes from a half tach (old Corvette style) to a full circle tachometer... neato
So many people had to get out far too soon.

Audi TT coupe
The nav screen comes forward to show hidden SD card slots and CD drive behind it.

Orange Mini
I was playing with this for a long time.
The Nav screen is shaped as large circle in the dash (where the speedometer supposed to be?) and had a nice ambience with purple lights on the outside of the circle
The cylindrical controller was located behind the stickshift in area between the seats.  It was easy rotate the map in 3D mode and zoom in and out. I played with that for some time.

Sat in the Nissan Micra and Mitsu Mirage,
Hands-down the Micra is a much better looking car. Not to mention a 109hp vs 75hp advantage)
A Versa Note was beside the Micra and the trims must have been similar because the dash was almost exactly the same.
Could say the Micra was chopped Versa Note.
I think they could sell alot of these at the low intro price of $10k.

Mazda 3D printer looked neat, but boo to having to enter to win a 3D car and not winning 
Dislike the ipad-like display general layout of the HVAC on the new Mazda3.

Boo to Lexus for turning off their electronics; i didn't get to play with that mouse/scroller thing.
I also dislike Lexus large central tunnel that is at elbow height (in lieu of an armrest), I find it makes the cockpit more claustrophobic.

I think the Honda Accord and Civic look awkward.
The lane changing camera hangs underneath the passenger side mirror like an big ugly wart.
Looking at it head-on you might even think the car is unbalanced because the irregular/non-symmetric side-mirrors.

Sat in a $140k Porshe Cayman... Probably the most priciest car that I have sat in

I don't know but I'm not too enthuse by the Hyundai fluid sculpture design.

Looks like less loot than last year,
Last year Scion gave out gum and earphones in addition to bags.

Didn't sit in as many vehicles as I had last year. Probably because I have already have a nearly new car.