Now we all know that Toronto thinks of itself as the capital of... well... the world, but it happens to be the closest major market to the location in which I live so it is the TO auto show which I must write about. Here we go...

Firstly, if you want to read about cars, by all means feel free to skip by the next few paragraphs of rant... I mean skillfully crafted literature. The cars are below all this. But if you would like to join me in my observations about the show itself, please read on.

The 2008 International Auto Show (Toronto) was a marginal success. Walking around the maze of exhibits three somewhat troubling things kept popping to mind; What about the damned gas prices? Why do I have to take a bus for 4 blocks? Why is someone selling bed linen at an auto show? Beyond that, the cars were okay... I guess. :)

Short of the GM exhibit, there didn't seem to be much concern about the prices of gas or the state of the environment. I found it really odd actually that GM would be the one to spend the time and money displaying information on these topics because I've always thought of them as this "North American" behemoth of a corporation who just trudges along doing the same old thing. Perhaps I'm wrong?  Or, could it be that these issues are so much "on the table" that they been pushed right off the other side into consumer apathy? Or, is it that not as many consumers in North America actually care as much as I had thought... and hoped? Feel free to bring something up in the forum about all that if you like.

From a visitors standpoint, I found myself a bit overwhelmed by the show. Not in an "oh my gosh, theres something I've never seen" kind of way, but in a "arrgh" kind of way. The thing is, that I'm not sure, in my little peanut, how it could have been done better so maybe I'm wrong to consider this, but there seemed to be a few points of operational disconnect with the show. I'm not going to belabor the whole matter, but it went down a little like this. The show was spread out over multiple levels of 3 separate buildings... completely separate buildings. Getting between those buildings was a bit of a blend of The Great Race, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Plains, Trains and Automobiles. I have yet to figure out what kind of MC Escher type physics resulted in me walking one block between two buildings, trudge down an unfathomable amount of stairs, then going outside again to take a bus for four blocks only to have to walk one block back to the original building. It hurts doesn't it? Now while you sit and ponder how that could possibly happen, I'll move on to keep this interesting (I hope).

The final point of contention that I, and many people, seemed to have was the unusual and unexpected diversity of exhibitors. When you attend an auto show, there is an expectation of what you might find there, cars being the obvious one. In addition to that basic requirement there was an entire raft of aftermarket vendors... people flogging rims and window tint and stereos and auto clubs and and and. Now for the most part, many of the visitors I encountered we're not necessarily excited about needing to walk the mile or so of Tuner Kid drool stains to get where they were going, but the connection to the basic expectation was at least a straight line. And, if you were there with your teen aged son or daughter, it did provide a good bit of information and ideas for things they might be interested. However, bed linens? Seriously folks, bed linens? You're going to make me and the 100 000 others trying to figure out the logistics of this show walk past bed linens in the main building? And there were many more that I could ask the same question about. I'm really not much of a complainer, truly, but I have a quick math quiz for the organizers of the Toronto International Auto Show. If 1 Auto Show + countless unnecessary exhibitors = 3 buildings, then 1 Auto Show + no unnecessary exhibitors = how many buildings? (Insert mental picture of head shaking here)

Okay, now that is out of the way, let's get on to the fun stuff... the cars!