Ferrari's at the 2014 Toronto Autoshow

I went to the Autoshow on Sunday, I was very impressed with the entire setup, management and displays. It seems that the show is getting better and more modern every year. (Anyone disagree, please discuss ?)

A few dissapointments no doubt....

- Parking was $25 or even $30 depending on the lot. (This is a family car show, not
a Celine Dion concert)

- Ever since Rogers bought the Skydome the autoshow has not used it anymore. It seems that they are packing in more cars and displays into the Convention center buildings, the many different levels are very confusing and poorly accessed. I would suggest to reopen the Rogers Center (skydome) again for the show.

- The food and drink choices are terrible, and have been for years. (Pizza Pizza, hot dogs and 7up) is pretty much the food of choice in the food court. Why can't they at least have some decent options? I noticed many families complaining about this. They show up in the morning with kids etc.. and are forced to eat this frozen garbage. Maybe a Tim Hortons, or some other food options? Considering how multi-cultural TOronto is, I don't think Pizza, Hamburgers etc.. are eaten by all the guests.

- And last and not least... no La Ferrari at the FOO booth???? Are we not worthy enough to get a La Ferrari at Canada's biggest show? The Ferrari stand was pretty good, but was missing the most important car everyone wanted to see.

 

I'm pretty sure Porsche had a small display in the main building, right next to VW. It was directly across from the Red Bull F1 (Infiniti) display.

Yes, there were some random food stands scattered across the buildings... but yes all crap food at triple the $ price. I don't understand how a show which attracts 250,000 people cannot have any decent food venue/area. Seems to be a no brainer for the promoters to make extra money.

 

Awesome pics

 

Porsche is back this year at CIAS after an absence.

Lucas... in terms of the parking cost, it's "because they can". I don't agree with it either, but it's how it is.

 

Adi, I agree... people will pay $20, $30 etc.. whatever it takes to park near the venue.

But its still a total rip off (as well as the food vendors which Clyde mentioned). We are being sucked dry, and then they all wonder why attendance is down, people are cutting back and not spending anymore. If this was a USA show, parking would be free, and there would be many incentives to get people down to the show. (Free giveaways, new attractions etc.)

You can't expect to grow your business by continually increasing prices, and offering less. But in Toronto, this is somewhow the normal way of business.

 

Porsche returned this year and have an owner's lounge which was a nice touch. Show them your Porsche key to gain entry to sit and have a free espresso, pop or water.

 

Good day Lucas,

Not just Toronto... many things out here in Alberta are increasing almost geometrically... I would estimate it to be at least 20% increase over the year for a large number of things. When I see the government stats showing inflation at less than 2% I always ask what they are "smoking"... because it is certainly not the reality for most.

Cheers,

Sam

 

Sam, there is something definitely wrong with Canadian Business (or government agendas) when we continually increase prices and overhead costs when inflation is supposedly at 2%.

We can't expect to grow business, (ie the Car Show) when ticket prices and parking prices are increasing 20% every year. The cost for a family of 5 will approach $250... seems counter productive when that family has $250 less to spend on a new car afterwards !!


..."Gouging" isn't the proper term, I would call it "impalement".

 

I would pay extra if it wasn't so rammed, and so much walking around to get where I wanted to go.
Better off to go to the dealerships direct to see the cars you wish.
Flee markets on Sundays have the same atmosphere as the auto show nowadays.

 

They did have some better food services in one of the Halls (in South Building I think?). I saw some booster juice kind of stands and some sandwich place. Nothing special, but beats Pizza Pizza.

As for no LaFerrari, well, that's not a surprise at all. No NA autoshow had that car this year. I was disappointed Porsche didn't bring the new GT3 let alone 918, just some boring silver cars.

 

Um, maybe because it's a hot item?

Duh



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/new-cars/auto-news/porsche-halts-911-gt3-deliveries-after-two-catch-fire/article16930982/

 

The show kind of lost its "exclusivity" when I saw a family of 6 (including kids wearing snow pants, filthy boots) cram into a Porsche Panamera and start play fighting in the back seat. The salesguy had to literally yell at them to get out.

And whats with the fake salespeople working at the show? 1/2 of the people working at the dealer booths were "temps" or just good looking models (guys or girls) who knew nothing about any of the cars. Most of the real sales people were hanging out behind desk watching the crowd, and monitoring the temps.

I had a few complaints.. but overall I had a good time and was impressed by the quality of the entire show.

 

Definitely a great show, and glad to hear its growing in attendance and popularity every year. But also changing and morphing into something different than what I expected.

I always appreciated talking to the dealer reps and discussing the specifics of cars I was interested in. It seems now to be a Flea Market.. (BigRed mentioned) or some sort of carnival of cars. "buddy..Dont tell my kids NOT to jump on the hood and stomp on the roof of the Maserati... I paid $150 bucks to get us in here !"

Yes I understand its a show meant to display and lure in 500,000 kids, adults... (let them stomp on the hoods, and smash the navigation buttons) its not a technical meeting and industry function. But it dissapoints people like me who truly appreciate the automotive aspect. Maybe I'm just getting older and more complicated..

 

Its an easy answer really, the fake sales people don't get paid on a sale and real sales people don't get paid to just be there. Why would the temp care that much with no compensation and please don't forget some of these temps work crazy hours. I know of people who did it and they worked open to close through the whole show basically. The real sales people do not typically wanna go because they can sell in the dealership only.