Car FYI

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy/Car FYI Canada   Theme of the Show: The Vision- Explore New Directions. Experience Innovation. Though the effects of the great global recession were nearing an end with the arrival of 2010, Canadian auto sales from the recently concluded year of 2009 made it clear that the auto industry had a hole to climb out of. Only 1,484,000 new cars and trucks sold in Canada represented a 11.36 percent drop over the 2008 calendar year as instability with money caused many to temporarily forego many expensive purchase and expenditures.   Although this was only the second year I attended the event, I could tell there was truly a lower key tone to the 2010 Canadian International AutoShow compared to the previous year. The show’s footprint decreased as the floors of the Skydome (Rogers Centre) was no longer part of the display space. Since 2009, none of the subsequent auto shows in Toronto would use the popular retractable roof sports and entertainment buil...

Photo Credit: Mercedes-Benz Formula 1 aficionados in recent seasons have been witnessing a renaissance of the Silver Arrows in a manner not seen since the 1950s. Returning to the series as a constructor in 2010, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport Formula 1 team hit a masterful stride in the prestigious open wheel racing tour in 2014 when a new series mandate for a hybrid gasoline/electric powerplant came to fruition. As of September 12th of 2017, the Mercedes-AMG team has taken victory in 60 of the 72 events since the current hybrid power unit specifications came into effect. As is the case with any automaker who uses motorsports to define their brand, Mercedes-Benz’s performance division naturally wants to directly transfer success on the track to the street. A single-passenger, open-wheel race car designed to run a main feature race no longer than two hours is starkly different from a production vehicle seemingly limits the amount of technology that could be shared. Unveil...

Photo Credit: FCA US In a matter of hours, a host of new, elaborate commercials will air during one of the most-watched annual events on the globe. For Super Bowl XLIX (the 2015 edition of the football classic), 30-second spots selling for 4.5-million dollars will be competing for our attention with snappy visuals and celebrities. The following are some past automotive advertisements illustrating to how companies attempted to lure motorists in the past: 1969: Chrysler Scuba Diver In 1969, the Super Bowl was being held for only its third time. The big game was beginning to attract the attention needed to elevate American professional football to a thriving enterprise. However, it would wouldn't be until the mid-1980s when a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl would start selling for over a million dollars. Understandably, most ads televised during the game were not massive productions. 15 years before Apple reinvented the...

Location: Mercedes Benz Collection Price: $145.95 One of the most iconic Mercedes-Benz production vehicles ever built, the 300 SL Gullwing was derived from a winning race car. The unique opening doors, the first-ever application of fuel injection to a performance car and limited in production to just 1,400 examples from 1954 to 1957, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing is a prized vehicle among high-end collectors. While the full-sized 300 SL Gullwing could demand over $300,000 at a top auction, the gift item-oriented  Mercedes-Benz Collection offers a smaller, more affordable alternative for fans of the 1950s supercar. Part of their 2014 Holiday Star line of lifestyle accessories, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Model Car and Pen features a 1:43 scale die cast replica of the classic Gullwing sports car painted in Fire Engine Red. A black ballpoint pen with red accents is destined to be moved by a pleased writer when they are looking at the miniaturized 300 SL. The die ca...

To say the 2014 Formula 1 season ended well for the Mercedes AMG team would be a grand understatement. With Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg driving the W05 Hybrid race car, the team captured victory in 16 of season’s 19 events. In qualifying, one of the Mercedes AMG drivers prevailed with the pole position in all but one race (Williams’ Felipe Massa propelled by a customer Mercedes-Benz power unit won the Austrian Grand Prix’s pole). As Lewis Hamilton overcame a mid-season gap to triumph over teammate Rosberg for his second World Drivers’ Championship , Mercedes-Benz captured the honour of proclaiming themselves the toast of the paddock among teams. After five seasons for the Mercedes AMG organization gave glimpses of potential, quick adjustment to new rules for the 2014 Formula 1 vehicles netted the factory-based team the manufacturers’ championship. Since the manufacturers’ trophy in the series was not established until 1958 (three years after Mercedes-Benz pulled out of competi...

Realizing the automobile was originally created as a toy for the rich, it took a short time until some of the financially well-off individuals grew tired of driving themselves. For those wanting to be chauffeured, a pocket of super-luxury car companies emerged. Through the 1930s, American high society had  Duesenberg, tea-drinking aristocrats in the United Kingdom had Rolls-Royce and the well-connected in Germany had Maybach. After a brief recent hiatus from the ultra-luxury segment, Mercedes-Benz will give rear-seat riders the self-reward of an exclusive sedan wearing the Maybach name. Similar to the way Mercedes-AMG functions as a high-performance brand, peak-luxury wearing Germany's famous three-pointed star will be addressed as a Mercedes-Maybach. Operating as a sub-brand, the Mercedes-Maybach name is being used to accentuate existing Mercedes-Benz products. Inaugurating the Mercedes-Mayb...

This is a time of the year we commonly associated as the period where the auto industry looks forward. Even though the calendar says we have two months remaining in 2014, 2015 is now the mindset of Canadian new car sales lots. Some models released earlier this year have already been set in the upcoming year while others are now becoming the candy for buyer car consumers. New designs, technologies and sometimes a chance to see something entirely new from a favoured brand. If you are one of those people, 2015 model year promise to be a tantalizing time to be wooed. More than ever, motorists realize potential problems with vehicles are addressed with recall notices. For what is the second-most expensive purchase many of us make, automobiles is perhaps the most complicated products available. In the case of cars, trucks and crossovers that are all-new or significantly retooled for 2015, introduction marks a vulnerable moment for all the testing auto manufactur...