Car FYI

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy/Car FYI Canada Theme of the Show: Beyond Expectations For an event that featured the Canadian debut and/or exhibition of several high-performance vehicles, the opening ceremonies were a particularly high-octane affair. The late Sergio Marchionne, than-CEO of Fiat Group and later Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), took to the stage for the company’s press conference followed by a Q&A in an act that could be viewed as brave or foolish. Just ahead of the auto show, his automaker had been reportedly asking for $700 million in government assistance to upgrade their Canadian manufacturing short of five years after the company accepted nearly $3 billion in loans from the Ontario provincial and Canadian federal governments in order to restructure Chrysler Group. Despite the allegations there was some serious hardball being played by the auto company, Marchionne’s speech and tone attempted to divert any hostilities drawing heavily on his personal Canadian conne...

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy It is an art for a premium automobile brand to provide a special aura around their vehicles. Historically, there are two ways to win over an affluent clientele. The first method is luxury features such as leather seating and advanced technology suites provide a comfort-oriented impression of high-end motoring. Another way a premium marque attracts special prominence is through performance. While luxury cars would often deliver more than enough power for a boulevard ride, the recent direction has been to infusing outright, pavement-burning high-performance into a model line-up. In doing so, boutique performance groups have grown inside popular luxury brands. BMW has their M models, Cadillac features a V line and Mercedes-Benz adds sensationalism to their vehicle lin-up through AMG. In 2013, Volvo joined the tailored high-performance fight through a partnership with a Swedish motorsport team. Founded in 1996, Polestar Racing instantly developed...