2010 Montréal: Will VW’s Golf R fly in Canada?

By John LeBlanc

After accepting The Canadian Automotive Jury’s Best of the Best award for its entire 2010 Golf family, Volkswagen Canada pulled the cover off a potential new range topper at last week’s Montréal auto show. Read more

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2010 Detroit: Worst in Show

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Story and photos by John LeBlanc

Honda’s gas-guzzling hybrid

Hybrids are supposed to be fuel sippers right? So what happened with Honda’s latest gas-electric hybrid, the 2011 CR-Z? The smaller, lighter, two-seat version of the current five-door Insight hybrid with a six-speed manual is rated around 7.1L/100 km. That’s a lot thirstier than the five-seat Insight’s 4.8L number. The CVT version is a bit more frugal. But still no better than a twenty-year old, gas only-Honda CRX HF (the spiritual predecessor of the CR-Z) rated at 5.7L city and 4.7 hwy. This is progress? Read more

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Will small car buyers find Ford?

By John LeBlanc

Two thousand and nine was a very good year for Ford in Canada. In an industry down 12 per cent, sales were up 7, resulting in a 15 per cent marketshare—the automaker’s best here in seven years. Ford even beat out General Motors in truck sales for the first time in a decade. Read more

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2010 Detroit: Why?

Story and photo by John LeBlanc

This year marks my tenth anniversary of having to answer the question, “Why would you want to go to Detroit in the middle of January?” Like making the decision to spend $10 in the theatre on a new Bruce Willis movie, over the course of the past decade it’s been getting harder and harder to come up with a good answer. However, I didn’t have any trouble coming up with a list of excuses why not to attend this year’s Detroit auto show: Read more

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2010 Montréal: Volkswagen Golf wins new Canadian annual car award

By John LeBlanc

MONTREAL – It’s not only the fine people of Detroit that put on an auto show this time of the year. Just down the St. Lawrence River, a couple of hours on the 401, our neighbors in la belle province put on quite a car show of their own.

This year, along with 19 Canadian-market debuts, a new national car award was announced The Canadian Automotive Jury‘s inaugural Best of the Best award, won by the 2010 Volkswagen Golf. Having narrowed the contenders down to a short list of 12 vehicles (listed below), The Jury honoured the entire 2010 Golf family, recognized as “the one and only, best of the best” of the current crop of automotive offerings. Read more

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