44 New Challengers to 1 old one. Well I guess that means that they are green machines and environmentall friendly.

February 13, 2008

On a roll at the auto showTop honours awarded at the Canadian International Auto Show
By GLEN WOODCOCK, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIA


Mazda shows off its Furai concept car at the 2008 Canadian International Auto Show.
TORONTO – Snow-snarled Canadian traffic could be a metaphor for the auto industry’s projected sales this year: sluggish.

But you wouldn’t have known there was gloom in the forecast from the first of two media days at the Canadian International Auto Show. The doors open to the public tomorrow and the show runs at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and Rogers Centre until Feb. 24.

The day kicked off with the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada announcing its coveted annual awards for car and utility vehicle of the year.

To the surprise of everyone except the voting AJAC members, the mid-engine Audi R8 sports coupe was named 2008 Car of the Year, overcoming the bias against its $140,000 price tag. Previously, the R8 had won AJAC’s award as Most Coveted vehicle. It really is a blast to drive.

But overall, it was a good day for the Big Three domestic manufacturers.

General Motors has been on a roll lately, winning 2008 North American Car of the Year for the Chevrolet Malibu at last month’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It continued the winning streak today when the made-in-Oshawa Chevrolet Silverado pickup was named Canada’s 2008 Utility Vehicle of the Year.

It was the first time GM has won either car or truck of the year honours here since the Pontiac Bonneville was victorious in 1987.

“These awards are a tremendous confirmation that our new products can compete with the best in the world,” said GM Canada vice-president Mark Comeau.

GM later showed off a prototype of the 2009 Silverado Hybrid, which will go on sale this summer and be the first hybrid drive vehicle to be built in this country.

Ford, meanwhile, took home the award for Best New Technology for its SYNC multimedia connection system. It was up against Lexus’ Pre-Collision Advanced Warning System and Audi’s Space Frame technology.

Not to be outdone, Chrysler took the wraps off the Dodge Challenger SRT8, which will be manufactured in Brampton and made its world debut at the Chicago Auto Show last week.

The two-door coupe, in “Hemi” orange, is a throwback to the 1970 Challenger of the muscle car era. “This car is retro only in the way it looks,” said the car’s Canadian-born designer, Ralph Gilles. “A lot of people forget how bad those original (muscle) cars were to drive.”

Refreshing candor from an auto industry exec.

Promising that the powerful new Challenger would be environmentally friendly, as well as a real driving machine, Gilles said it would take 44 new Challengers to equal the exhaust emissions from just one 1970 model.

The only question now is whether Canadian pricing will be close to the $37,500US announced in Chicago last week.

Ford, the other local domestic manufacturer, had eight vehicles making their Canadian debuts. Two of them will be vital to the Oakville assembly plant’s fortunes – the 2009 F150 pickup and the brand new 2009 Ford Flex.

Coming this summer, the Flex is a long, squared off crossover utility vehicle (CUV) that will be powered by a 3.5-litre V6. The F150, of course, has been the best-selling pickup in Canada for 42 years. In that time over two million F-series trucks have been sold here. Ford says if you lined them up end to end they would stretch from Halifax to Vancouver – and back.