Its the second year in a row that we’ve gone to the Auto Show. You can check out last year HERE!
This year, we had my usual food event buddies come along with me to this show. We’re all having plans to acquire a new vehicle so its a good place to be able to test out how the car looks and feels and just have a comparison as to what specs meet our needs and not. That was our primary goals. My friends were seeking a different vehicle size than we were so there were many times that we just went to do our own thing and look at what we needed to get done.
Before I start talking about the cars we are debating in our life, lets take a look at some highlights (modified/race/more higher priced cars) that we really liked.
There’s always some really nice cars to look at. My husband’s favorite is the Corvette but he equally loved the Pagani and the BMW M4. There was also the Ferrari LaFerrari which was tucked in the back of the showroom floor so it wasn’t a really nice photo. Its the reason why I didn’t add it in. I’m a fan of the normal stuff. Nissan GT-R is my absolute favorite but it had a ton of people around it so the picture was bad. I think the Pagani also looked really nice along with the lovely purple of the Camaro. Dodge Viper is always sleek and sexy while the Fiat convertible looks really sharp and classy. Basically what I picked for this exhibit above are some pretty appealing cars to me.
Now on to some more serious talk. I’m not sure if it’ll be educational but take it as a discussion. I’m hoping some of you might have some good insight to share with me.
Buying a car is not a small task. Its been on my mind for a little while. The debate comes down to how long my husband can stretch his current car for. However, his car is also manual transmission making it really hard in the winter for me to go do groceries. Currently, I’m borrowing my mom’s car and she is great for helping me and letting me do that. But it is time to get serious about it. I’ve only ever taken about 3 classes of manual transmission when I first took driving lessons and I wasn’t very good at it. Its one of the reasons we’ve been talking about getting me a smaller car with automatic transmission.
The first car we talked about was the little and cute Nissan Micra.
Nissan Micra
Don’t be fooled by Nissan Micra being a small car. What impressed me the most and hasn’t quite removed the desire to give this one a fair chance is that despite its small trunk size which is actually pretty comparable to its car size or class (whatever you call it) above it. When I sat in the Micra, it was really spacious and comfortable. I didn’t feel cramped up and everything was accessible. The feeling was pretty good.
Now, Nissan Micra is a good choice for me if its just for basic needs but my husband also wanted me to look at the car sized above this one, Nissan Versa Note.
Nissan Versa Note
Nissan Versa Note actually checks all the boxes I’d need and even more. A plus to this one is that it can easily be our next main car if my husband’s car doesn’t make it in the transition between his car and the car he is considering highly for this car show to see (coming up later on in the post). The reason for it being more suitable is that my husband is tall (over 6 feet) so the Micra becomes restrained for him while Versa Note is much more acceptable and in the comfortable area. There are other fine qualities but I’m not here to be a Nissan salesman so lets move on to my husband’s point of coming to this show.
The car that we saw last year on the floor but not available to get in and take a seat was the Volkswagen Golf SportWagen.
Volkswagen Golf SportWagen
I’m not completely sold on Volkswagen and it has nothing to do with the whole diesel issue. Just future costs and what not that could be linked to it. Plus, this car is at fault with all the same cars in its categories for one thing: It compensates the front seats spaciousness and the trunk’s capacity for the passengers’ leg room. Basically if you get a car like this, we can’t take passengers unless I’m driving and even then, it can get tight. Its not Volkswagen’s fault but its something I’d hope could have a midpoint where it can all be balanced, but the world doesn’t work like that.
Our second car that we had looked at to replace my husband’s current car also in debate is Kia Forte5.
Kia Forte5
This car is more about the durability that worries me than that of its space. It still suffers the same issue as the Volkswagen and it doesn’t even offer as much space in the front seats. We’re not knocking it off our debate list but both are on there for evaluation when the time comes to change his car.
For my car, we also went through some cars that seemed interesting like Honda Fit. My conclusion on that initially is that I’m not completely thrilled by this one. However, last year’s show had an upcoming release (just like the VW SportWagen) that was available to try out in the Honda and it was the HR-V. Its not exactly the car I’m looking for but I was curious about it.
Honda HR-V
I’m not going to lie that after sitting in some of the smaller size cars and feeling like there was comparable space than this one was a little underwhelming especially being at the SUV level (or was it something in between, I’m not quite sure).
The Montreal Auto Show for us was much more focused this year. We skipped the Lamborghini hall because it was probably going to be the same thing and the lineup was huge plus we wanted to be goal-oriented so that we wouldn’t be mixed up like how we were when we got back last year. There are some nice cars which we’d never mix up but for what we were looking at, we stuck with the general size of what we both wanted to look at and worked from there. Its definitely not an immediate plan and everything I’m saying up there is based on first impressions. My homework now with my husband is to compare what the car offers and how it would benefit our needs and costs and what not before making that final decision.
Man, I’m feeling all grown-up talking about this! 😉
Montreal Auto Show 2016 was an eye-opening experience. There was lots of nice cars and a lot of normal everyday cars for people coming to the show for different needs. The reps were really helpful. Actually, they felt much more abundant this year than last, making it easy to find someone if we had any questions. It was an enjoyable experience 🙂
Tranquil Dreams 