Well I went to the Ottawa car show this weekend. Unlike usual, there were actually some stuff worth seeing. Usually our little show features next to nothing in new content. So this year I didn't bring my camera.

But as it turns out there was lots of cool stuff.

Chevy SSR:
I actually got to sit in the chevy SSR! Last year it was on display but with the doors locked and top up. I got in and it felt really cramped as oposed to the trailblazer where it is huge inside. All and all, I think its very average.

Most of the boring cars were there wich I wont go through.

A lot of things "earked" me though. As I passed in front of a 65 000$ (canadian mind you) CTS, I couldnt help but notice how it was setup so we couldnt get in and sit down. Thats crazy...

300C srt-8
A few steps further was the 300C srt8, wich of course everyone was free to sit in a put finger prints all over. Praise to dodge for having everything out on display for everyone to go touch and feel. Thats car is amazing.

To go back to the CTS wich was 10 000$ sticker more with a v6... the srt8 was 55 000$. Comparing both of them, i dont see how the cts costs more. Complete mystery. (I know this has been compared to death though).

A few other things I noticed bothered me.


1) There was a gran prix GXP that we could sit in and check out. The interior was, obviously, pretty cheep and a dissapointing in certain areas and not so bad in others. I enjoyed the huge white face gauges with racing flags, defenetly felt out of the ordinary in a good way. The funny thing about it was how this specific 303hp car had no price tag on it. It was surprising up until I saw all of the dodges offerings near by with a price that would probably put to shame the GXP.

2) The colbalt SS was there... but it was out or reach so no one could touch it. Big dissapointement. However, that car looked top notch both outside and inside(from what little I could see). Wow is all I can say. No civic or golf I have ever seen comes close to how that thing seems to be assembled. Not that I would ever by one, or even think of it.

3) I finally got to see the G6 with that odd sun roof.

Well first I will give props to GM, they actually had some reps over there to answer questions and "hype" up there cars. The good part ends there.

As I get out of the G6, there is a GM rep that comes up to me and a conversation goes like this:

Rep:That G6 is pretty sweet huh?
Me: Yeah, it is defenetly a very nice improvement over the grand am!
Rep: Oh yeah, and the good thing about this car is no matter what model you get, even the base model, you get the FAST v6.
Mesarcastically) Fast? huh... right...
Rep feeling he lost me: Well it does 0 to 60 in 7.x seconds (or under 8 seconds).
I just dont look impressed at all
Rep: Well its pretty fast considering its a auto.

Who in this day and age really thinks the general public knows what to do with a stick over a good auto? And who really things that under 8 seconds to 60mph is fast? Seriously? Why is GM even marketing this thing as fast. All of my canadian sites all have G6 banners saying how fast it is.

I didn't argue any more with the guy, but I would of liked to have said that the base price of the G6 with V6 is the same as its competitors price for there V6.. the difference being the competitor can be had cheeper with the cheeper engine. Useless banter from that guy, but I know its GM's marketing strategy with this car. Pathetic.

Well here is some news for this "fast car", if someone buys it thinking its fast, they will be greatly dissapointed when any v6 accord, camry or altima blows by it. Especially when the actual sporty model is still yet to come, wich is the one they should hype up not this week v6 model.

While on the subject, the sticker for this G6 was 36 000$ (CND). You know for that kind of money, you can get the bigger, faster accord or altima.

Actually for that price you can get the honda hybrid that features 265hp... That thing would outright embaress the G6 stop light to stop light not to mention totally eclipise it in fuel economie.

I just dont get it

Charger
Finally, the last car I actually saw was a charger in person. Got to sit in it and everything. Again, props to dodge for letting the public do that. That car I loved in pictures at first, and then after a few clips I thought it looked to long and didnt like it as much. but after seeing it in real life, that thing is amazing. The front end looks sort of like crap in pictures, but is a different story in real life. Looks very mean. Inside its more of the same just like in the magnum, wich they also had on hand.

Torent
Another surprise was they had a pontiac torent on display. I was pretty happy since the GF really wanted an equinox, but I just didnt like its exterior and cheep saturn vue twin interior... Things I could live with if it had the good looks of the torrent. It turns out the torent looks pretty much the same as the equinox, to much for my taste actually. The Big surprise though, was that one couldnt go in and sit in it or put finger prints on the paint.

There was a drop top mustang . Is all that needs to be said.

Thats all I can remember right now.

 

Are you sure the CTS you saw was not the 400 HP V model?

 

the CTS is an amazing handling car on an amazing chassis. The 300s are supposed to be HORRID handlers. That would make it worth it for me.

 

Unless the Canadian GXP GP has different gauges, the car you saw didn't have white face gauges. If it's the same as the US production model shown in Chicago, it had different text on black gauges featuring a turned metal apearance around the gauges, but not on the gauges themselves. By turned metal, think 70's Firebird with the metal dash, pretty cool.

 

AAAAAAA--thanks for the report on the Ottawa show.

I just "built" a CTS at gm canada.com and I don't think its possible to get over $60k--but at that price with pretty much every option--its not the screaming value the SRT-8 is. And is with in $5K or so of the CTS V.

The GXP Grand Prix in Calgary had no white faced guages.

If you load up a car with tons of options the price gets too high--as you found out with the Gt GT with panoramic sunroof. Total waste of money, $2175 to be exact.

G6 GT isn't bad at 28-30K but for $36K you can buy a Altima SER or Mazda Speed 6.

I also see GM Canada advertsing the G6 GT adn how fast it is---what a joke!
Fact is my fiances 00 Grand Am GT can proably beat one (350+lbs less weight)

No G6 GTP there? There was one at Calgary--looks way better with 18" rims and the 240hp V6 under the hood---there was no sticker price though.

The Charger was in Calgary too---hated it.

 

Alright a few things:

1) The 300c srt-8 is not a bad handler, it actually handed the pontiac GTO its own *** in a magasine comparison. Was it MT?

2) Nope it most certainely was NOT the cts-v, I have seen the "V" before and this wasn't it. Beside, when you go to build one on the gm canada site, the cts v6 loaded is 59 000$ but the V model starts at 71 000$... So I doubt they would lower the price of the cts-v..seems more likely that the regular cts might have something extra added to it.

3) The GXP had white gauges for sure, it also had the GXP lettering and the GXP description on board next to it. There is no mistaking it. I will add though, it didnt look like what I have seen on pictures from this forum. It didnt have big rims and no painted calipers. Makes me wonder. The sign did specify a 303 hp v8 gxp to.

And no high performance G6, just the plain jane one. And btw, I dont dislike the looks of it, I like the car, and I will like the GTP coupe even more, but I hate what they are doing with there middle(engine) model, wich is there only model right now.