Over the past few years, the auto show as we know it seemed to be dying in North America. From brands dropping out of Los Angeles to Detroit rescheduling then taking a pause, it seemed like most of these new car festivals were still good for mainstream new car buyers, but they were no longer the pilgrimages we used to make as children. Key word there being most.
If any North American auto show is bucking the trend, it’s the Canadian International Autoshow in Toronto. Last year, it played host to Richard Hammond and the Rimac Nevera, so what did 2025 have in store? I headed down the Don Valley Parkway to find out. It was fun, even if influencers maybe hamburgled everyone’s grub.
Let’s start with indisputably the biggest thing at the show, Bigfoot. You know, the monster truck. If you thought monster trucks kicked ass when you were a kid, your younger self is still right. They absolutely rule. Not only does the sense of scale and mechanical mass have a gravity to it up close, the juxtaposition right next to the Ford booth was just perfect.
Speaking of Ford, it brought out everything you’d want to see. At least four Mustangs including a GTD, the Maverick Lobo, the new Expedition with the split tailgate. Stellantis showed up big too, with everything from the new Dodge Charger Daytona EV to the Chrysler Voyager. Subaru had every car in its lineup, most in multiple trims including the new Forester Hybrid. The Toyota and Lexus booths at the Canadian International Autoshow are gargantuan, Volvo brought the new XC90, Polestar brought the Polestar 4, Nissan rolled out some SEMA concepts, and Lucid brought the Gravity. Sure, Mazda and Honda and Volkswagen were absent, but there were booths for Infiniti and Alfa Romeo, for Pete’s sake. Just about every new car you could want to see is here in Toronto.
The new Tesla Model Y is at the Canadian International Auto Show and man, did it ever look amateurish. Sure, the old one wasn’t exactly a runway model thanks to its bulbous proportions, but the wedgy new front end with its full-width light bar clashes with the semi-circular roofline and makes this electric crossover look like an XPeng P7+ with an inflation fetish.
Around the back, the indirectly reflected rear light bar looks even cheaper than you’d imagine, and the complete result is perplexing from a design standpoint but also wild that Toronto seems to be the North American auto show debut of the new Model Y. It’s a big pull, even if it’s a questionable product.
It’s also worth noting that the Germans were back at the Canadian International Autoshow in a big way, which you really wouldn’t expect considering their waning presence at other recent North American auto shows. Mercedes-Benz parked a G-Class on a 45-degree artificial mountain and showed off everything from Sprinter vans to a very special AMG SL, while BMW took up an entire floor with everything from the M5 Touring to the M1000RR motorcycle to the M Hybrid V8 LMDh prototype race car.
Arguably the most lavish booth at the event was the Audi hall, which felt grandiose in a way auto show stands haven’t in a long time. Extensive architectural elements, huge screens, full flooring, tiered platforms, sophisticated lighting, it was a huge-budget affair. Unsurprisingly, it was also so packed that I only managed to get a photo of an R8 while the Canadian debut of models like the new A5 and new SQ5 occurred.
While General Motors has always shown up to the Canadian International Autoshow, this year’s presence is particularly large. Just about every GM product imaginable is there, from the Corvette ZR1 to the BrightDrop van to the sinfully opulent, drop-dead gorgeous Cadillac Sollei concept. God, what a car. It’s easy to get entranced by its sprawling footprint, its boat-tail silhouette, or its warm off-white colorway. Few rides at the show scream desire quite like this. It’s almost impossibly opulent, and I can’t help but imagine wearing a linen suit to drive it, with the glassware in the rear console filled with a generational lemonade recipe. It made the Rolls-Royces of the show seem déclassé, a sign that Cadillac should put it into production.
Speaking of Cadillacs, the new Optiq was there, doors open, and it seems like it should be a home run. While the styling seems a bit bulbous compared to larger Cadillac crossovers, the interior feels actually luxurious for the segment, and that’s something you can’t quite make a judgment call on without having the car in front of you.
Were there hiccups? Sure, but that’s to be expected of any big event. The Kia EV5 on the turntable was locked, which meant I couldn’t show all of you lovely people a close look inside. It’s a shame because this compact electric crossover with a scaled-down take on the EV9’s boxy styling seems like it would be a brilliant option in America, yet it’s only officially slated for Canada. It features an assertive silhouette and a novel pseudo-bench front seat, which means it seems to fill some white space for consumers who want a compact electric crossover with available all-wheel-drive but don’t want it to look blobby.
Likewise, I didn’t get a great look at the Rivian R2, and the Cadillac Celestiq was also sadly locked, without personnel nearby. However, the weirdest unexpected snag was having my lunch stolen.
Firstly, it seemed like a sensible meal distribution system was established from the outset. Each registered member of the media received one meal voucher, which certainly suggested some sort of organization. Secondly, there were definitely leftover lunches for quite a while last year, so taking an extra 25 minutes seemed like it would probably be fine. Finally, I can’t eat gluten, and almost nobody who can consume gluten wants a gluten-free lunch.
It turns out, optimism is a bit of a fool’s crusade because humans are, well, selfish. When we descended the escalator to the lowest level, instead of finding an organized lunch line, we found that no lunches were available, and a bunch of people I’d never seen before were carrying multiple lunches. Could this be the work of influencers? For context, the established full-time automotive journalism community in Canada is pretty small. Pretty much everyone knows everyone, so shows like this are a great chance to connect with colleagues. Still, me and several peers losing out on lunch is actually a good sign.
Looking back at auto shows of the past few years, there was that time in Detroit when journalists would’ve needed to go through the Secret Service if any of us ended up in an emergency defecation situation. There was that time in Detroit where our team simply left the show half-way through media day because there was nothing to do. Yet not only could I have spent more time at this year’s Toronto auto show than the 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.-ish press day, media day was such a frenzy that the show ran out of food. There are other car events in North America that would mortgage their own C-suiters’ kidneys to do that.
It’s also an auto show that’s still big enough to have its own private parties, and Toyota brought out an absolute treat. This is the first ever Lexus built outside of Japan: Cambridge-built RX 330 VIN one. It’s immaculate, it feels absurdly high quality, and it brought up some truly fond memories. While the 2003 date code tires are a bit sketchy, this thing hasn’t been operational for ages. Lexus drained the fluids and kept it as a showpiece, ready to run if needed but free of any liquids that could deteriorate.
So yeah, if you’re within driving distance of this year’s Canadian International Autoshow, make the trip down. It feels closer to what auto shows used to be than almost any auto show in North America, and it feels like a reason for Detroiters to drive down to Toronto. Best of all, it runs from Valentine’s Day through Feb. 23, so there’s plenty of time to enjoy it.
(All photos by Thomas Hundal)
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I really can’t understand while Tesla would show up. They’re looking at possible double-digit sales in Canada this year. I’m very sorry for all the innocent workers that have depended on Tesla Canada to make a living.
Until a few weeks ago, Tesla could have counted on the F*Maple Leaf*CK Trudeau crowd.
Good job, America.
On my drive home is one of the bigger Tesla dealerships in the Montreal area. The showroom used to be crowded every day. Now there are maybe one to three people. Today there were none.
I’ve helped clients with their tradeshow programs, and the entire industry gives me hives. Some of the designers I worked with regularly remarked that they had come to believe their careers could be summed up as creators of premium landfill.
Are you referring to all the stuff, the vast quantities of stuff that goes into propping one of these things up for a day or three and then becomes trash?
Because if so, oh boy, I feel that working in retail these last few months. The amount of trash that we generate on purpose is astonishing. Signs go up, signs come down. Move everything two feet to the left and throw away everything that indicated where the old stuff was. Here’s the new signage; it’s a cardboard sheet in a bag in a box. A single day in the store has to be close to what I generate in an entire year. Maybe more, since I’m sure I only see a fraction of what goes down the chute.
What gets me is that it’s 90% makework, too. Someone calculated it was more profitable to hire a person (i.e., me) to change signs to indicate that the same light bulbs we’ve had for the last 5 years are the hottest new thing to buy this quarter. Move the light bulbs in to this high profile location, two months later, move them back out. Talk about feeling futile.
Exactly that. Car shows are by far not the worst offenders. Their pieces and parts get reused to some degree across multiple shows and years. Refinished, repurposed, and even sold to build other displays. Lots of displays are one-and-done and then thrown into the trash. The other part you mention for retail is that the display cost isn’t even the biggest part of the budget. It is paying for the space and the labor to set it up, staff it, and tear it down again.
“Where’s our lunch?”
“Someone stole them”
“Who invited the Americans again?”
Is that Melania?
To my knowledge, none of those influencers have been successful in influencing me. This old fashioned journalism on the other hand…
Influencers influence the feeble and weak minded. But even they will not be able to get our current of age drivers to buy cars and move out of their parents house. Have there been any influencers trying to do that? I bet someone could get rich if they could.
Well, since the expense of basics requires an ever-growing percentage of the average income, it is hard to blame the folks getting started. It isn’t like they set the conditions into which they were placed. Cars especially have gotten expensive, which means there is little reason for people with a choice on what they should be interested in, to care about them.
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. He can go about his business. Move along.”
“Influencers” is a term of art that is descriptive in its original context of marketing consultants, but it’s sort of like a couple introducing themselves as Dinks.
It’s sort of like how “the cloud” originally meant something not on the network diagram.
Influencers are as useful as influenzas
Don’t denigrate influenza like that. It reinvents itself every year in an effort to be better and improve itself.
Don’t worry RFK is here to save the day.NOT.
My 13 year old sent me a text yesterday afternoon with a sad emoji.
I thought he had a bad day at school and asked what happened.
He said “brain worm guy was confirmed.”