Starting tomorrow Friday, January 18, car enthusiasts in Quebec will once again descend in large numbers on the oldest car show in Canada. We’ll be there as of today for the traditional media day and hopefully have a ton of good stuff to report back to you, starting with the North American premiere of the next-gen Kia Forte5, and also including:
- BMW’s new 8 Series, X5 and X7 SUVs and 3 Series sedan
- Mitsubishi’s e-EVOLUTION design study and technology guinea pig
- Toyota’s revived 2020 Supra sports car, and the 2020 Toyota Corolla sedan
- Kia’s Soul EV and Niro EV
- Lamborghini’s Urus and Rolls Royce's Cullinan SUVs
- A North American premiere from luxury carmaker Genesis
- The redesigned new Mazda3
- The long-awaited new Jeep Gladiator
- Porsche's 911 Carrera S
- The Lexus UX hybrid
- A grown-in-Quebec supercar, the Felino cB7R
- 42 electric, hybrid and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles
- 500 vehicles in all on display
The history of the show
Since its very beginnings the Montreal Auto Show has always taken place in January. Those beginnings go back to 1914. The onset of the Second World War in 1939 brought a halt to the event, and in fact the next edition of the show did not take place until 1969, when ti was revived under the management of the Corporation des concessionnaires d’automobiles de Montréal (Montreal Car Dealers’ Corporation). It is this entity that has organized the annual show ever since.
No absenteeism among the automakers
That corporate oversight is one reason the show has been successful year after year. And, unlike many of the auto shows around the world, there are no absentees among the carmaker ranks in Montreal, which is after all an event that is focused first and foremost on the visitors that come in to admire the models on display.
Some manufacturers do use the occasion to make presentations and put on premieres, but the priority remains the car buyer and car lover.
And for that and other reasons, the Montreal International Auto Show is a must-see event on the calendar of enthusiasts. Its doors will be open to the public from this Friday through January 27.
