A watchdog group last week filed a complaint with Canada’s privacy commissioner and the Manitoba Ombudsman’s Office over the city of Winnipeg’s refusal to release data about its photo enforcement efforts. Over the past five months, WiseUpWinnipeg had filed three separate requests for basic information under under a freedom of information law known as FIPPA, but city officials have refused to comply.
The Vancouver Sun reports that pretty much, across the board and across the border, Canadian sales rose. GM’s sale rose 11 percent year on year, Ford’s sales rose 8 percent and is now within a whisker of taking the number one slot from General Motors. Honda’s sales grew 14 percent. As did Nissan’s at 4.5 percent. And Hyundai-Kia who reports rises of 8.6 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Even the smaller players had reasons to celebrate. VW went up 21.5 percent. Mitsubishi has a stonkingly good month with sales rising, YOY, by 27.2 percent. Even Volvo’s sales grew 13.9 percent. Yep. Life is good, north of the border. Except for one. Read More >
Remember how we used to lament how Detroit was too truck and SUV heavy? Ford agrees. They think people buy way too much of the big stuff, and it will come back and haunt us. At least in Canada Ford thinks that way. The Calgary Herald reports that David Mondragon, chief executive of Ford Canada, has said that a combination of high incentives, low oil prices and pent up demand have created a short term boom for truck sales. “That’s a segmentation shift that’s not healthy for the environment, not healthy for the economy and long term, we need to see that shift go back to a more balanced approach,” said Mr Mondragon. That’s right. He said that the boom in trucks cannot last and that Ford must be prepared for the when that happens. Wow. A Detroiter (well, a VERY northern Detroiter) is actually suggesting that they may have to prepare for when the party ends? Read More >
An Ontario, Canada judge in July faulted the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and Attorney General of Ontario for attempting to confiscate $46,078 contrary to the law. Officer Paul Barkley had pulled over a 2000 Mazda traveling on Highway 401 near Morrisburg just after midnight on October 16, 2009. Barkley had assumed the driver, Remus Petran, might have been drunk because he was driving below the speed limit. After speaking to Petran, who was sober, Barkley decided to search the vehicle.
In the Mazda’s trunk, Barkley found a gym bag containing CDN $74,980. Petran explained that he worked in construction and was paid in cash. For this, Petran was arrested for possession of property obtained by crime and his car towed away. After police found no evidence of a crime, Petran was unconditionally released with his car and without any charges filed — but police kept the cash.
The CBC reports that:
Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty said Friday his government will wait to see how General Motors prices its public share offering before deciding whether to sell its stake in the company.
McGuinty said the government needs to be “patient” and sell at the most profitable time.
The Canadian and Ontario governments own about 12 percent of GM. The US Treasury, which owns about 60 percent of GM has said that it expects to sell “some” of its GM stake during the IPO, which is expected to occur by the end of this year. In short, as Ken Elias predicts, GM won’t stop being “Government Motors” after it goes public. No matter how emphatically Ed Whitacre declares victory.
With the autoblogosphere abuzz over Peter Cheney’s “unintended acceleration event,” Jill McIntosh has made a fascinating connection between one auto-journo’s son’s voyage of manual transmission discovery, and a former Ontario Attorney General’s killing of a cyclist back in September. Linking to a Toronto Star report on the trial of Michael Bryant, who killed cyclist Darcy Allan Shephard, McIntosh notes a strange similarity between that fatal incident and Cheney Junior’s garage door tango:
According to a statement read in court, reprinted in the Toronto Star today: Bryant hits the brakes. His vehicle stalls. Bryant tries to start his car, but it stalls again, lurching forward … Bryant tries to start the car again. He’s concentrating on the Saab’s sensitive clutch with his head down. He succeeds at restarting the engine and the Saab accelerates into Sheppard, who lands on the hood.
Obviously, two incidents do not a crisis make, but this is hardly the only evidence suggesting that manual gear-swapping is fast becoming a lost art. But do we really want to further stigmatize manual transmissions by mandating special licenses for manual-equipped cars, as McIntosh suggests?
We’ve seen photos of the refreshed BMW 3-Series coupe and convertible, but shots of the sedan have proven somewhat more elusive. Luckily TTAC has eyes everywhere. Commenter dinu01 spied this updated 3-Series testing near Toronto. “Both front and rear emblems are taped,” he reports. “The driver did not want to be photographed and went between 150-160 km/h.” Have a spy shot of your own? Share it with our contact form, and we’ll share it with TTAC’s readers.
When we reported that unintended acceleration in general and Toyota in particular are not a big topic in Europe and Japan, the answer was: “What do they know? They use their excellent public transport system and drive less.” (A myth, by the way. Unless there are mandatory annual odometer readings, nobody knows for sure. But the generally accepted average number of miles driven by year and car is 12,000 in the U.S.A. In Germany, the industry works with a 20,000 km average. Which is 12,427 miles.) The only countries halfway accepted as comparisons were Australia and Canada. Well, their numbers are in. Read More >
Canoe.ca reports that Hyundai are considering the option of a new production plant in Canada, provided the brand’s sales growth continues its upward momentum. “In Canada, if our volumes grow to the point we could support a plant we would consider it”. President and Chief Executive of Hyundai Canada, Steve Kelleher said. But, he warned, “for manufacturers there is a real urge to grow sales and put up plants to meet that growth, but if you do it too fast you lose the focus on what got you to where you are in the first place, and that’s quality.” Goodness, what could he possibly be referring to?
GM withdrew its sponsorship of the US Olympic team after the 2008 games, because, as a spokesperson explained at the time, “we have other avenues to be able to reach this same audience without bearing the expense of being an official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic team.” However, GM is a main sponsor and official vehicle supplier of the 2010 games in addition to being the main sponsor of the Canadian national team. According to TNS Media, GM was the leading advertiser in the 2006 Winter Games, spending $111.6m and leading the auto sector to a resounding lead in ad spending (total $156.7m). General Motors has reportedly cut back its ad spend on Vancouver, but details aren’t being disclosed. And at least one GM investment in Vancouver-related publicity won’t be paying off: the General Motors Place is being temporarily renamed the Canada Hockey Place in order to comply with IOC standards. We’d normally make some crack here about your tax dollars at work, but Olympic sponsorships are lined up years in advance. Too bad that back in 2007, when GM was losing $2b annually, it denied that its financial status had anything to do with its removal of US Olympic team sponsorship. Had the firm been more realistic about its financial health… well, who knows where we’d be right now.
The Globe and Mail reports that Toronto-based Trillium Motor World has filed a $750m class action suit on behalf of 215 culled Canadian GM dealers. The suit names General Motors and, in an interesting twist, its law firm Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. According to a suit’s statement of claim, Cassels Brock was representing Canada’s federal government in bailout talks with GM at the same time as it was representing the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association, a relationship it never disclosed to the dealers. Conflict of interest much?
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What, GM actually has the money to BUY companies? Suzuki says they want sell the whole shebang in their 50:50 joint venture in Canada to their JV partner, General Motors, says the Nikkei [sub]. That would be the end of a more than 20-year marriage.
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North of your border (not mine), GM dealers are slightly annoyed. In fact, they’re fuming. Topnews.us reports that Bob Slessor, owner of a dealership for GM has sued the firm after he was informed that his dealership would be closed before the end of 2009. And don’t think he’s the only one, 12 dealers are submitting multi million dollar lawsuits against the automotive arm of the U.S government. The lawsuits hinge on the way GM approached these dealer closures. Bob Slessor claim that GM used “high handed and oppressive” tactics. The plaintiffs are looking for a permanent injunction against their terminations and $1.5 million in punitive damages. The report didn’t state whether that figure was in U.S or Canadian dollars.
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Ever since GM announced that Saturn would be winding down, there’s been a niche-brand-like hole in the Canadian car market. And rather than learning from GM’s struggles, Toyota’s jumping right in to repeat them. The Star reports that ToMoCo have announced that Scion is going to Canada. Toyota will start off with 45 dealerships in urban settings (makes sense for an urban marque, I suppose); 20 in Toronto, 18 in Montreal and 7 in Vancouver. It’ll start off as a “store within a store” format. “The next generation of young car buyers is carving its own unique social and cultural experiences and Scion dealers will be part of their lifestyle,” Larry Hutchinson, Scion’s director in Canada, said. By slathering sensible cars which appeal to empty-nester boomers with youth-oriented marketing? Yeah, that’s been working well so far…
Officials in Winnipeg, Canada were caught this weekend defying a court ruling that outlawed the use of photo radar in work zones when workers are not present. A group of residents organized by the group WiseUp Winnipeg have decided to fight back, first by recording the automated ticketing van as it operated in a Route 90 “construction zone” on October 10 at 3:30pm with no workers in sight.
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