"3"^^ . . "2"^^ . "5"^^ . . . "1"^^ . "Why do I keep going to this thing? Well there's the free stuff:\n\n2 sticks of men's Degree deoderant\n1 free copy of the Toronto Star (Saturday edition)\n1 free bag of President's Choice chocolate chip cookies\n\nPassed on:\n\nDraw for free Sirius radio\nVarious credit card offers\nFree copies of the Toronto Sun and National Post\n\nThis year's autoshow no longer occupies the convention center plus Skydome. It now occupies the North and South halls. Access to the southern hall is not well signed (notably for those used to proceeding to Skydome from the North hall). I had to ask a security guard and even she had to look at a map. And then the escalator to the walk way to the hall was broken down. There were shuttle buses which makes it seem like the South hall is in Etobicoke or something. It's a bloody 5 minute walk indoors. Of course where to get on the shuttle buses is not clear.\n\nBest thing, though, is they were being total hard asses about families with strollers, keeping them off escalators that worked and directing them to the elevators. Don't you people know that a stroller on the escalator is dangerous? Look if you can afford a trophy child and your home in Erin MIlls, you can afford a sitter. What purpose does it serve taking an 8 month old to the autoshow?\n\nI do miss the Skydome portion. The best part is the ghetto part where people try to sell sham wows and slap chops. \n\nAnyway, things weren't as depressing this year as last year. Chrysler had its new Fiat subcompact. You couldn't sit in the thing, it was roped off. Not sure why. But it was a cute looking vehicle. Too bad I can't get the old FIAT stands for \"Fix It Again Tony\" out of my mind. Maybe Fiat has improved their QA since I was 12.\n\nFord had their new Fiesta (no longer made in Mexico and body panels are no longer made of terracotta, I'm given to understand). It had a pretty nice dashboard. It kind of reminded me of a Cylon Raider (reboot series).\n\nGM had nothing really interesting in the small urban car market. \n\nThe Yaris I like from the outside but when I sat in it, I was surprised how dull the interior was. \n\nCrowds weren't too bad (Saturday 2 pm). Other than a chance to sit in sports cars I'll never own and have no desire to own (unless my 6/49 ticket hits tonight), one didn't have to wait long to jump behind the wheel of more realistic urban vehicles.\n\nFood wise, the thing is sponsored by Pizza Pizza but the South Hall had a food court with some exotic trade show grub like Kobe beef burgers and smoked meat."^^ . "2010-02-14T00:00:00"^^ .