2018 Vancouver International Auto Show – Highlights and Features

The Excitement Starts Here

Being a Vancouvrite, I am blessed to live in a city that speaks good food, amazing weather, and fun events. Speaking of which, I had the opportunity to check out the 2018 Vancouver International Auto Show where the big players in the automotive industry showcase their latest and greatest goods. Needless to say, the experience was amazing. In this article, we walk you through the biggest highlights and features of what this year’s Vancouver International Auto Show this year has to offer.

Supercar’s Galore

Upon entering the Vancouver Auto Show, we’re greeted by the impeccable Bughatti Veyron. Sporting a colossal 8 Liter, 16 cylinder engine with a top speed of 408 km/h, it is no reason why the Bughatti Veyron is regarded  as one of the top achievements in automotive history of this century. Seeing this automotive specimen up close in person leaves anyone, even for us journalists in awe.

To the left is the amazing Koenigsegg supercar. I’ve personally been a huge fan and in particularly, amazed with their level of commitment such a small company has grown to become. There is no better display of  hard work, blood and sweat here.

We then make our way into the main entrance to the top floor of the Auto show, and here, we find a collection of Ferraris, Lambourghinis, McLarens and Porsche. Porsche had a a pretty cool booth lined up with  models from the past to present. It was certainly exciting to just walk along the lined up vehicles to see how their design evolved over time.

And below is also one of my persona favorites – the McLaren 720s.  McLaren makes no excuse in pushing the envelope of performance here. This beast breathes from a 4.0L V8 Twin Turbo and the result of all this is 710 brake horsepower and 568 lb.ft of torque!

Go Electric!

As we make our way deeper into the Auto Show, we find ourselves at the Meccanica booth. Major props for a small local company in Vancouver making an initiative to going green here. Meccanica currently offers a single passenger 3 wheel electric vehicle that can travel up to 160 km with a top speed of 130 kph. It also only takes 3 hours for a full charge. Meccanica is also working on a two-seater Tofino model, and its concept drawings look amazing. From a short interview with the VP of Development, Meccanica is currently well funded and its Solo model is currently being manufactured in China and will be shipped in the following months. Things certainly look promising for these guys and fingers crossed for their success!

The Mainstream Consumers

We make our way downstairs to check out the latest and greatest of cars for the consumer budget category, and things don’t fall short of expectation for 2018 and 2019.

First, we checked out the Cadillac booth and what immediately caught our eye was the Escala Concept car destined to be the  design blueprints for models to come in the upcoming year. Upon a closer inspection, the car is ultra long and streamlined – as if a thing from a futuristic anime series. While it’s not exactly clear what Cadillac plans to do with this concept, it is certainly exciting to see prototypes like these up close in person.

Infiniti’s also got the brand new Q50 up its sleeve, which is basically a smaller and cuter version of its larger Q60 sibling. But at a base price of $48,000, powered by a smaller 4 cylinder 2.0L turbo, and a fairly cramped interior, we’re not sure how much attention this little guy will draw to the mainstream crowd.

The Q60 however, is an all-new model this year, and both its exterior and interior has been completely overhauled. The exterior finishing encompasses much finer detailing and the interior console has also been re-designed to offer better ergonomics and uses higher quality materials. We look forward to taking this out for a test drive when it becomes available.

One of the biggest crowd drawers was the 2018 Kia Stinger. Supposedly, this car changes the way we think about the cost of car performance. The showcased Kia Stinger GT can hit 0-60 mph in just 4.4 seconds made possible by its 3.3L GDI Twin Turbo V6. MSRP for the Kia Stinger GT is just $44,195. Kia also offers the GT Limited model with larger 19″ wheels as opposed to the smaller 17″ wheel in the standard KIA GT model.

Nextup up, we checked out the 2018 Lincoln Navigator. There’s no such thing as business class in this 7 seater. Whichever one you take, you’re surrounded with ultra luxury including quilted leather, climate controls, audio/video entertainment screens and plush cushioning and plentiful legroom in the captain style seats.

Last but not least, we checked out the Jaguar F-Pace. With the popularity of SUV’s shooting through the roof for its versatility and styling, even luxury brands such as Lambourghini and Jaguar are hopping on the band wagon. Needless to say, the F-Pace looks amazing with its massive front grille, stamped on with the legendary Jaguar badge. We especially liked the clean interior trademarked to the Jaguar brand. This one is certainly an anticipating one on our list of test drives.

And That’s a Wrap!

Thank you for checking out our coverage this year at the Vancouver Auto Show. Tickets and admission are still available for purchase from March 28th to March 31st from 12PM to 9:30PM and April 1st from 10AM to 6:00PM. More details can be found on their website here: https://vancouverinternationalautoshow.com/show-info/hours-admissions/

Until next time!