WHEELS ON THE DANFORTH
Classic cars and Mike Bullard on stage — really now, who could ask for more?
Summer is festival season in Toronto and one of the best for car fanatics is the sixth annual Wheels on the Danforth, which happens next Friday and Saturday.
The event will shut down the crossroads of Danforth Ave. and Danforth Rd. and includes a vast array of attractions for visitors.
Kicking off the event is Friday Night Exotics, a charity event showcasing exotic sports cars. A stage show featuring comedian and radio host/personality Mike Bullard will be held to support the Canadian Legion’s Veterans Assistance Program “Operation: Leave the Streets Behind.” Wheels on the Danforth is also hosting a movie night at Oakridge Park on Friday at sunset, where kids of all ages can enjoy a screening of the Disney/Pixar hit Cars.
Saturday morning begins with some real Canadian automotive heritage as Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame inductee Bill Brack hosts a breakfast in the Celebrate Ontario tent at the crossroads.
Brack was a prominent Toronto car dealer for decades, while building his reputation as one of this country’s top race drivers. Brack will talk about his three Canadian driving championships and two Formula Atlantic titles. Be sure to ask about his all-too-brief Formula One career.
Racing fans of a certain age will recognize Brack’s familiar STP Lotus 59/69 Formula Atlantic car, which received a new coat of the familiar red paint last year. This car, which happens to be the most winning Lotus ever built, will be on display at the show.
Art fans can meet and check out the work of Canadian custom painter Ron Gibbs and street artist Wong as they create their unique work on site.
There are two car shows this year, with classics, hot rods and mo- torcycles on the streets during the day on Saturday and, when the sun goes down, the tuner cars move in.
Attendance is free. To learn more or to register for one of the shows, visit wheelsonthedanforth.ca
Light truck sales continue to boom
Canadian’s hunger for new wheels continues unabated, as the market has grown for 28 consecutive months now. The improvement from last July to last month was a bit softer than in previous months as the market grew just 4 per cent from 177,108 to 177,844.
It is the way it has changed that is most interesting, however, as passenger car sales continue to weaken, down 10.3 per cent to 66,777 units, as light trucks continue to be the hot ticket, up 8.2 per cent over July 2014 to 111,067 units.
FCA, formerly known as Chrysler, continues to lead the sales charts, up 2.2 per cent to 28,611 vehicles for the month over Ford, which declined 6 per cent to 27,176 units. General Motors remains in third spot with 22,826 units, also declining beneath last year’s numbers.
Toyota and Honda round out the top five with 16,481 and 15,696 vehicles respectively.
The top two have both suffered a loss of market share from 2014, with Ford having the biggest drop, down from 15.8 per cent to 14.5 per cent year to date. FCA is down from 16.1 to 15.9, while GM has gained 0.4 per cent to take 13.5 per cent of the market. Toyota has stayed stagnant at 10 per cent, while Honda has dropped a couple of points to 7.9 per cent. So where has the market share gone?
Nissan has continued its climb to take 6.3 per cent of the market, up from 5.7 last July. Volkswagen is up four points to 3.9 per cent, while Mercedes-Benz and Subaru have both increased by 0.3 per cent to 2.3 and 2.5 respectively.
The Ford F-150 retains its title of the No. 1-selling vehicle in Canada, despite an 11 per cent drop over last July to 11,226 trucks sold. The Ram pickup was hot on its heels in July, up 17.9 per cent to 9,545 units.
The Honda Civic comes in third and is the most popular passenger car, even though it was down almost 10 per cent to 6,367 sold. The Hyundai Elantra and Dodge Grand Caravan round out the top five, displacing the GMC Sierra and Toyota Corolla, which occupied those spots in June.
FCA aware of cyber flaw for 18 months
We live in a time where transparency and accountability are of unprecedented importance for everyone from governments to manufacturers of consumer goods, which is proving to be a challenge for just about every industry.
The auto industry in particular is having a tough time keeping their decisions in line with what is expected of them.
FCA, formerly known as Chrysler, has been having a rough go of late. As reported in Toronto Star Wheels last week, the company has been hit with a $105-million penalty for failing to complete recalls in a reasonable time just days before a story appeared that hackers were able to take control of a Jeep remotely while it was being driven.
That news almost immediately resulted in a recall that involves a software patch that can be installed by the consumer.
This week, Automotive News reports that FCA and supplier Harman International Industries Inc. knew about the security flaw 18 months before reporting it to U.S. federal safety regulators. The report says that FCA officials did not believe that the software issue was a safety concern. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration disagreed and force FCA to issue the recall of 1.4 million vehicles immediately.
Obviously, cyber security is a new realm for automotive regulators at every level and the NHTSA is now investigating Harman, which also supplies to other manufacturers, to discover whether any other vehicles may be vulnerable. Harman has said that the problem software is unique to FCA vehicles.
There is no word yet whether FCA will receive any additional penalties for failing to report the issue faster. As the first incident of its kind, however, the entire industry now seems to be giving cyber security extra attention.
Toyota receives $100 million from federal, provincial coffers
Good things grow in Ontario, or so the old produce marketing campaign goes, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) has upped their commitment to “grow” good things in this province with the announcement that the next generation Lexus RX 350 and 450h will be built at its Cambridge plant.
On July 31, Toyota announced that it will be spending $421million to make the line ready. The Ontario and Canadian governments will kick in $100 million through the Automotive Innovation Fund and the Ontario Jobs and Prosperity Fund to help bring in new advanced technology manufacturing techniques. Freelance writer Gary Grant is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. To reach him, put his name in the subject line and email wheels@thestar.ca.