Automotive News Canada - May 2018 - 26

26
05.18

FINAL ASSEMBLY
SAY WHAT? Costly and dangerous test drive
* MAY 2018

LETTING LOOSE A BIT ON THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF AUTOMOTIVE

Fiendishly
complicated.

Foreign Affairs Minister
Chrystia Freeland
describes the finer points
of NAFTA's auto rules.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

High speed - and
a big fine - for
North Vancouver
car shopper

NO JOKE. A NORTH
Vancouver resident went a
little overboard while test
driving a new car April 1.
West Vancouver police
clocked the four-door sedan

the 46-year-old man was
driving at 161 km/h in a 90
zone. A store representative
was riding shotgun.
Police wrote on Twitter
that it's "a file that almost
sounds like April Fools,
except for danger to others."
Police issued the man
a $468 fine for excessive speeding and then
impounded the vehicle
for seven days, meaning
it couldn't be sold to the

Peter Mansbridge's
soft spot for cars
Former news
anchor is in a
car-buying mood

PETER MANSBRIDGE,
who had been the 20-year
anchor of the CBC's "The
National" prior to retiring in July 2017, delivered a keynote speech at
the Trillium Automobile
Dealers Association
Annual Automotive
Conference & Expo at
the Fallsview Casino in
Niagara Falls, Ont., April
11. While he talked to the
audience about his career,
specifically about Canada,
he began with an anecdote

about cars.
"The first thing I
want you to know is that
within the last year,
I've bought three cars,"
he said, which drew
applause from the crowd.
"I'm currently looking at
another one. When I mentioned this outside [in the
hall], I had dealers come
up to me immediately,
offering any number of
different deals."
The crowd burst into
laughter.
In sticking with unbiased reporting, he didn't
mention which cars he
had purchased or the
one was planning to buy.
- ANC

Former CBC chief news correspondent Peter
Mansbridge let it slip to Trillium auto dealers that
he's in the market for a fourth new car in the year
since he retired. Offers ensued. P H O T O : C B C

THIS
NUMBER

$11M

The government
money Quebec-based
Tesla supplier
Verbom is
getting to expand

test driver or anyone else
during that time.
Const. Jeff Palmer told
the Glacier Media Group
that despite the unusual circumstances, "the driver is
the person responsible. The
only one pushing on the
accelerator pedal is the driver."
Police didn't name the
driver, make or model of
the vehicle or dealership it
came from. - ANC

Dealership
sticks out

FOR HUMBOLDT

Jack Carter Chev of Calgary raised $55,000 - and more than 1,200 hockey sticks - in support
of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team. P H O T O : J A C K C A R T E R C H E V

Chevrolet dealer joins in $15M
fundraiser after tragic crash

AS CANADIANS PUT THEIR "STICKS OUT
for Humboldt" in the evenings immediately
after the tragic bus crash that killed 16 members
of the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team in
rural Saskatchewan, a Calgary auto dealership
was gathering thousands of sticks - and dollars
- to do its part.
Jack Carter Chev, at last count in mid-April,
had collected 1,251 hockey sticks and lined the
exterior of the showroom with them. Players,
coaches, hockey parents, kids and fellow
Canadians who have nothing to do with organized hockey dropped the sticks at the dealership's doorstep.
The dealership initially planned to donate
$250 for each stick left outside the store, pledg-

ing up to a maximum of $10,000 toward the
GoFundMe campaign established to help those
affected by the crash. The dealership easily blew
past the $10,000 threshold and upped the amount
to $55,000.
The GoFundMe account stopped accepting
donations at 12 a.m. on April 18. It finished with
more than $15 million in donations.
Jack Carter Chev eventually partnered with
KidSport Calgary, The Hockey Foundation and
Comrie's Sports Equipment Bank. The money
raised went to the GoFundMe account while the
sticks will be donated for use. Damaged sticks
will be used to make benches for the Humboldt
school.
"Seeing them all lined up has been a moving tribute and outpouring of support for those
affected by the Humboldt tragedy," Jack Carter
Chev wrote in a Facebook post.
"Thanks to everyone for your heartfelt messages, contributions and hockey sticks." - ANC

Talk about a rare snake: 68 for North America
Very few Mustang Cobra
Jets will come to Canada

THE 2018 MUSTANG COBRA JET
drag-strip car will be about as rare as a
Massassauga rattlesnake in Canada.
Canadian Ford dealers will get a limited number - of an already small lot - of
the not-street-legal vehicle, Ford Canada
has confirmed.
The company said on April 18 that it
will make 68 of the vehicles in honour of
its 50th anniversary.
Ford Canada spokeswoman Christine
Hollander didn't have many details about
the car's availability here; she could only
confirm a "very limited" number will be

sold in Canada.
The automaker said the new Cobra
Jet will be the quickest factory-built
Mustang ever, with a quarter-mile time
of about 8.5 seconds at 240 km/h (150
mph).
Ford last offered a Cobra Jet model
in 2016, when it produced 50 of the trackready race cars.
The vehicle will come with a supercharged 5.2-litre V-8 engine and unique
rear suspension tuned by the Ford
Performance team. It will be offered in
either red or white and come with a special 50th-anniversary badge and graphics
package.
Ordering details will be released in
the summer, Ford said. It's unclear how
much the Cobra Jet will cost. - ANC

Only a few 2018 Mustang Cobra Jet
models, from a very limited production
run, will come to Canada. P H O T O : F O R D

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - May 2018