Automotive News Canada - February 2017 - 26

FINAL ASSEMBLY

02.17

LETTING LOOSE A BIT ON THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF AUTOMOTIVE

NUTS OVER BOLTS

THIS NUMBER

$1.57 BILLION
That's how much capital spending
automakers announced in Canada in 2016;
eight times as much as the $196 million
they announced in Mexico.

Regardless of who took
delivery first, customers
and dealers are feeling
the electicity of the new
Chevrolet Bolt EV

JOE WINKFEIN OF TORONTO IS
technically Canada's first Chevrolet
Bolt owner, even though Claude
Michaud of Sainte-Marcelline, Que.,
could probably lay claim to the
same.
The much-anticipated battery-electric vehicles began rolling
into Canada on Jan. 26. Winkfein
signed for his Friday, Jan. 27, but
didn't take immediate possession of the car. Instead, he allowed
Dean Myers Chevrolet Buick GMC
Corvette to keep it over a weekend
to show prospective customers.
He drove it home Jan. 30, at
about the same time Michaud
was doing the same at Bourgeois

Bourgeois Chevrolet Buick GMC in
Rawdon, Que., posted 36 photos
and two videos of the Bolt's arrival
at the dealership, to its pick up by
customer Claude Michaud.
(PHOTO: BOURGEOIS CHEVROLET
B U I C K G M C , V I A FA C E B O O K )

CTV Vancouver Island reports that a booming rat population is attracted to the foodbased covers used in some wiring.
( P H O T O : C T V N E W S VA N C O U V E R I S L A N D )

Aww, rats!
Joe Winkfein took home one of the first Bolts delivered to Canadian
dealerships. The battery-electric car has a claimed maximum range of
383 kilometres. ( P H O T O : D E A N M Y E R S C H E V R O L E T B U I C K G M C , V I A FA C E B O O K )

Chevrolet Buick GMC, in Rawdon,
Que.
Both dealerships celebrated
the sales on their Facebook pages.
Bourgeois posted 36 photos and two
videos of the event, from the car's
arrival on an auto hauler on Jan. 26
to Michaud accepting the keys on
Jan. 30.
"When I saw the Bolt unveiling
last year, I realized this was the car
for me and put a deposit down,"
Winkfein told Eric Carriere of the
blog Time to Electrify.
Meanwhile, Michaud told the
French news website l'Action that
he was simply tired of spending $50

to $60 to fill up his car. So, he owned
a Volt first and replaced it with a
Bolt.
"I've been thinking electrically
for a long time," he told l'Action.
General Motors launched the
Bolt in three provinces in January.
GM Canada will focus on British
Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, the
only provinces that offer government rebates -and significant ones
at that - during its initial rollout.
And in those provinces, only dealerships that are set up to sell GM's
range-extended Chevrolet Volt will
be eligble to also sell the Bolt.
- ANC

Dealer will eat $28K price error on 'new' old Caddy
Barrie, Ont.,
dealer is suprised
the no-miles
Allante showed up
online for $77,743
when he turned
down $105,000
IF ANYONE IS IN THE
market for a new 1993
Cadillac Allante, there's
one for sale in the showroom at Paul Sadlon
Motors in Barrie, Ont.
Asking price? Well,
that depends. The dealership has it listed for
$77,743 on AutoTrader.
ca but Paul Sadlon Sr.,
who founded the dealership in 1965 and originally
ordered the car as a surprise gift but never followed through on giving it
away, wants $105,000.
"I guess my guys aren't
listening," Sadlon Sr. told

The bodies for the Cadillac Allante were shipped to
Detroit from Italy for assembly. This 1993 model is
essentially new. ( P H O T O : A U T O T R A D E R . C A )

Automotive News Canada.
"I kept telling them, 'I had
an offer of $105,000 and I
turned it down.'
"I don't know who
put $77,700 on there.
But, I'll tell you what, if
that's what's up there [on
AutoTrader.ca], I'll have
to honour it."

Paul Sadlon Jr. is now
running the operation as
vice-president of operations and sales manager.
The Allante is equipped
with a V-8 engine and "has
everything on it you could
possibly put on it at the
factory," Sadlon Sr. said.
The car has been in the

showroom since it arrived.
To put it in some perspective, that same year Brian
Mulroney was prime
minister, the Toronto
Blue Jays won their second World Series and
Canadian country singer Shania Twain released
her debut album. Toyota
was still about seven years
away from bringing the
Prius to North America
and Mark Zuckerberg was
more than a decade away
from inventing Facebook.
Aside from the occasional move from the
showroom to the service
bay for routine checks, it
has been driven about five
kilometres to Highway 400
from the dealership, "just
to make sure everything is
working," Sadlon Sr. said.
"Everybody is really
impressed with the car,"
Sadlon said. "I get all
kinds of people who would
love to buy it but most
of them don't have the
money to do it." - ANC

Vermin dine on truck's wiring
and then it burns to the ground
RATS ARE BEING
blamed for a truck
fire at a dealership
in British Columbia,
according to media
reports.
Staff at Wille
Dodge Chrysler Jeep
in Victoria, B.C.,
told CTV News the
truck was originally dropped off for
service on Jan. 23
because rodents had
chewed some of its
wiring.
When staff in the
service department
started the truck to
move it to the service
bay, it caught fire.
"Staff evacuated
the building and kept
the area clear and
they kept the hood of
the car closed, which
contained the fire to
the engine compartment only," Saanich
Fire Department Lt.

Rob Jones told CTV.
Brock Henson,
assistant deputy chief
with the Saanich
Fire Department, told
CBC News that rats
are "something we
will pay attention to,
and ask the public to
be diligent about."
Especially this
year.
Don Woodward
of Champion Pest
Control told CBC that
the rat population on
Vancouver Island is
booming, up between
40 and 60 per cent.
"They are in vehicles in vast amounts
this year," Woodward
told CBC. "Some of
the wires are made
with food-based components like soy or
phosphorous so then
they think it is food
so they keep chewing." - ANC

SAY WHAT?

It's like using an atomic
bomb to go after a mosquito.
DENIS DUCHARME

The president of
the Motor Dealers'
Association of Alberta
on a proposed provincial private-member's bill
that would have mandated
that dealers give free repair
estimates and warranty their
parts and work for 90 days
or 5,000 kilometres. There
were only 45 complaints
from among the five million auto
repairs made between June 2014 and June
2015. The bill was killed at committee.

http://www.AUTOTRADER.CA http://www.AutoTrader.ca

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - February 2017