Daniel Keyes

I spent last night getting paid to drive cars off the floor of the Canadian International Auto Show. 

Pretty sweet deal, eh – getting paid to drive cars that thousands of other people had to pay a fee just to come see. I’ve got my girlfriend’s dad to thank for that opportunity. He’s a manager at one of the companies that ships the cars in an out of the show and he hooked me up with a gig driving cars out to the trucks. So how were they?

Well, I’m by no means a car expert (I don’t even own one) but I can share my general impression of how the cars felt to drive. I drove a whole whack of different models from Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Ford, Nissan, Infinity, Kia and Volkswagen. Generally, Volkswagen blew the other manufacturers away. I could sense a significant difference in how all of the models from Volkswagen felt to drive compared to the others in terms of comfort, aesthetics, and quality. The VWs just seemed really solid and every aspect seemed smooth and well thought-out. Every component seemed to work exactly as it should, unlike many of the other manufacturers’ cars which seemed cheap and shoddy in comparison.

I had a lot of trouble, for example, putting the Infinity QX into drive. The shifter on this expensive luxury SUV felt like it was going to break as I struggled to wiggle it out of park and move it into the correct drive position. The shifters on the Volkswagens felt solid and glided smoothly and easily, on the other hand. And long after all the Volkswagens were out and loaded, we were struggling to get some of the Nissans and Mitsubishis started. We ended up having to get a few of them towed, even after boosting the batteries and adding fuel to the tanks.

If I ever do buy a car (which I have no plans to do in the near future) it will likely be a Volkswagen. 

A quick photo I snapped after delivering a Mitsubishi Galant to one of the trucks