Harry Pegg

COVID-19 slammed the door on large public gatherings across Canada in March 2020, but two of the country’s biggest auto shows returned this year amid hopes that experiential attractions would revive the large-scale events. 

The event was smaller, taking up only one of the usual three floors of the Palais des congress, and numbers were down from the 2020 attendance of 183,149, according to the show’s website.

Cailean Wood assumes the new role of vice-president sales and marketing while Rory Wood has been appointed vice-president of sales and service.

The 2023 edition of the Calgary International Auto and Truck Show and Vehicles & Violins charity gala have been cancelled.

Birchwood Automotive Group, the largest dealer group in Manitoba, has purchased Winnipeg Dodge Chrysler from the McManes Auto Group of Calgary.

Cultural diversity and gender equality are playing key roles in hiring practices among dealers who want their workforces to more accurately reflect their customer base.

Metro Ford and Big 4 Motors will each build a store at the 530-acre (220-hectare) Taza Park, a mixed development of retail, office and residential. It’s the second of three “villages” in a development covering 1,200 acres (500 hectares) of reserve land.

Gerald Wood, 55, succeeds to Denis Ducharme, who retired after 12 years at the job. Wood, a former Ford regional manager, takes over amid a pandemic.

Unlike Toronto and Montreal, a virtual auto show is not in the works.

Hailstones larger than golf balls ripped through Calgary’s northeast quadrant June 13, wreaking havoc on dealers in the area. Now, they're cleaning up, assessing the damage and selling off inventory damaged in the storm.

Dealers say that under most dealer agreements, “if you close, you’re in violation of your dealer agreement unless the closure is government ordered." 

Dealerships are cutting staff, shortening hours and instituting sterilization and social distancing measures as they struggle to keep the doors open. 

Some brands, such as Ferrari, have managed a sales increase in 2019 while dealers of Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini have seen spikes in service and used-vehicle sales.

Jim Steil, co-owner of used-EV store GoElectric in Calgary, sells and leases vehicles with all-in pricing and a 90-day buy-back guarantee. His electric vehicles sourced from California were heavily subsidized, which means there’s money to be made on them.