While it may be hard to believe with all the snow outside, Spring is here and cars are starting to come out of their winter hideouts. In under a month the Driven car show will be returning to the Olympic Oval for another year of amazing rides, models, and performers. Featuring appearances by former UFC middleweight Champion and Future Hall of Famer, Rich Franklin (Mr. Detail booth), models Annie Anaya (Stampede Scion booth) and Calgary’s own Hailan Q. (Cooper Tires booth), and Melyssa Grace (illmotion booth) as well as performances by Jason Chen, Clara C. and Chantelle Truong at the Stampede Scion Stage, there is surely something for everyone to check out at this year’s Driven show!

Stay tuned for more announcements including some special guests at the Beyond.ca booth! For now, mark your calendars for Saturday May 11, 2013 at the Olympic Oval. Check out some pictures from the show last year: Driven 2012 Calgary Car Show

Update: Donnah Pham to appear at Beyond.ca booth!

For more info on the show, check out the official website at www.drivenshow.ca

The drama in China unfolded on Saturday during qualifying, where Lewis Hamilton ran a perfect lap to grab pole from Kimi Raikkonen. Jenson Button, Sebatian Vettel, and Nico Hulkenberg both did not set a lap, which allowed them to start the race on the Medium tires, while the top cars were forced to start on the Soft tires that they qualified on. As the race progressed, this turns out to be a key strategic decision that helped the Red Bull, Sauber, and McLaren drivers through the race.

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It’s only been a week since Subaru pulled the curtains away and unveiled the Subaru WRX Concept in New York at the New York International Auto Show to a throng of delighted media. The reaction thus far has been predominantly positive. In fact I think the only negative reaction I’ve seen so far is that many don’t think this aggressive design will ever make it to production.

Osamu Namba, General Manager of Design Dept, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. spends a few minutes going over the design of the WRX Concept on the show floor. Check out the video below:

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So you guys remember my article on the MINI Paceman, right? The useless SAC (Sports Activity Coupe) that couldn’t figure out whether it wanted to be fun or practical, sporty or comfortable and ended up failing at everything? Well I failed to mention in that article that one vehicle did the SAC segment pretty well, and that was the BMW X6. When it first arrived in ‘08 the looks were widely regarded as appalling and I, for one, didn’t understand the market for that sort of vehicle. I figured that if you wanted more space than a 3-series, you got an X3. If you wanted something sportier than the X3, you got a 3-series. I thought that compromising on both would end up giving you a crummy vehicle.

Well clearly the buying public doesn’t agree because the X6 is selling fantastically and, bolstered by that success, BMW celebrated by revealing the all new X4 concept.

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Porsche recently announced some updates to their refreshed Panamera lineup ahead of the Shanghai Auto Show (Auto Shanghai). One of the biggest updates is the addition of a new plug-in hybrid model dubbed the Panamera S E-Hybrid which will slot in (price wise) just under the Panamera 4S. Interestingly, in the US it will be priced just above the 4S. We’ll come back to the hybrid later on in the post. In addition, Porsche has also added two new long-wheelbase models to the lineup: The Panamera 4S Executive and the Panamera Turbo Executive. The Executive models will come standard with Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) in addition to the 5.9 inch increase in wheelbase. These models command a price premium over their not-as-long wheelbase versions of approximately $25,000 and $20,000 respectively.

The existing Panamera S, and 4S (and the newly introduced 4S Executive) models will be fitted with a new twin turbo 3.0L V6 that will replace the outgoing 4.8L V8. The V6 puts out 420 horsepower and 383.5 lb-ft of torque, an increase of 20 horsepower and 15 lb-ft of torque over the larger V8.

More Details, Pricing and Photo Gallery

The New York Auto Show is now over (for us anyway), the public show dates continue through till the end of the weekend at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. If you’re in NYC for the next week you should definitely drop in and check it out as there are quite a few amazing cars to see. We’ve put together our New York Auto Show Top 5 Cars list but trust me, you’ll want to see a few of those cars in person to really appreciate them. In particular, Jaguar will only be building about 30 XKR-S GTs and they have one to show off at the show.

In addition to all the amazing cars at the show, the manufacturers also employ teams of booth professionals to not only welcome you to the booth but also educate you on all the vehicles if you have any questions. We used to call them booth girls or booth babes but over the years manufacturers have moved away from scantily clad girls to well dressed,… professionals. As part of our coverage we shoot not only the cars but also the people that help present them and we’ve corralled them all together and present to you the booth professionals of the New York Auto Show.

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The refreshed 2014 Hyundai Equus was unveiled at the New York Auto Show, and as Hyundai’s flagship luxury sedan, the company did not cut any corners in updating it to add more value to an already excellent package. Believe it or not, Hyundai sells more Equus sedans than Mercedes-Benz with the S-Class, BMW with their 7-Series, Audi with their A8, Lexus with the LS, and Jaguar with their XJ. With this latest update, Hyundai is betting that it’s sexy enough even for Carrie Bradshaw.

On the outside, the updated Equus features new 19 inch turbine-blade alloy wheels, a new chrome front grille, lower fascia openings, and a new headlamp cluster that incorporates chrome contrasted with black-out finishes for a distinctive sporty look. Inside the Equus, a new instrument cluster and center stack features more premium materials, and a more ergonomically correct layout, with new button icons for quicker and easier feature recognition. Rear passengers get a new rear console and button layout, as well as optional dual 9.2 inch video screens to enjoy movies on long rides.

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Buick announced the updated 2014 LaCross full sized sedan at the New York Auto Show, an evolution of Buick’s full sized luxury sedan. The refreshed model features new interior and exterior design cues, LED DRLs and tail lamps, and an all Ultra Luxury Interior Package. To catch up to its competitors in convienence and safety features, the 2014 model also adds new radar and camera based features such as blind spot alerts, lane change alerts, forward collision alerts, rear cross traffic alerts, and automatic collision preparation.

More photos of the LaCrosse after the jump.

As the government continues to lower CAFE standards for manufacturers, automakers are much more focused on fuel economy in addition to performance. At BMW, they rolled out the 328d Sedan at the New York Auto Show.

Featuring a 2.0L diesel 4-cylinder engine, the 328d produces 180hp and 280lb-ft of torque and mated to an 8 speed automatic transmission. Expected to sprint to 60mph in a little over 7 seconds, the car returns highway mileage of 45mph. On sale this fall, the 328d will also be available with AWD, as well as a 328d xDrive Sports Wagon.

Click through for more photos of the 328d.

After the grueling couple of days of each car show, our team usually discusses each of the vehicles that were unveiled over some drinks at our hotel bar, or in the case of the New York Auto Show, over some sushi lunch (the sushi is weak in NYC btw). We talk about what we each of us thought of each reveal, which ones caused the most excitement, attracted the most media and which ones we would buy. More about that last point later.

We started to formalize this process over the last couple car shows and began ranking the vehicles and assigning them a corresponding point value. The result is this top 5 list that you’re about to see. As a team we generally agree with each other on what the top 5 cars were, but not necessarily in the same order.

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