Canadian Built Vehicles

Podcast Episode: 0222
What Vehicles does Canada Build?

    Canadian built vehicles do exist and you would be surprised as to what has been manufactured in the Great White North.  We may not have a Canadian company, but we do have Canadian Made products.  Follow AutoLooks as we uncover what vehicles Canada has made and still makes today.

​    Well, we will all know that the Canadian auto industry has created some amazing products and, if you didn't know, we actually make cars in Canada. But what do we make at our manufacturer facilities that still exist today, or what have we made in the past? There's a whole abundance of different vehicles that Canada has made and even today we still produce some of the biggest named cars that you'll find in the North American marketplace and some of the coolest cars that you'll find out there. Hell, the most powerful muscle car ever to roll off an American production facility came straight out of Canada, and today AutoLooks is going to take a look at the cars that are made in Canada.
 
     Welcome back to the AutoLooks Podcast. I am your host, as always, the doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been there, stop by check it out, read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings and go to the Corporate Links website page. Big or small, we have them all Corporate Links to car companies from around the globe here on the AutoLooks.net website. Any of the car companies that we're talking about today and some of the production facilities and products you can find either on the AutoLooks.net website, through the ratings and reviews, or through the corporate links website page at AutoLooks.net. Check us out, follow us, sign up for our reminders and our newsletters and, like I said, click the like button at the bottom so you can learn more from the AutoLooks podcast and the AutoLooks website. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by Podbean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net. 

​    So, like I said in the beginning, Canadian made yes, cars are Canadian made and there are a lot of them that are actually produced within the borders of Canada, some of them that you might not think were ever made in Canada, and some of the coolest products ever to hit the road in North America have come out of Canadian production facilities, and today Autolux is going to take a look at it. Now we've all talked about the manufacturing sites in Canada where cars have been made, but today we're going to be talking about the vehicles made at these production facilities, with the first automotive production facility on our list has to be coming from Oshawa, Ontario, home to Canada’s original McLaughlin Buick. Yes, McLaughlin Buick, yes, McLaughlin Buick. Now, McLaughlin didn't make tons and tons of products and hell eventually becoming part of General Motors of Canada. They didn't go on to make a ton of their own dedicated products. The original one was the 1907 Model F, which was their first foray into the McLaughlin motorcars. Now by 1915, they had become part of General Motors of Canada and then you started to see products like their touring cars, the town sedan, their Phaetons and the Master Six special. The Coolest thing about their Phaetons is the Phaetons are the one that were used by the royal family when they came for their visit. Now, this actually was built in two products for the royal trip. One was put on a train to go to the city ahead of time and the other one stayed back for the dedicated carriage work to be brought through any of the town for the people to see. One of those two vehicles, custom built especially for the royal family, was then, at the end of the royal tour, shipped back home, which was later used by both Princess Diana and Prince Charles during their wedding and during the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate.
 
    Yes, a McLachlan, a Canadian-built vehicle from Oshawa, Ontario, at the General Motors Oshawa Production Facility, is on the other side of the pond in Great Britain with the royals, the McLachlan Buicks Next to that being built at the Oshawa Production Facility. General Motors has built the Sierra there. They're their only products. Chevrolet has had a few vehicles, with both the Impala, the Silverado considering the fact that Sierra was built there, those are the products that I remember being built when I was younger. They built the full-size GMT 900 and 800 platform vehicles. This is after production of vehicles like the Impala, the LaCrosse and even the XTS. Finished up at the GM Oshawa plant, they moved to full-size pickup production, which was eventually shut down.
 
    When General Motors finally finished their wave After 2008 and getting a massive amount of money from the Canadian government to stay in Canada by 2020, they had paid their dues and were about to pull the plug and turn General Motors of Canada in Oshawa to not producing any new vehicles. They were going to literally pick up and leave this country. Why? Because they can make their trucks elsewhere. Unfortunately, the frames riding underneath those trucks are built in St Thomas, Ontario, a production facility that I myself have personally worked at. So now you've got to ship all those frames to the other side of America. Not too smart when these things are put on trains and shipped to the Oshawa facility just off the road.
 
    With that, the Lumina, the Monte Carlo, the Beaumont, the Chevelle, malibu SS, the Malibu, the Celebrity, the Camaro and the Equinox and even the Corvair Now the Equinox and even the Corvair. Now the Equinox was built in more than just one location in Canada. It was built here and at the Cammy plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. Now, like we said, Chevrolet built the Camaro in Oshawa, Ontario. Further down the road in Brampton, dodge built the Challenger, but no, ford didn't build the Mustang in Canada. So, for a good portion of time, both the Camaro and Challenger the fighters of the mustang and the muscle color era were built in Canada.

   Pretty cool, Buick had products at the Oshawa plant with the lacrosse, the allure, the regal, the wildcat and the century. Cadillac only ever built one model in Canada at the Oshawa plant, the XTS, and that's only because it was shared the same platform as both the lacrosse, allure and the impala. Yes, the very last impalas built in north America were built at the Oshawa plant. Reason for that the Chevrolet Camaro shared a similar platform with the impala. If you didn't know that, wow, yeah, the Camaro is essentially a sedan. It was built more of a coupe platform similar to that of the challenger, with only the mustang being on its own platform. Well, in North America, they built it on the Ford Falcon, again for Ford of Australia, but when the Falcon disappeared, today the Mustang is built off its own dedicated platform, nothing else on it, only other vehicles similar to that would be the Chevrolet Corvette where Dodge doesn't have the Viper anymore, of course, only the Camaro being built in Canada. Oldsmobile built the Cutlass Sierra and the Cutlass and the 442. Oh yeah, that power demon. Some of the names we're talking about the Wildcat, the 442, the Malibu SS, the Camaro built in Canada.
 
    Muscle cars we love our muscle cars and we love to build muscle cars from the American marketplace. Oshawa is also home to a short time, way back in the early days of General Motors of Canada building Oakland products, marquis products, LaSalle products and Samson truck products for both the North American, the Canadian and the British Empire marketplaces. Remember, like I said, Canada was part of the Commonwealth still, so we got to build vehicles and sell them over there. Not all vehicles coming out of select locations in Canada went across to British empire nations as full-scale vehicles. Some of them went down as knockdown kits. But Oshawa was not part of that. ​

​    Moving down the road to the next plant on our list, the ford Oakville plant, Oakville, Ontario, or as we call it, Cokeville, Ontario, because you might want to, you know, yeah, you kind of get it Cokeville, I mean sorry. Oakville, Ontario, home to the Ford manufacturing site. Ford was about to pull the plug on this back after the 2008 financial crisis, but our government stepped in, gave them a few incentives, even though we played hard to get with Ford, Chrysler and General Motors at that point in time. Kind of funny, the Japanese never came and when they finally got it, they kept the production facilities up and running.
 
    Now the Oakville plant, like we said, been around since the 1960s. They've been producing vehicles like Ford Edge, the Windstar, the Free star, the Falcon, the Frontenac, the Custom 500, the LTD, the Escort, the Tempo, the Topaz and the Flex, now building some of these products. They've also built the Mercury, Lincoln and even, in some cases, Edsel products. Mercury has built both the Comet, the Lynx and the Monterey at the Oakville plant, with Lincoln building the Nautilus up until recently, the MKX and the famous hearse that everybody loved, the MKT, the Ford Flex Premium Brother, and the MKT is actually one of those products if you ever find one today.
 
     They had very good build quality, not just for the MKT is actually one of those products if you ever find one today. They had very good build quality, not just for the fact that they came out of a Canadian production facility and most of our facilities actually rank higher than their American conglomerates for production facilities. I'm sorry to say that, but for some weird reason, in Canada we produce at a scale just slightly above our American counterparts, even though, I don't know, maybe it's because we got free healthcare provided by our government. We don't have to worry about, you know, dying on the job. Maybe that's it, I don't know, but the MKT, with its build quality, is actually one of those vehicles when you find on the used car market. It's actually a win-win vehicle for you to purchase. They are of decent quality and you will get to speak in Canadian terms over 300 000 kilometers on the motors. They have amazing comfort levels, amazing number of features. They're premium products. So, you look like you're actually, you know, riding in the upscale echelon of the marketplace and they're full of room. But the only thing you got to say you know, maybe it's weird to drive around on this Lincoln mkt is yeah, I get it, it looks like a hearse. But you want to know something? You're dead driving in your piece crap. I may just look dead driving my comfort down the road. 

​    Now we did say Oakville did build Edsel products. Yes, Edsel was in Canada for a very short time, only about a year and a half. Even though it was only here for a short time, it produced Edsel products for the North American marketplace. The Citation, the Pacer, the Corsair and the Ranger all came out of Oakville, Ontario for Edsel. Yeah, the whole product line came out of Oakville, Ontario. Kind of weird, considering the fact that this is a product created by Henry Ford Jr in homage to Henry Ford's own son, and this vehicle was actually supposed to save Ford and give it a new lease on life. It's going to hit the marketplace just between Ford and Mercury to give them the market they needed.
 
    Unfortunately, Edsel fell flat on his feet with its horribly weird design, which is kind of funny because that massive centrifuge grill that you see is very similar to what you find with Alfa Romeos in the early 21st century. Go back and check out their weird looking V-grills. They're massive, they're right in the center and really reminds you of an old Edsel. It kind of does uncanny, but they were built in Oakville, Ontario. 

    Canada built Edsel not like we like to say that, but yeah, we did, Studebaker being one of the first American companies to build vehicles in Canada, also utilizing their Hamilton Ontario plant to build knockdown kits to sell parts over to other nations so they can get around tariffs and duties when they ship their vehicles into Hong Kong. They would actually ship an entire vehicle without tires because they could ship it at parts when the vehicle wasn't whole and then they'd ship the parts on a separate shipment and that just basically throw them together at a manufacturing plant in Hong Kong and move them right into mainland China without hitting tariffs. A lot of car companies have utilized this small, tiny little loophole to gain access to the Chinese marketplace. Unfortunately, after about 15 years China realized what the hell was going on and said we're cutting this on you. Studebaker by that time was flat on its face and gone with the wind, but not before they've created both their half-ton pickup, the Daytona, the Cruiser, the Commander, the Wagoneer kind of funny and the Lark Cruiser, all at Hamilton.
 
     Like I said, from the 1940s into the mid-1960s Hamilton, Ontario, built Studebaker products. I always say if Studebaker ever got brought back, maybe they should consider moving back to their Hamilton core to build their products. Hell, my father-in-law doesn't give two shits about cars, he doesn't really care about cars. I brought it up once about an old Studebaker plant being in Hamilton and man, his mind just blew up. He knew where it was, he knew what they produced, he knew people that had worked there. It was like on a scale. I was able to talk to him almost on the same level as me. I loved cars, he loved the business side of it. It was really cool; it was a great conversation and I was actually on our trip to get dropped off at the airport to go to Cuba. Pretty neat. But I found a common ground and we made amends Well in the car world. But that's because Hamilton built Studebaker, Studebaker. Studebaker is one of those great American car companies You've got to remember. Studebaker did not die out completely. The Studebaker Packard Corporation moved with Hudson and Willys eventually created the American Motors conglomerate. Unfortunately, by this time Studebaker shut down shop in Hamilton and American Motors was not producing vehicles in Canada. Huh, they learned that out the hard way and in 1988, Brampton Bramlea plant came out right, but that's a little way down the road. 

    Next, we're getting into Chrysler. Chrysler at their Windsor plant. There's Chrysler Corporation at their Windsor plant. They've been producing cars for a very long time. They've built Chrysler, Plymouth, valiant, dodge, ram, Volkswagen and Lancia products, all at the Windsor plant. Yes, Volkswagen has built a car in Canada. They've never had a plant up until the new St Thomas plant that's going in, but they've had one of their vehicles built in Canada. Can you guess what? The vehicle that is Windsor is famous for building minivans and has literally been building minivans since the advent of the minivan from Chrysler Corporation. Today, one of the only vehicles they build is the Pacifica, with the brand-new Charger coming into play and possibly the Durango in its future. The Pacifica and now the previous generation of the Pacifica, the Voyager, still being produced at the Windsor plant.
 
    Chrysler has produced the Pacifica, the Town, Country, the Saratoga, the Cordoba, oh, the Pacifica, the town and country, the Saratoga, the Cordoba, oh yeah, lots of cards again. The le baron, the imperial, oh yes, we're talking about the green hornet imperial, oh yeah. In Canada, the New Yorker, oh wait, wait. Here's another Canadian made product that I once drove in my life a New Yorker Fifth Avenue. Oh yeah, 1990, new Yorker Fifth Avenue, I drove one of those first car I ever learned to drive in and funny thing is it's made in Canada. I didn't find this out until years later that it was made here. And lastly but not least, the Voyager as a Chrysler product. Now they also built the Voyager as a Plymouth product because, like I said, the minivans ever since the 1990s had been built in Windsor. The Dodge, Chrysler and Plymouth minivans have all been made at the Windsor plant Due to this.
 
     In the early 2000s, when they finally changed to that weird blocky design that's kind of a rehash of the original caravan, when they had the caravan, the Grand Caravan, in the town and country kicking around because Plymouth had finally been axed, they actually had some facilities there to build Volkswagen the Rutan, and I actually had my wife has a friend that has a Routan and when you pop the hood of the damn thing it's got Chrysler logos all over it. Why? Because it's a Chrysler town and country. The Rutan was just essentially a new front and rear clip on a caravan, that's all it was, all it was. Clip on a caravan, that's all it was, all it was. So, owning one. You essentially just own a caravan with a Volkswagen logo on it. There's nothing Volkswagen about it.

    Similar to that, the Lancia Voyager. The Lancia Voyager was basically just a Chrysler town and country with a Voyager name added to it and the Lancia logo added to the front of it. That's all it was. It was nothing else, though, like I said, ram built a product there as well. But you have to remember for a time when Ram finally separated itself away from Dodge so like, just went poof and were pulled away. So, there's no such thing as Dodge trucks anymore, they're now Ram truck.
 
     Ram had the CV Tradesman, which is really just a baseline caravan built for the Ram product lineup, and that was built in Windsor. So how many things built off that caravan platform Caravan, grand Caravan, town Country, cv Tradesman, Routan and Voyager, all built in Windsor, all at a time where people were just starting to get out of minivans. But the caravan still held the minivan marketplace Next to the Voyager. Plymouth also built the Valiant, the Grand Fury and the Grand Voyager at the plant as well. Valiant, when it separated itself as a mid-tier product range in the Chrysler range, built both the Valiant.
 
     And here we go again. Another muscle car, barracuda in Canada. Yeah, I love doing that because we built a lot of muscle cars in Canada. Kind of funny for a country that you know you never think of power-hungry nation. We built a lot of muscle cars. Dodge, on the other hand, has built the Caravan, the M37 and M43 Caravans, the Dart, the Charger, the Little Red Express, the Magnum another somewhat muscle car the Murata, the Diplomat and the Grand Caravan. Now remember what I said the charger is the new product coming to the Windsor plant. The brand new two-door and four-door chargers are going to be built in Windsor Ontario. So, if you're looking to get one of those weird electric or v6 chargers, yeah, they come up from Windsor Ontario, so they're not really something I want unless it's got a fucking v8 in it. I don't want, want the Charger with a V6 or electric. 

​     Moving up the road from Windsor Ontario, we found ourselves in St Thomas Ontario. Like I said, St. Thomas Ontario was famous for building the body-on-frame most famous and most utilized police car in history, the Crown Vic. The very last police-duty Crown Vic and cab duty Crown Victoria came from St Thomas Ontario. The last vehicle to roll off that line was actually a Lincoln Town Car heading out to the Middle East, but St Thomas. Before that had built products like the Maverick, the Falcon, the Pinto. Unfortunately, we got things with power and we got things that blow up with tons of power.
 
     The EXP Now. Do you remember this little thing? The Ford EXP sports car, essentially a Ford Escort two-door. It was built in Canada. We had one of those entry-level sports cars built in our backyard. Is that not cool? Go back and check this thing out. If you're listening to this on any of the other streaming sites, go to the AutoLooks.net website. Look for this podcast and find all the pictures that we have of this. We have a picture of the Ford EXP on that website and you'll think it's cool. Trust me, me, it's one of those forgotten collector vehicles, but please don't forget it.
 
    The ltd so the previous police car from ford to the Crown Vic. was built in St. Thomas as well. The LTD, the Crown Vic and the Fairmont. Moving on to Mercury, we get the pinto, the zephyr, the ln7, the grand marquee and, as my favorite, the Marauder. Before the Dodge Charger became the performance sedan of North America, the Mercury Marauder was there. It was powerful, it was great. It was only available as a concept, two-door convertible in one shot, which actually Ford sold off a couple years ago and I really considered taking out a small loan just so I could buy this damn thing, because all the parts in it were built in Canada for a car built in Canada, for a concept not ever shown in Canada. Funny. And last but not least, in St Thomas we built the town car for Lincoln.

     Oh yes, that famous limousine and that famous limo cruiser for the high-end clientele who didn't want to get in a cab to go to the airport but would take the airport limo in a town car. Now, those were big, comfortable cars and police loved them. Do you know why police loved the Crown Vic is because in a high-speed pursuit a body on frame vehicle requires very little to get it back on the road when it's a high-speed pursuit, let's say in the morning. So, let's say, somebody going through rush hour kind of weird, but okay, somebody in my neck of the woods going through rush hour because trust me you could do 120 during rush hour around this area gets in a high-speed pursuit with a car. The cop cars use the front bullhorns to push it out of the way. Well, that bends the frame. They take that Crown Vic downtown, put it on a frame straightening machine and by the next morning that police car is back on the road, whereas a unibody vehicle similar to that of the new Ford Explorers that you're using, gets into an accident and then goes into the garage for nearly two months to get rebuilt to go back out in the force.
 
     You ever wonder why police forces loved the Crown Vic. It was so cost efficient. It didn't matter that it wasn't great on gas. It saved tons and tons of money for the police station. Why do you think more of them need more money now? Because when their cars in a high-speed pursuit they basically get decommissioned vehicles. They always have to own at least three extra police cars now, where before they didn't. They needed one for every officer and one spare one just in case something really bad happened. They're cheap and easier to replace and unfortunately, by them shutting down that plant and completely leveling it, there's no chance in hell of ever getting a body-on-frame sedan for police force and if you ever want to see, carbon Motors, a company from the United States, tried to build one like that but unfortunately didn't get through only because they utilized BMW engines to meet the North American pact that all of the vehicle has to be built within the confines of the North American free trade agreement. Never wondered why the Chevrolet Caprice never took off as a police car Built in Australia, but the St Thomas built Crown Vic. They meet the North American pact and we all love them. ​

    ​Moving to the East Coast, you get both Volvo in Halifax and Bricklin in St John. Now Bricklin only ever had one vehicle, the SV1, but in Halifax, like we said, they were there for over 30 years produced the original Volvos, those bricks that lasted forever. The 544s, the 120s, the 140s, the 240s, the 740s, the 760s, the 850s, the 940s all those weird, bricky looking things were made for north American consumption out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and before they finally closed the plant, before Ford stepped in and said no, we're pulling the plug on this shit, we don't want to deal with Halifax and we don't want to deal with Nova Scotia. We're killing off the 3,000 jobs that we got sitting out there. Screw you guys. They built the S70, the V70, and the S80 before Volvo packed it up and left North America. 

​    Moving on to Bramlea Remember Bramlea? As I told you, the American Motors plant was the most advanced automotive production facility in the entire world when it was built in 1988. AMC spared no expense for this plant all before going bankrupt. But where AMC failed, Chrysler won and at the Bramlea plant they built Chrysler products, Lancia products, dodge products, eagle products and now Jeep at that plant, with Chrysler won. And at the Bramlea plant they built Chrysler products, Lancia products, dodge products, eagle products and now Jeep. At that plant, with Chrysler, they built the New Yorkers that I drove, the Concorde, the LHS, the 300M and the 300 series that you last saw. For Lancia, they built the Thema. Remember the Thema was actually a Chrysler 300 rebadged for European consumption. So that's all it was. It's essentially a Lancia logo instead of a Chrysler logo.
 
    They built the Monaco and the Magnum, then they built the Intrepid, both variations, and then they built the Charger and its counterpart, the Challenger. And Brampton is where all of the Challengers for the world consumption not just North America world consumption came out of. Every model of the Challenger, inclusive of the SRT8s, the Wide Tracks and the Demon. All came from the Bramley plant in Brampton, Ontario. Yes, the most powerful production muscle car ever produced in history that could be insured for the roads and even the drag pack of the Demon came from Canada. We created that amazing piece of art. Yes, like I said, we love power in this country. It may not seem like it but we do, and we've built so many of them with dodge.
 
     Now, like I said, AMC originally built this plant to build their premiere, the sedan that was supposed to save them. But when Chrysler bought out AMC, they needed to keep that product because it was already done, so they needed to sell it. So, they created a brand-new brand called Eagle. Eagle is essentially a crossover of Mitsubishi products and remaining AMC products that Chrysler was going to be making money off of. The Premier and the Vision were built in Brampton, Ontario. Today Brampton only makes overflow compasses for the North American consumption. Unfortunately, we've kind of lost the world of lure and Brampton has no real future going into the 21st century right now. So, we really don't know where this advanced plant is going to be going, but for now we're just on compass duty. 

---

​     Moving up the road a little closer to myself in Alliston, Ontario, outside of Barrie, was the Honda Alliston plant. Now the Alliston plant built both Honda and Acura products. They built the civic, the CRV, the accord, the odyssey, the pilot, and on Acura they built the CSX, the mdx, the EL and the ZDX. One product I did miss from that is the very first generation of Ridgeline. When it was built for North American consumption, it was built off the Honda Odyssey platform. Along with the Acura MDX, the Ridgeline was built in Alliston, Ontario. Pretty neat, huh. And the reason why the original Ridgeline was sized the way it was is because it had to be built in the exact same unibody platform as the Odyssey. It couldn't be stretched out any further. That's why a lot of the sheet metal and work from it you'll find almost matches an Odyssey. But yeah, the Ridgeline, the original crossover utility truck from Honda, was built in Ontario. 

​     Imagine that Now the next two I'm going to put together because Toyota, both their Cambridge and Woodstock plants, service each other in one way. Now, the original Cambridge plant was built to build overflow of the Corolla, because the Corolla was now being moved out of the Fremont factory in the United States and they needed access overflow for the Corolla product because of how much it was selling. So, they decided to build it at the plant in Cambridge, Ontario. After that the Matrix was brought in as a replacement and a secondary line for the Corolla platform in Cambridge, Ontario. Now, with the Corolla being built there, its platform was about to be utilized for something more.
 
    The RX from Lexus, the very first Lexus ever built outside of Japan, was built in Canada. Yes, the Lexus RX was actually the first Lexus built outside of the home of the Rising Sun, a country which didn't even have Lexus dealers at it, but it was built in Ontario, in Cambridge, Ontario. The NX was built there as well, but now the NX is built alongside its sibling, the RAV4, in Woodstock, Ontario, and I don't know how many times I had to say that, but I love my RAV and I love the fact that it's made right in my own province and I can literally drive it right up to the plant it came from. 

     When I was younger, I used to go down and see my uncle in London, Ontario and I passed by Ingersoll, Ontario, which is essentially just outside of London Ontario, or, as we all call it, fingerhole. That was built as a collaboration plant, similar to that of the Fremont California plant for both Toyota and Chevrolet. CAMI was built between Suzuki and General Motors and with it built a lot of smaller, entry-level products for the North American consumption. Suzuki built the Swift, the Sidekick, grand Vitara and the XL7 before it left. Now, the XL7 was built off the same platform as both the Equinox and the Pontiac Torrent, so all three were built there at the same time, kind of like. The Swift was the same platform as the Firefly, as the Metro from Geo and as the Metro from Chevrolet, and then all the trackers were made at that one plant the Chevy Tracker, the Geo Tracker, the Pontiac Sunrunner and the Suzuki Sidekick, all those little two-door SUVs that you remember from the 1990s, that just screamed 1990s were made at the Cami plant in Ingersoll Ontario. On top of that, Pontiac also built their other product, Geo, I should say, was looking to build a sports car. But they couldn't build a sports car for North America and Isuzu had one and Isuzu built it in Canada.  

     The Asuna sports car, built for Canadian consumption by Isuzu, was not built here but built for here, where the Sunrunner from Asuna was essentially just that of a Pontiac Sunrunner and Chevy Tracker as well, built at the Kami plant in Ingersoll Ontario. Now, all these products with the Equinox and the Torrent and all that being shifted away, the Ingersoll Ontario plant kind of moved into the backspace. Shift of the way. The Ingersoll Ontario plant kind of moved into the backspace. They reworked it and is now home to General Motors, brand new cargo vans for city deliveries, the bright drop division, which is now the Chevrolet bright drop division, but the Brightdrop 400 and 600 are built at the Ingersoll plant in Ontario. So yeah, Ingersoll has built a lot of great vehicles. Now our last automotive production facility that we're going to talk about is a little unheard of one, and no, I'm not talking about like one from my hometown, because we never built cars, we just built brick parts. 
​

     ​Hyundai actually built cars in Canada for a very short time. They built it at a small plant in Bromont, Quebec, just outside of Montreal. Now, the Bromont plant was originally built as just a stamping plant but they decided to get more into production of it. Built as just a stamping plant, but they decided to get more into production of it. They were supposed to only be able to build about 2,000 Hyundai Sonatas at that plant Between 1989 and 1994, the Hyundai Sonata for North American consumption was built in Quebec, of all places, at a very small plant in Bromont. Today that plant no longer exists for production of automobiles and has been sold off to Goodyear and a company that actually makes windmills, but for a very short time Hyundai had a space in Canada where they built cars. Unfortunately, they don't do it these days and they've been considering coming back to Canada building a new plan here. But if they do it, they're going to do it as Hyundai kia and build two products for two companies in one space. Will they choose Quebec? I don't really know, considering the fact that all automotive production follows along the 401 belt.
 
     Besides that, automotive production, we also have our casting plants the St Catherine Castings plants and the Essex Casting plants in Windsor, Ontario. General Motors owns the St Catherine's plants where they built the Vortec V8s, the 4.8 and 5.3 liters. They built the V8 Gen 4s, the HFV6 engines, the 6.2 liter. They've built the blocks for all of these engines, plus manual transmissions. The GF6 and the C8 dual clutch have been built at St Catharines. On top of that, Windsor’s Essex plant has built both the 3.8, the 3.9, the 4.2-liter V6s, while also building the 5-liter V8s and the 7.3-liter Godzilla V8s. Now the Essex plant also built an engine I own Well, I shouldn't say an engine, I own.
 
     It built the old 350 Windsor engines, the ones that people always ask me is that what you got in your Mustang? And I always tell them, no, my Mustang is the bread and butter of Mustang engines from the 1970s the 351 Cleveland, the same engine that went into De Tomaso Pantera and the one engine that De Tomaso bought out the entire last two years of production from the Australian counterparts have built the Panteras. Sorry, I don't own a Windsor which would have been built at the Essex plant, now in 351 Cleveland, built in Ohio. My Mustang's not Canadian, but no mustang has ever really been Canadian, only the Camaro and the Challenger. So, in all rights, Canada has built a lot of great vehicles and has built some of the most powerful vehicles you can think of hell. It has built the most powerful muscle car for consumption in the world, the 707 Demon, coming right out of Brampton, Ontario. Yes, Canada has built amazing vehicles and a lot of different muscle cars have come from our shores and come from my home province.
 
     It's unfortunate that we've lost some along the way, like the Bromont plant in Quebec and the Halifax Nova Scotia Volvo plant, losing those two kinds of destroyed and centralized automotive production along the 401 belt between Windsor and Oshawa, Ontario, and that's it. It would be nice if we spread it out a little bit further and give some of the other areas of Canada a little bit more of automotive production, considering the fact that they have automotive production in like Tennessee, Kansas City, Chicago, got down to Georgia, Texas, California, all across the state. We're in Canada. It's Ontario or nothing. That's how we build cars here. 

     So, with that, what is your favorite car that is built in Canada? Do you own a Canadian built vehicle or know somebody that has owned a Canadian built vehicle? Let us know at the end, like us, tag us, follow us and send this podcast out to your friends, your family and anyone else you think of that may have ever owned a Canadian built automobile from one of our great manufacturing plants here in the great country of Canada. And after that, stop by the website, read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings and go to the Corporate Links website page. Find these car companies that have pre-existed and still exist all on the Corporate Links website page. Big or small, we have them all from the AutoLooks website.
 
     So do you now believe that Canada can build cars and we can build a multitude of great, amazing vehicles from across the world all in one small little country that just surpassed 40 million in population, Canada. We build cars because we're Canadian made. The AutoLooks Podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by Podbean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net. So, for myself, Mr. Everett Jay, the AutoLooks.net website and the Ecomm Entertainment Group strap yourself in for this one fun wild ride. That Canadian made products are going to take you on. 

Everett J.
​#autolooks