strange cars from Montreal, Quebec

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voitures étranges de Montréal, Québec



Below are some cars I saw during a visit to Montreal that I don't normally see in the US. One part of traveling are seeing all the different cars that non-US people get to drive around.




An x-trail. I believe I also saw some Xterras around too. These were rather popular. I never saw a Ford Explorer or Chevy Trailblazer.



Acura EL in motion. This one had cheapy aftermarket replacement wheel covers. There were plenty of EL's around.



Strangely, imprezas weren't all that common. Montreal is rather snowy and cold in the winter. I didn't see too many AWD cars in the city. Instead, I saw plenty of FWD cars with snow tires. Notice the snow tires on this Impreza.



Pontiac Pursuit. I was in pursuit of finding one of these to photograph. As I was walking, the car drove up and started to park in this spot. I wanted to take a pic of the car, but when the guy was backing up, he was looking behind and thus see me. I waited until he finished parking and quickly snapped a photo when they were getting out of the car. I saw Chevy Cobalts there too. But there were many more Pursuits than Cobalts. I wonder why.



What's so special about a Neon, you might ask. Well, it's a *Chrysler* Neon. Nothing else is different than the badging. I did see Plymouths around (like the Expresso minivan and a Neon). One wonders what is the difference between the Chrysler and Plymouth Neon.



A Mazda5. I dont think I've seen one of these in the states yet. Altima in the background. Altima's were very popular. I saw more Altimas than Camrys. But there were more Accords than Altimas.



I should have taken a video, but it was rather amusing to watch this sidewalk vacuum cleaner. It moves slowly on the sidewalk and the tube is controlled like an elephant's trunk. The tube is very mobile and was constantly darting back and forth to hoover up bits of trash on the sidewalk.



A Pontiac Firefly. Small cars were very popular.



A Geo Spectrum and a previous generation EL. I dont think we got this version of the Spectrum. I think we got the generation before this. This looks like the Geo-equivalent of Aunt Margaret's first Corolla. And as far as I know, the only Spectrum we got was the one before that generation (when the corolla had the very boxy rear end).



A Pontiac Sunfire with funny taillights.



It's hard to see, but this is a Civic Si sedan. See next pic for less fuzziness.



Here's a better pic of the Civic Si sedan. I couldn't see anything special besides alloy wheels, spoiler, and badging. There's an Aveo peeking into the photo. Like I said before, montreal people like small cars.



There were a fairly large number of modded cars in the city. Here is just one example. The driver is proud to be a Quebequois. Again, you can notice that all the other cars in the pic are small by American standards: focus, civic, protege, etc.



A Chevy Optra. I know it's a Suzuki, but it had a european, almost Opel Astra look to it.



Acura EL and a Civic, with a dustbuster in between.



An EL close up. In the background is an Echo, which was very popular in Montreal.



No, this isnt the new Yaris. It's an Echo hatchback.



Echo hatchback from the back. They also have a 4 door hatchback version of this car. I didnt take a pic of it though.


Overall, lots of small cars in Montreal. I dont know how it is in other places in Canada. Montreal, being in Quebec, is one of the more European cities in Canada. Many of the small cars have MT while the larger cars have AT like in the states. There were very few "midsize" or large SUVs. Popular cars include the Echo, Civic, Xterra, and Altima. The cabs were a mix of all sorts of cars. Many of them were Altimas. I rode in a Ford Taurus and then a Buick Century (the American model since it had mphs in the speedometer).

C'est fini!