Autorai Amsterdam 2015 - my experience

"Pabuuu, JDM car enthusiast & Italian parts hoarder" (pabuuu4) 04/21/2015 at 17:52 • Filed to: autorai, convention

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The Autorai, a car show that takes place in Amsterdam once every two years, has returned after being canceled back in 2013 because of the economic crisis.

This car show, where most major and some minor brands are represented, has existed since 1895.

After being cancelled for the first time ever since 1895, people were unsure about this years Rai.

In this post I will try to cover this years Rai like a true proffesional. To achieve that goal, all my pictures are taken with a phone, at shitty angles and with no experience at all. I will give my professional opinion on the items I had time to test.

First up were the american cars. Cadillac was the first stand you walk past when you enter the building. They had brought their most luxurious cars, like the ATS Coupe, wich had nice grey paint with flakes in it. The only reason people visited their stand was because of this Corvette. After it being hyped up on the internet as one of the bargain sports cars you can buy, it was kind of a letdown to see it in real life. I found the wheel gap too big and the whole car didn’t feel like it would fit the €138.000 price tag..

Next up we visited the Infiniti stand. Infiniti is a relatively new brand here in the Netherlands and they went all out with their cars. I managed to get in the drivers seat of this Q50 and I played around with the controls. There were a few things I noticed. The controls are difficult to figure out, and there are way too many buttons to push. The drivers seat and position felt cramped and the person who sat in the passenger seat agreed. You are surrounded with interiour, and you are left with little space.

I forgot what this was, but it is huge. and despite this being such a big car, there still was little space inside. It was comfy though

Then there was this Ferarri sitting unsupervised. The first of many classic cars I would see that day.

Burton, our country’s very own car company wich produces kit cars based on Citroens was also present.

We visited the Ford stand, wich was mostly occupied with old people complimenting the C-max on its ride height and fuel consumption plus a few young people huddled around the Focus RS taking pictures of the exhausts.

Here is the Ford Kuga, surrounded by its target demographic. I thought this door was pretty neat. It opened via a button in the taillight. Totally useless and what are you going to do when people lend your car?

We hurried out of the Ford stand and visited the Suzuki stand. Here we saw a nice Swift Sport. I like the colour and styling, but thats it. Headroom so big I could hang a chandelier inside, and red stitched seats and agressive text inside to make it seem ‘sporty’. It felt very cheap inside.

New Vitara. Colour was nice, but the interiour felt like every other car I sat in. Bland.

Renault has placed this beauty in front to bait people to come to their stand.

This Renault, the Kadjar (I hate their names) looked like every other overstyled-yet-blending-in kind of car. Boring.

Also what is up with that roof spoiler every hatchback type car seem to have?

Finally! something interesting at the Renault stand. A new concept called the Eolab.

The plastic hubcap was loose BTW.

Then we came to Renaults cousin, Dacia. Here is a fully kitted out Duster. I liked it.

This car, the Dacia Logan MCV looks okay, is enormous yet a lightweight and this nicely equipped one costs €14.000. Pretty good deal.

We sat in the new Honda Civic. it was very dark inside.

The Civic Type R.

Are these vents in the side real?

Next up, a Kia Sportswagon concept.

This was the most horrible color I saw present.

I saw the new Mx-5

Race-scarred Mx-5 was there too.

Mazda decided that all of their cars, except both the Mx-5, should be red for this event. Here is a shitty picture of Mazda’s all-red stand. Also, boring cars surrounded by old people. The Mazda 6 and 6 wagon look great though. I think Mazda is doing pretty good with their cars.

This little thing grabbed my attention. The Opel Adam Rocks. With its shouty exterior, it is clear that this is the sporty version of the regular Adam. The inside of this car was great, and of course full of the red-stitches-because-it’s-sporty interior seen on many other sporty versions of cars.

This is a bigger Adam I guess? interesting color, not very interesting car.

Opel’s landyacht.

Random older Ferrari used as billboard.

Here are some concepts, Opel brought back the Monza name from the 80’s

Renault brought something too, what looks like their version of an Audi R8.

These two were for sale for the highest bidde. The highest bid on the BMW was 695 and the Volvo did not get anything.

Then came my favourite section, the classics. The cars were placed by time period.

Loved this car.

Some Opel plane car?

Old police cars.

Yup. A Toyota 2000GT

Also an electric car from a time when gas was rare,

Luxury car section was crowded. I realized that a Rolls-Royce is way too big.

This was the biggest of them all. A regular person would look like a dwarf behind the wheel of this. It must be horrible to park.

Aston Martin brought a concept that looked like something of the 80’s/90’s. Loved it.

The Porsche Panamera has a nice interiour.

I sat in an Audi Qr3 too, and it was horrible. It honestly didn’t feel any better than any ‘lesser’ cars, like a Suzuki. Too many buttons everywhere too.

This was the only Audi I liked.

Volkswagen was boring, they had like 7 versions of the Golf and all the cars were silver. The only car I liked was the GTI convertible.

Seat had a nice car.

Now comes something I did not expect. WILL I AM or something actually made a nice car!

He ‘designed’ this Lexus NX.

This. This Lexus was by far the nicest car I’ve been in. It completely took me by suprise. Looks good on the outside, and was

Somehow everyone was around this car too.

The only nice thing Citroen had to offer.

Brabus Smart

The 208 GTI is actually a big car.

Peugot brought their Dakar thing too.

Peugot had a concept car too.

BMW stand was crowded.

Interiour of M6. Guy in the driver seat was asking questions to the pants guy outside the window because he wanted to upgrade from his 5-series.

BMW’s first MPV with front wheel drive. Also, why the M// badge on the side?

Subaru stand was hidden, and they brought a automatic BRZ. They also told us that the outback was not available in manual because automatic was better in every way. Also the smallest car, the XV, is bigger than our Forester.

They drove porsches around a track with three corners. woohoo. Loud unneccecary music, annoying announcer and porsches doing a 20 meter sprint. very exciting.

Noble was present, with one car.

Hope you liked my tour of the Autorai of 2015, it was a small one, some major brands were still missing, but it was a good start after a 5 year absence.

Tell me what you think!