Every year Detroit hosts what is called “The NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW” or “The Greatest Automobile Show on Earth”, more commonly know as “the Auto Show.
- Having last been to “the show” a couple of years ago I was hesitant to
a) battle the traffic
b) find parking in downtown Detroit
c) go into downtown after dark….
d) battle the traffic, then once having fought through the traffic, found parking and survived the walk to the convention center
e) fight the crowds inside of Cobo Hall and
f) not swat any kids that seem to think because they are “just little kids” they have an inherent right to push in front of you whenever they wish, and finally
g) not call out the parents for allowing that behaviour.
In spite of all that, the show is pretty good. So after a hiatus of several years we decided to try again. This time we went later in the evening with the thought maybe the little goobers would be tired out from a long day and already gone home to whine over something there.
Well, either the attendance at the show is way down this year, or going in the evening has definate advantages because we got good parking on the Cobo Hall roof.. only about 50 feet from the door actually. But even better the exhibition hall was fairly empty and got more so as the evening went on!
Most of the curtain climbers had gone home for their dose of ritalin, so it was really pretty quiet. This also revealed the huge security presence in the hall. There were flocks of every imaginable type county sherrif’s, city police, town marshall’s, private security and probably some undercover agents. They were all hanging out or milling around in groups.
What does all that mean? Well for one that we definitely had a better time than the previous visit. We were able to get up to the cars and see them and also get into most of them without any delays longer than one or two persons.
There were a lot of cars, with “Green” as the theme. Including hydrogen power, diesel power, full electric, gas/electric hybrids, various “Smart” cars and so on. However for every environmental “Greenie” there were several “Meanies”… gas guzzling behemoths such as Toyota Tundra, Hummer, Dodge Ram, and other vehicles that suck down gas at the rate of a tenth of a gallon per mile = $.30 cents a mile for gas, NOT including operating expenses.
While there were hundreds of cars only a few were “picture worthy”. Actually it appears upon review the the photo downloads there was only ONE that was worthy! A great little Audi that we liked.
We did enjoy seeing the few concept vehicles and the new model introductions – didn’t get introduced to any new models though. My observation on that is you need to cough up the big bucks to attend the opening “Black Tie Gala” to see the real show theatrics. Once it opens to the general public I think they turn it over to a different group of persons to demonstrate.
Some favorites: Mini-Cooper “stretch” with a real (?) trunk in the back with double doors = a very small old fashioned panel truck – with the worlds largest speedometer! Acura, which would be a great step up from the Accord I currently use. More reasonably priced is the Honda Accord, but I have a problem with the dash.. it seems to “busy” and looks like the different design groups (instrument panel, sound, navigation, A/C) did not coordinate well.
And if I every hit the big lottery… just about ANY Ferrari . . .
It was fun, it is done, and will think about returning in future years when the time comes.
Until the last car is made in Detroit there are no more new designs left to explore . . . .