[Spridgets] A day at the auto show

[Ron Soave]

The kids were off from school today so I took time off from my newly appointed rounds at work and we did our annual trek to the Chicago Auto Show. Despite the somber tone below, we still had a great day. Some observations:

McCormick place was like a morgue relative to previous years. The sadness and uneasiness was palpable. I spoke at some length to several reps of various companies, including BMW and Honda, and it's universal. It's definitely not as simple as "the US companies have cars no one wants to buy"; No one wants to buy ANYONE'S cars. Hopefully the US companies can restructure so they can weather the future somehow. 

The busiest cars were the Cadillac CTS and the Honda Fit. People weren't lined up to sit in the $100,000 cars. I think the Fit represents reality for many, and the Caddy represents the bottom end of the fantasy curve. 

To say GM has nothing worth buying is really uninformed - there were some nice real world cars there. The CTS (especially the 560+HP version!) and the Corvette are just ridiculous in how nice they are. 

GM also had a Spanish speaking host or 2 as well as a few who were clearly placed to appeal to those buyers with "alternative lifestyles". I applaud their marketing vision to reach large, ignored market segments. Ford was similarly prepared, and their cars weren't horrible either. 

For the most part, companies left the SUVs at home. 

The retro attempts at the Charger and Camaro did nothing for me.

VW put on a happier face than most. They had a "Car-aoke" setup where you sat in a Bug and sang along to the radio as you were posted on a large flat screen display. Several Britney Spears look alikes (and, sadly, soundalikes) give it their all. It was fun. 

Of the new marques, BMW makes the cars that appeal most to me. Still. I include the MINI in this, although their sales schtick is wearing thin. 

Anyway, I hope next year it is ridiculously crowded and the cars I want to look at are overrun with people gawking. I never ever though I would say this, but in some ways I miss limited displays of excess.

My annual .02,
Ron