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
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