Just went to the Minneapolis/St Paul Auto show last night. I came away with a bunch of thoughts. First and foremost, the auto manufacturers are desperate, but the average consumer can clearly see why.

Our auto show aint one of the biggies on the industry map, but its usually pretty good and has a large selection of manufacturers. This year, the show was about 70% of the size it usually is. You could tell the automakers were in bad shape instantly because the number of concepts was practically zero, there was not much in the form of displays, just a bunch of cars on the convention floor, and the super expensive cars that usually are locked and roped off were open to the public to put their grubby paws on. Porsche usually ropes off everything but all their cars were sitting out and accessible.

I went with three other guys and we were bored. Mostly becuase there was nothing new, but also because most of the cars offered to the masses are lousy cars and/or completely overpriced. I did not think this going in, but walked around thinking why would anyone buy this car? It was a Monday night so not weekend level people, but not really that many people showed.

We started near Chrysler. I don't know what they did to "freshen" the 300 but they look awful. They look cheap. I don't know if it was the wheels, they seem to have done something with the bumpers and it did not work. Chargers look dated already. The Avenger is horrible, the Caliber is pretty bad. If they had any interest it was the Challenger. Its ok, I sat in one with a jet black interior and it has a coffin feel to it. I like it better than the Camaro. Everyone in my group said "Wow, they still make the Aspen?" The new truck was not much different from the old one. The interior was nice, the "Ram Box" cargo boxes look ridiculous in person. When companies start to put gimmicks on the car, they are not out of ideas, they just have crappy ones left. The jeep section has nothing of note except a girl too chubby to be a display girl on a turntable touting the Jeep SRT8. She asked if anyone had any questions after her schtick I asked "How's the resale value?" She shot me an angry look.

GM had the most interest of any of the domestics. Mostly because they had Camaros and Vettes-a-plenty to play with. I don't know how tall people drive Vettes. The top of the widshield is right in my view and I am 5'6". The V6 Camaro has a cheap look to it much like the base Stang. I am not a fan of the looks of the car but it is one of those rare cars that to me, looks better in the pictures than in person. The interior was supposed to be retro but it is bland. The Camaro and the Challenger have one thing in common, outward visibility is very limited due to the chopped roof look. Well, they have two things in common, they are both big. It seemed to have some appeal to most of the people there. The Malibu is still nice. The Hummer section was deserted. Nobody was looking at the trucks. Pontiac was deserted. Sticker prices were just shockingly high. I think GM needs another round of reductions for some of its cars. We looked at a G6 vert for $37k. I knew what it would cost because I had looked at one before, I asked my friends to guess and the HIGHEST guess was $28k. Its just one of the several models they have that commands a price that buys some pretty nice cars and does not seem to be anything special. This is the first time I have ever said this but the new giant buick is actually cool looking. It looks like an old GS Lexus, but still very nice.

Ford had no buzz. My friend wanted a picture of him climbing the "Man Step" on the back of the pickup as a joke. There were some Mustang folks. I looked at the Focus and still wonder why the Euro version and the Mondeo are not sold here. We stood at the Taurus turntable for a long while, nobody else came by to look at it.

My thoughts on new cars......

Hyundai Genesis Coupe........very nice interior, looks pretty good, crease in the side and grill give it a cheap look though.

Camaro....Its a like or hate it thing, it was ok, others like it more than I do.

The VW CC......decent but boring.

Everyone in my group, and two of the three are not car guys seemed to really like the WRX. Both for what it offers and it has a reasonable price. The one we sat in was $26k.

Taurus....looks like a nice four door, but its big.

Mazda 6........I love the car. The engines are not state of the art but I think its a beautiful design.

Insight......looks decent. It was roped off, but looks nicer than the current Prius.

I was surpirised how much I did not like the Porsche interiors. The colors are bold but not to my liking. Deep chocolate browns, garish tans that look like they are from the seventies and would get really dirty fast. Maybe it was just the models they had, but of about 8 models or so I hated 6 colors. Black and grey were fine.

My favorite cars of the show were a short list.

1st Audi R8. Flat out beautiful car, first time I saw one in person and its small. I am in love. They look so much bigger in the pics but is about the same size as my MR2 turbo. An extremely elegant sports car.

2nd Miata. Yeah, call me gay. I sat in the new one and it is tiny. I just like it. I would not buy one until it has a turbo option, but I like it. Its so cool and simple inside.

3rd. Mercedes SLK55AMg, the only car with an automatic I would consider.

4th....Cayman S...just can't leave it off the list.


And there was a yellow S2000 on the floor. The whole time we were in the honda scetion no one looked at it.

 

Oh yeah, last thing......

I was very impressed by the 370z. Its the first time I have got to climb around one. It looks really nice, the car they had on display was very sharp and had probably the coolest set of wheels I have seen on any car. The interior was MUCH better than the last generation. I thought it would be just slightly better than the 350, I think it is MUCH nicer than the 350. I really liked the car. I kind of dismissed it in previous threads, I was wrong.

The GTR on the display wheel did not look as nice to me as the 370z right next to it. Maybe its because nobody knew what it was, but all of the people in the Nissan area were fawning all over the 370 and pretty much ignoring the GTR right next to it.

 

Cool as in nice chilled beverages that you can fit in its billion cup holders


Simple as in wow a glovebox, let me store stuff in here.

Luxury items compared to the S2000