Auto Show debrief

Yesterday my friend Neil and I had a good time at the Dallas Auto Show.  We rode the light rail to the convention center, avoiding all the traffic and parking hassles....easily worth the few bucks it cost, and we arrived ahead of most of the crowd.  Much to my delight and surprise the show was NOT dominated by Bubba trucks.  I was rather disappointed that there weren't any wild concept cars.  None.

Of course I was immediately drawn to the European exotics:

Like this 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish.

Of course I ordered mine "Well Equipped".

After gawking at this more proletarian Vantage ($150K) for a while I was invited inside the velvet rope and assigned my own personal advisor, Aaron Stephenson IV*. Before long I had one of his high-dollar catalogues and was calling him "Biff" and picking colors and accessories.  He's probably still waiting for me after I excused myself for a rest room visit.

Maserati Gran Cabrio

McLaren MP4-12C

The new, soon-to-be introduced Jaguar F-Type.

I didn't say there weren't ANY Bubba trucks there.  This was some kind of "wrap" treatment you can cover your truck with enabling you to hide from ducks and deer and such.

I'm not a big Range Rover fan, but I must admit the Evoque ($58K) was rather impressive.

There were some vintage oddities stuck over in one corner, like this Datsun 2000.  It was quite a screamer back in its day....

....as was this '71 Datsun 240Z.  As a college student I lusted for one of these.  ('Course, I lusted for all kinds of things back in my college days. ;)  As I didn't have $34 dollars back then, much less $3400, it became another of my lost loves.

Awwww, my little Fiat 500 Abarth.  Innit cute?  One of these days I'm gonna convince K it followed me home.

One thing I took away is that cars are getting ridiculously expensive.  A decent BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, Infinity, etc, is just more than I want to pay for wheels.  They're for those who want a "look at me" experience.  Or Lottery winners.

What I found was that Subaru and Mazda in particular have some quite good cars at very reasonable prices....mid-upper $20's.  Even Volkswagen's are getting pricey, although the new GTI @ $33K still seemed like a good value.  Chrysler products seemed way behind the curve, and poor GM seems to be in a continued slow decline.  Ford, however, had some good small world-class cars worth looking at.

The Geneva or Frankfurt or New York show it wasn't, but all things considered the Dallas show was worth the effort to attend.  Oh...and the "booth babes"?  Not a disappointment, either.  ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On today's "to-do" list?  I asked K if she wanted to go to the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade and Alcohol Soiree, but she said she'd rather take a bullet to the head.  I guess that's a "no".   At this point I'm just hoping for lunch out.

Have a great weekend everyone.

S

*not his real name

Cars and Coffee, August, 2012

To beat the heat I was on the Cars and Coffee grounds (sorry  ;) at 07:00.  81 degrees with a slight breeze wasn't bad at all.  I was told there were over 1,000 cars there at one time (it's 'come and go').  I don't know if there was an actual theme or not, but there seemed to be a lot of these custom-built jobs...  (you can left click to enlarge any photo)

The owner told me it began life as a '47 Mercury.

Even the license plate was cool.  (It was trailered in so it didn't need a 'real' plate.)

How about this little wallflower?

I dunno what it is, but it drew a crowd!

Nose art with a Texas flair!

I have mixed thoughts on this new Ferrari FF.  Hmmmm...

I'm just a hopeless Maserati guy!  Ooooh yeah....

Our local Ferrari / Maserati / Mercedes dealer brought their sales "A-Team".

Don't worry K...I stopped payment on the check as soon as I got home  ;)

How about a Ferrari F40?...a REALLY hot car in it's day.

So who do you think had the idea first?  Lamborghini....

....or Smart?

I'm not into motorcycles, but if I were, THIS is where I'd hang!

Maybe a '40 Chrysler for Grandpa?

Or a '47 Buick?  The original Land Yacht?

A nice collection of both new and old Porsche's attended, like this '69 912.

How 'bout this SWEET Speedster!

Here's something unique....a Fisker Karma NOT on fire!

But getting real, something down in my price range...a Fiat 500 Abarth.  Beep...Beep!

And finally, a trivia question for you....Do you know what the humble Ford Falcon morphed into?  (Hint:  It's Lee Iaccoca's legacy.)

That's enough for this month.  Hope you enjoyed the pictorial tour.  ;)

S

There's a snake behind every log....LOOK OUT!

par·a·noi·a [par-uh-noi-uh] 

noun

1. baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others.

We have got to be the absolute most paranoid people in the world.  I commented on Monday how much I liked the Chrysler Super Bowl halftime commercial.  I found it to be very inspirational.  It talked about the American can-do attitude, pulling together, working hard, never giving up, etc.  I saw nothing political about it.  It was great!  Plus I'm a big Clint Eastwood fan.

Not so the viewers of FOX News.  I read that it was widely panned by them as a blatant attempt to support the Obama administration and thank them for their bail out from a couple years ago.  Huh?  Where did that come from?  

I have some conservative friends (I'm fairly conservative myself) who I think wake up every morning foaming at the mouth, ready to jump into their camo and paint up their faces and go out an hunt 'em some Socialists.  Then at the other extreme I have some more liberal friends who would swear on a Bible (if they have one) that the Huns are at the gate and will soon be goose-stepping up their front sidewalk.

What is wrong with people these days?  My only concern is that one political party or the other will gain control of BOTH houses of Congress AND the White House, and everything I see/hear/read is indicating that's not going to happen.  Just chill, people.  Go take your medicine, or maybe watch a Chrysler commercial.  Sheesh!  ;)

S

Clint Eastwood's "the man!"....with EDIT

This morning I clicked on YouTube to re-watch my favorite Super Bowl commercial from yesterday.  What I found instead was a screen saying the commercial had been pulled due to a copyright dispute with NFL Properties.  Hmmm....wonder why the NFL didn't complain BEFORE they took Chrysler's money and ran their ad?


It was a typical Super Bowl....a rather average game except for the last 3 minutes.  I didn't think either team looked "World Champion" quality hitting on all 12 cylinders.  More like the last ones still standing.  And the commercials?  Where was the pizazz, the supreme sense of humor from years past?  Budweiser might as well have just put a match to their $10M.  The same for most of the rest IMO.  If you weren't old enough to remember Ferris Bueller from the famous movie of the 80's, you probably didn't understand the Honda commercial.  The same with the  Volkswagen ad featuring the deformed looking guys.  What was that all about?  K had to explain to me later that it was a Star Wars reference.  You shouldn't have to explain a commercial.  


I did like the Chrysler halftime commercial.  It was powerful, and I thought using Clint Eastwood as their grizzled, determined-sounding spokesman was a stoke of genius.  Brilliant! 

I'd like to link to it for you, but thanks to the jackasses at the NFL I can't.  You think the NFL will give Chrysler their money back?  Haha!  


And then there was the commercial for the Abarth Fiat 500.  Wow, what a car!  Yeah, let's go with that.  See it for yourself right here.  (Ironically, Fiat owns Chrysler.)  Several others elicited a chuckle from me, but no real gut-busting laughs.  Oh, wait....I forgot about the girl head-butting the guy for his Oikos yogurt.  That was a funny surprise. Do y'all disagree?  Did I miss something?


Gotta go.  I'm off to buy a Chrysler, or a Fiat.  Or maybe some yogurt.  ;)


S


EDIT:  The Chrysler commercial is available again.  You can see it here.