Chicago Auto Show

[bombsquad83]

I'm going to the Chicago Auto Show today.  I'll post pics when I get back.  Anyone else checking it out this year?

[ninjeff]

AH! We (me and the girlfriend) were totally going to go, but didn't feel like battleing the 3" of snow Chicago was supposed to get, so we stayed in Bloomington and just had a nice dinner a Joe's Station House Pizza, then a (ahem) "quiet" night inside.



How was it? Anything awesome?

[bombsquad83]

It was crazy busy up there at the show.  No more snow on the ground up there than down here though.  Ate a nice dinner with my wife and my buddy that came with us at Weber Grill downtown.  Pics to follow...

EDIT:
I'm not a photographer, and it was hard to get good pictures with all the people, but here are a few from the show.  The rest of my pics from the show are here...

My favorite car from the show. McLaren MP4-12C


A whole row of Lexus LFAs


Honda F1 Car


Suzuki had a GSX-R1000 on display.  That's just a random guy on it, not me.


New Subaru BR-Z.  Looks sweet...


Lambo

[ninjeff]

 

i knew i should have gone. Figures, we dont go and there is no foul weather. $20 says if we did go it would have been 5 inches of snow.

Anyway...

MYGODTHOSELOOKWONDERFUL!

On the other hand, maybe its safe that we DIDNT go, because i swear my girlfriend is going to buy an FR-S.  How did they look in person?
We were thinking about taking the trip on friday (last day of the show) is it worth it?
Never mind, stupid question. It totally looks worth it. 

[Twisted]

Honda F1 Car

Not to be picky but I love my F1 and that is an Indy race car 

[bombsquad83]

Good point...wasn't really thinking about it.  They both go fast .

[manofthefield]

On the other hand, maybe its safe that we DIDNT go, because i swear my girlfriend is going to buy an FR-S.

What's wrong with that?  I'd love to be able to drive one of those occasionally, but I wouldn't really want to pay for it new.  (assuming your gf is the type to let you drive her car)

You could be all "honey, i'm going to run out and get some bread, can I take your car?" "Sure"  Then snicker and take off for a day of autocrossing

[ninjeff]

Shoot, i'd probably drive it more than her. LOL.

Don't get me wrong, it would be AWESOME to have a brand new FR-S sitting at our house (we've been together 7 years, but she isn't in to the whole "marriage, or kids thing" (did i mention i have the best girlfriend ever?).
Still, we just got ourselves out of debt this past year. Me from a few thousand bucks worth of music equipment, and a motorcycle with all the gear, and her from a brand new car and tons of CC bills. The prospect of plunging back into debt again just.....kind of sucks.

But she is as powerless as i am, really. It took monumental self control to not buy a new Mustang when i went and drove one a few weeks ago. I just had to remind myself that this is the year i start riding again.


In the end, though, its all rather pointless because she saw the pic of the Lambo that he posted earlier, and now we are taking a half day friday to head up to Chicago and check it out. 


I'll let you know how the Fr-S drives on our way home.

[manofthefield]

If it helps, you can't actually get one yet, unless you finagle the keys for the show car from the scion people

[yamahonkawazuki]

subaru bras lol. i like a bus dont get me wrong. but meh, ill build up my rx7 vert to what i thought mazda should have made it. i used to hit the chi. auto show regularly. i lived for a while in town, and before coming here, lived 30 mins away via metra err train whatever it is called
Aaron

[ninjeff]

If it helps, you can't actually get one yet, unless you finagle the keys for the show car from the scion people

My girlfriend is quite tricky......

But i know what you mean. Those don't hit showrooms until Q2 right?

[manofthefield]

That sounds about right, but I don't know for sure

[ninjeff]

Woo. Just got back from the show myself.

First: I HATE ^%$&#* KIDS.
Actually, they dont know better, i hate parents. Honestly. On MULTIPLE, MULTIPLE occasions i saw parents letting kids run rampant inside brand spanking new cars. One lady even opened the doors of a Boss 302 and let her 2 kids inside, then closed the doors and let them bounce around for about 5 minutes. When i say "bounce" i mean it. These kids were standing on the seats, climbing over the console into the back seat and back again, poking all of the buttons, hitting each other and wrestling around the interior of a $60,000.oo car.
In another instance, a lady plunked her 8 year old into the driver seat of a '12 Shelby Mustang, and sat in the passenger seat to eat nachos. After a 10 minute rest, she then proceeded to wipe her hands on the seat and get out. This lady was...well....not fit. And i'm sorry, but if you "need to rest a second, dont do it in a Shelby, and sure as ^%$# dont use it for your personal nacho time.

Between kids running wild around the cars and batting, poking, slapping, punching, and kicking everything from new Mustangs, to Audi's, Bimmers,  a GT-R (the kid repeatedly tried to forcefully open what was a very locked super-car) all the way to the retardo duo who decided they wanted to see what part of an R8 was carbon fiber by walking around it and knocking on every panel of the car, and the parents who really couldn't give a crap less i almost lost my mind.  I wont even BEGIN to elaborate on the people generally standing right between your camera and whatever it was you CLEARLY were trying to photograph.
It was aggrivating.

Still, we had quite a good time. I got to sit in a host of cars i'm actually considering buying in the next 2 years and compare things. I also got to sit in a few that i couldnt possible afford and marvel at the brilliant engineering and high quality coming out of some companies now.
I had a wonderful chat with the Ford lady (man...she was smoking hot BEFORE she started talking, and then once she actually held a honest and legit convo with me about performance and the new Ford lineup...well.......ahem......i uh...i'll be in my bunk. ) I met a nice guy while waiting for the Shelby GT500's dyno run (i have video of that), and we talked about bikes and cars.
My girlfriend had a 1/2 conversation with the Subaru lady on the new BR-Z. She was incredibly knowlegable, helpful, and was entertaining until she seemed to take offense at me stating i miss the Subaru Gold wheels w/ the Subaru blue. She was VERY adament that they use "gunmetal grey" now.
Sorry lady.
But my girlfriend left satisfied by the conversation, and i believe she is now budgeting her new purchase as i type this.

-VW had a brilliant display. Very very nice, high quality, brightly lit, but not over bearing. It seemed welcoming, but organized.  Theirs was the most "well thought out" of the sections. Though nothing too exciting to see, honestly (car wise)
-Fords display was equally fantastic. I was floored by the fact that they actually put the mustang on the dyno, full bore, every hour. Inside. IT WAS AWESOME. They were smart enough to have plenty of people on hand to answer questions, and plenty of ever car in the line up to get into. They also had a Mustang on its side, with bullet points and details for everything underneath. They had a Raptor truck off the frame and bullet points for everything there too.  The new Fusion was on display, and looking classy, as was the rest of the 2013 line up. I was impressed with the interior of the new Focus. Much more than i thought i would be. Much like Ford right now....they seemed "on top of it" And weren't trying too hard to be trendy. Plus, they were  the only ones willing to put EVERY thing out. Indide, outside, upside down, and actually RUNNING.
-Chevy had.......well.....stuff. Thier section seemed kind of tossed together. Trucks in with the cars, in with the Camaros, mixed with the Volts. Though i find the new 140 concept to be intriguing, and Vette's are always lovely, the Chevy section seemed....well...kind of like GM. Like your Dad trying REALLY hard to be cool....but doesn't quite get it. I thought it was a fairly ok display of cars...just...disorganized.
-Chrystler/Jeep/Dodge. WOW. They went ALL OUT here. I swear and entire 3/4 of one whole hall was JUST them. From Jeep test tracks, to test rides in Challengers (inside the exibit hall) Banners bigger than planes, colors everywhere, jeeps driving up huge make-shift hills (INSIDE) to stuff just...everywhere. They really put on a "show" i have to say. But....well....well....."good for you guys!" was about all that went through my mind. Somehow i dont feel connected to their new stuff at all.
-Toyota. Uhm.....man you guys are boring. Really? A bright purple Prius Concept is the star of your section? Plain white and red banners? No whiz-bang fun stuff here. Just.....boring, but well built.  Like Toyotas (well, the main division)
-Scion. Looking good guys. Aided by the FR-S center stage it was a small yet cool little showing. The Scion line-up is small but funky and well built. I like that they exist. The booth didnt really light my fire, but seemed to fit with the brand. I liked it, but didn't love it. The FR-S was getting 90% of the attention, and rightfully so. Its a great car that shows Toyota (Scion) still has some soul left.
-Subaru. I loved this small, but well done display. Subarus lineup is small, but they had a good spread on display, all the cars (save the BR-Z, and Rally cars) were open, and the lighting was good. You can tell its a company that is VERY VERY proud of their stuff. It was classy and well done, friendly, but serious about making good stuff. The BR-Z display was WAY better than the FR-S display, and really showed off the car. The Rally cars showed that Sub's has some fight left in them. I think they've gone soft lately, but i'd still drive the ^%$# out of a BR-Z or proper STi.
-Mazda. A good display. I love Mazda's, love what the company is about, love the looks, everything. Bad part is, they just didnt have anything i hadn't already seen. With the demise of the RX-8 they really have a gap in the line up to attract people. Since no major redesigns have happened this year, i browsed through out of like for the brand, but found no reason to break stride.
-Mitsubishi. Turns out, they're still around. WHO KNEW?? Well, i did since they make em about 7 miles from here, but well....i didnt stop because i didn't care to see anything. I find them to be insanely ugly. All of them.
-Kia. Good showing. Good booth. Good looking cars now-a-days. Too bad they are Kia's. I just dont trust them yet. Wouldnt buy one so i didnt waste their time or mine.
-Hyundai. I want to love these more and more. Especially the Genesis Coupe. The interior was probably my favorite of the day (of the cars i'd actually buy). I don't 100% trust the quality yet, but they're getting there. The booth was nice enough i guess, but far to sparse and spread out. At least twice i had to stand in one spot and figure out where what cars were where. Its like they wanted to seem big, so they sprawled out, but they just dont have the lineup to warrent the show-floor foot print they took up. Still, they are aiming at the big leagues and it shows....
-Honda. Three words: What. The. Frak? Seriously. Have you guys fallen this far? From the kings of fun, honest, well engineered Japanese cars, to....sneeze and you missed it.  Honestly Honda, you used to be my favorites. But now....now...its just sad. I know you tried, but well....Mitsubishi had a bigger booth. C'mon guys. Get your crap together. It was really pathetic.
The new CBR1000RR was nice though.
Nissan- worse than Honda. Nissan  should be the sports car kings over there. They make the friggen GTR and the 370Z. At the booth all you got was a few cars kind of dumped on the floor, some banners, and......well...thats it. Look but dont touch. Nothing unlocked, no sales people, no fancy screens, just some cars and i cant pretend to care if they dont. (GT-R looks great in person though)
-Porsche. Ooooh 911. Looks like the other 911s. OOOOO Cayenne...looks nice in silver. Oh thats all you guys brought? Oh..ok then.
-Lexus. HOLYCRAPLOOKALLTHOSELF-A'S!!!!!OMG THEY ARE MEAN LOOKING!HOW MUCH? ....425,000.00 a pop?.....holy.......Hand built, only 500 made and you guys brought FOUR of them here? I better drink in the killer engineering, because i will probably never see one in real life again.
-Volvo. Is volvo. Booth looked like a Volvo. Volvo.
-Mercedes. Excellent display. High quality. Expensive. Everything is on display. Gullwing doors weren't open. Super-sad face. So sad i left.
-Cadillac. MMMMMM CTS-V. Display was good. High quality. Not very risky, but solid. CTS-V on nice display. Too bad thier stuff was in the middle of the floor. So many people i couldnt really take it in.


There were some other notable stuff, Lambo Club of America was there. Lambos are sexy. but nothing much to tell that you havent seen on pretty much everything about Lambos ever.
-McLaren MP4-12c was nice, but a retarded name.
-Aston Martin was........mmmmmmm........Vantage.......mmmm...i think i love you...................................i....................mmmm.....
Im sorry? You were saying?
OH!
-Maserati. Nice, but seems to be trying to hard to be...........mmmmm Aston Martin.....mmmmmmmm
-Jaguar. HEY its those. Sorry Jag. Main mistake was sitting right next to Aston Martin. I just couldn't pay attention to you.

And thats about it.

I'd recommend any real car fan to take a trip. Worth the 11 bucks i paid to get in. Very fun, but for the love of god, try and go when school is in session so you dont have to deal with the %$#@! kids and their fat-lazy-idiot parents.

[manofthefield]

Thanks for your reporting ninjeff! 

I went to Detroit last year and it was cool, but it kinda sounds like this was better.  It did sound like the Detroit show was a little lame last year due to recession.   I think I'll try to get to the chicago next year. 

I went to my 'home' show, the Grand Rapids show.  Mostly it just seems like the local dealers bring some cars from the lot to display.  Every  once in a while a prototype car will be sprinkled in.  The only two this year were the 2013 Ford Fusion and the Mazda CX5 (was this at Chicago?).

[bombsquad83]

Great review of the whole show.  I agree 100% with almost every one of your manufacturer reviews.  Very well done.  I couldn't agree more about the Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler displays.  I have been seriously considering investing in Ford because I think they are really going places with the new Focus and 2013 Fusion.  One of those 2 cars will likely be my next new car purchase.  I love my Mazda 3, but that new front-end styling is so...goofy.

The Mazda CX-5 was there.  Very interested to see how it drives.  I think it looks great, with the exception of the chinsy looking grill and the plastic fenders above the wheel wells.