The GG was a little surprised when yer favo-rite blahgger initiated the idea of heading off to NAIAS, or what I still call the Dee-troit Auto Show. Although I absolutely LOVE to drive, I am really not an automobile geek. That is to say I don’t go gaga over this or that vee-hickle. You know. Sports cars or SUVs or fancy luxury cars or whatever. I grew up around a couple of car geeks. The Engineer could name all of the models on the road by the time he was three. I can remember once when Grandroobly and The Commander were headed from the Yooperland down south to Daytwa for some kind of bank boondoggle and The Engineer made them promise to tell him if they saw a Corvette with its light covers down. Not too many Corvettes in the Yooperland in those days. I am no stranger to the auto show because, for a number of years, we would make the trip to Daytwa specifically to attend it. Our trip always included a morning at the old downtown Hudson’s department store for The Commander and me. I admit that I was much more interested in that part of the expotition. I would get a couple of new outfits and maybe some fabric and we’d have lunch on the mezzanine.

Anyway, my criteria for automobiles is pretty simple. I like cars that are reliable. I don’t care how fast they can go but I appreciate enough get up and go that I can pass other cars when I need to. My cars have to be reliable. And they need to handle well in snow. Did I mention reliability? Basically, I like to have a car (or two or three) that I know will start right up every morning and get me where I’m going without a noisy engine that sounds like it’s going to quit or grinding brakes or squealing belts or warning lights coming on (or blinking on and off!). A stick shift is a plus but I can live without it. My next vee-hickle is going to have a remote starter so I don’t have to stumble out of the Landfill every morning to start it so the ice melts off zeeee veeeeendsheeeeld by the time I leave for work.

Although we are currently in the market for a new vee-hickle, we didn’t go down to the show today to shop. We have already chosen our next car. One of these days, we’ll just decide “it’s time” and go get it. I don’t know when that’ll be. Our oldest car, the Dogha, is going strong at 150K (knock on wood). I suspect that we’ll take the plunge sometime before the GG decides he needs to haul a boat trailer somewhere, since we do not currently own anything with a trailer hitch.

Today I was mainly curious. I have attended the auto show occasionally in my adult life but it had been a few years. I wondered what the show would be like in 2011. With the major upheaval the auto industry has been experiencing the last couple years and all the hype about alternative fuels, what kinds of vehicles would be showcased and what technology would be emphasized? And then there’s the part of me that likes to look at all the glitz and even do a little people watching. What had changed for the 21st century?

And I dunno exactly what to say except that we had a great time! The auto industry *is* (and should be, in my opinion) showcasing alternative fuels. But there were plenty of big SUVs and luxury cars and sports cars and mid-size cars like our loverly Dogha that don’t get terrible fuel economy but aren’t the best either. We thoroughly checked out the vee-hickle that we intend to buy in the not-so-distant future and a number of others also. The little girl in me missed the beautiful women who used to present cars in fancy, sparkly dresses…

We are early risers so after breakfast at the Northside Grille here on The Planet Ann Arbor, we got to Cobo Hall pretty close to the nine o’clock opening of the show. And that was a good thing because by the time we decided we had seen enough, a couple hours later, it was getting really crowded. I enjoy a bit of people watching from time to time but I really don’t do well in crowds for very long. So, we dredged out our hats and gloves and headed up to the the GG’s fave Cobo roof parking lot, got into our beloved old salt-encrusted Dogha, headed down the spiral ramp to Jefferson or whatever street is down there, and hit the freeway. Fly Honda Express. For home.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.