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Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron, and SW Ontario
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MWmetalhead
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Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:18 pm

Took a trip to Cobo - err TCF - err Huntington Place early this evening.

Be prepared to pay out the ass for parking if you park at Huntington Place or across the street on the north side Congress. I had to pay $20 just to park. Perhaps I should've driven up to Fort Street or parked at a meter along First or Second! I knew rain was coming, so I didn't want to be stuck walking an extra block or two in pouring rain.

Funny how the local news media haven't bothered to mention that little tidbit about parking being so expensive.

As for the show itself, it's definitely scaled down. All the vehicles are on the main level of Cobo. I didn't walk over to Hart Plaza, as that portion of the show was closed down due to approaching rain.

General Motors and Chrysler / Jeep / Ram had massive displays that took up probably a good one half of floor space on a combined basis. Other than checking out a couple Chevy Blazers, I didn't spend much time in either area.

Ford's setup was weird. Bronco Mountain was on one side of the show floor, some miscellaneous Ford vehicles were scattered in the middle, and then Lincoln had a good sized exhibit in yet another location.

Toyota had a nice exhibit area with plenty of unlocked vehicles to check out. They also had a number of reps roaming the area to answer questions. At least one of the vehicles was equipped with the ability to ask questions through the bluetooth speakers and receive real time answers! That was really cool, I must say. I sat inside a Supra, two different RAV4s and two different Highlanders. The Highlander's roof line in the backseat has a somewhat annoying dip, presumably to accommodate the moon roof when it is open. Also sat in the Corolla Cross; anyone taller than 5' 8" is going to have difficulty fitting in that thing. The dimensions of the cabin were sloppily devised, and the lack of legroom in the backseat is laughable. I did not bother with the Corolla hatchback or Camry sedan that I saw.

Honda had zero presence, unless you count a couple of locked cars that a local dealership brought onto the show floor, stashed away in a non-descript area. They didn't even have the new 2023 HR-V or the just launched 2023 CR-V on display; absolutely pathetic!!! Extremely disappointed. Could not have been a bigger night & day difference between Toyota's representation versus that of Honda.

Even though Toyota had a prominent presence, I didn't see anything there from Lexus, which was odd.

Suburban Volkswagen brought about a dozen cars to Huntington, but all of them were locked and there was no information available.

I saw a few Hyundai vehicles from one of the local Hyundai dealers (probably Suburban), but again, they were all locked! How fucking stupid. Saw one or two Santa Fe SUVs, a sport coup, and maybe one other vehicle. Did not see a Palisade and did not see any KIA products, although I was not looking particularly hard.

I saw one Mazda CX-50 on the show floor and no CX-5 or CX-30 (!!!). And of course, the Mazda CX-50 was locked.

Subaru did have what appeared to be a very half-assed exhibit from the manufacturer. A Forester, a Crosstrek, an Outback, a new plug-in EV, and maybe one or two other cars were on display. At least they were unlocked and available for perusing, but the exhibit was as bare bones as one could imagine.

For a subcompact, I was impressed by the Crosstrek. Had to lower the driver's seat super low to give myself sufficient height, but headroom wasn't bad once I did so. The materials didn't seem like trash, and the backseat was surprisingly roomy from both a headroom and legroom standpoint. The Outback was a Wilderness Edition. Wow; the interior of that car sucked ass. The materials looked cheap, including the gear selector, and the obnoxiously oversized infotainment screen with its piano black bezel was covered with probably a dozen fingerprint smudges. The seats were not that comfortable and the driving position was lower than I would like. I test drove a Subaru back in 2019 and found the interior of that car to be significantly better than this one.

OVERALL GRADE for the auto show: C
I felt I didn't get my money's worth for $20 admission + $20 parking. If I had paid $20 total, then I would've been a happier camper.

If you really love GM vehicles or Chrysler vehicles, your opinion of the show will probably be higher than my own.



radioandtventhusiast
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by radioandtventhusiast » Wed Sep 21, 2022 2:27 pm

Is there anything in the concourse level at Huntington Place or is everything else now outside? Radio stations would do remote broadcasts from the concourse level often.



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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by MWmetalhead » Wed Sep 21, 2022 3:22 pm

Hot 107.5 was broadcasting live. WWJ 950 had an empty table. A formula one car was on display, and the dog grooming van from the movie Dumb & Dumber, or a replica thereof, was on display.

There were various food and drink concession stands and souvenir stands.



radioandtventhusiast
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by radioandtventhusiast » Wed Sep 21, 2022 4:40 pm

We always get food from the concessions, although we might get food from one of the food trucks at Hart Plaza this year.



thekman
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by thekman » Thu Sep 22, 2022 1:03 am

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue Sep 20, 2022 9:18 pm
Took a trip to Cobo - err TCF - err Huntington Place early this evening.

Be prepared to pay out the ass for parking if you park at Huntington Place or across the street on the north side Congress. I had to pay $20 just to park.
Honestky, I pretty much always expect to pay at least $20 when I head downtown.



Michiganviewer
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by Michiganviewer » Thu Sep 22, 2022 5:35 pm

$20 is cheap. Most avg people spend that on a coffee at starbucks.

get used to disappoint for the next 5-6 years for the autoshow. Nothing great is being produced by the auto makers as they moved away from making sedans and are now shifting to EVs that are horrible designs/functionality.

Its ashame because I would like to have a 2024 Chrysler 200. Ford only makes a mustange for a close to a sedan option.

Though Nissan, Toyota and Honda do have great line ups for sedans.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by MWmetalhead » Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:04 am

I just realized Nissan is yet another automaker who skipped this year's show.

Honda keeps changing its narrative on the 2023 CR-V. Their corporate communications people should be fired. Just days ago, we were told they would go on sale and begin arriving at dealers today. Nope! Turns out PRODUCTION didn't even begin until yesterday, I believe.



Editorcj
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by Editorcj » Fri Sep 23, 2022 3:23 pm



Who pays $20 to park in Detroit? Usually it's free or with the parking app, $3 at most.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by MWmetalhead » Fri Sep 23, 2022 5:58 pm

LOL! I just saw that episode a month ago. :)



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48125er
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto

Post by 48125er » Fri Sep 23, 2022 6:25 pm

The automotive industry this year has less excitement and inertia this year than it did in 1980 when new cars hit an all time low in terms of performance and sales in the peak of the malaise era.

Chrysler has always had the best exhibit IMO

The radio show up sounds pretty pitiful I remember even the Canadian stations would set up shop for a week there.

Did Nissan show up? With the new frontier, Toyotas new tundra looks pretty badass



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by MWmetalhead » Sat Sep 24, 2022 5:54 am

The only Asian automakers present were Toyota (who had a great exhibit) and Subaru (who spent virtually no money on their exhibit).



radioandtventhusiast
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Re: Review of this year's Detroit Auto Show

Post by radioandtventhusiast » Sat Sep 24, 2022 1:32 pm

Went there yesterday with my father and a good friend. It was definitely watered down compared to the past. Stelantis, (Chrysler, Ford, all the GM brands and Toyota had decent exhibits, but the lack of foreign manufacturers present was a bit of a damper. Went outside to Hart Plaza and outside of the giant Rubber duckie, was a waste as we were full from lunch (we ate in the food court) and there was no live music at the time. We were only there for a half hour. The dinosaur exhibit was interesting, though.

On the concourse level, indeed Hot 107.5 was indeed broadcasting and seemed to be doing a promotion of some sort. WWJ had an empty table with no one broadcasting, and had a TV promoting Audacy stuff.

Only Stelantis brands had paper brochures. I remember the days when every manufacturer had one. I'll probably bring my tablet when I see a QR code somewhere.

Overall, it was decent, but definitely lacking. We spent 5 hours and in the past it was typically 7 to 8 hours, enough to have dinner in the Detroit area.



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