This year I attempted to make it to the New York auto show with press passes. I actually managed to acquire the press passes, but unfortunately I couldn’t make it down during press days. I did however, get a chance to go today and roam among the public at the Jacob Javits Center. Looking at all the new cars from Ford, Dodge, Jeep, BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Toyota, Lexus, Honda and more, I quickly realized something. Almost nothing was new! At least to me.
As a mobile electronics specialist operating a retail store in Fairfield County, Connecticut, our shop sees a wide variety of clients and many of them are driving brand new cars. Sometimes we’re the first stop after driving off the lot. We also happen to do a lot of wholesale work for local car dealerships, often working on a brand new car before it is delivered to the customer. After seeing so many cars today, that I’ve already seen and know well, I realized I take for granted the kind of exposure I get to new cars working in this industry.
Having said that, I still walked away from the show with valuable insight on the convenient technologies that OEM manufacturers are now offering to consumers. The majority of these car manufacturers are creating better and better touch screen control centers with advanced navigation, app integration, multiple camera systems for driver safety and they’re offering all of that on much larger, brighter, and vibrant touch screens than ever before. Even Mercedes has been upgraded their dinky command control screen to an acceptable 7″ screen (it’s still not touch screen though). The OEM offerings are definitely going to give the aftermarket industry a run for its money. I attribute the OEM competitive edge to the car manufacturer’s seemingly bottomless research and development pockets, something the aftermarket manufacturers just don’t have.
I was disappointed that most of the vehicles on display did not have accessory or battery power on, or the option to turn it on for demonstration purposes. As a result, I was unable to actually see or use most of the features that I wanted to see. It wasn’t a total waste of time however, I did get some pretty nice pictures of some pretty cool cars and I enjoyed a slice with hubby at John’s Pizza on West 44th. Enjoy.
This thing is just so cool looking. Maybe Alpine is on to something with those Blue lights.
This interesting new paint concept for BMW first debuted in select 2011 M3’s. Their Frozen series paint options were prevalent at the show……even at the Mercedes and Audi booth.
Mercedes was actually the first manufacturer to offer such a paint finish. Introduced by Mercedes in 2010, they call it MAGNO Matte.
This vehicle caught my eye. This is the first time I ever saw or heard of a Spyker C8. Looks pretty cool. Also looks really expensive.
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