Automobophobia

Tricia and I ventured out to the 2002 Chicago Autoshow yesterday. Whereas last year, finding the CTA bus back to Union Station (no signs anywhere!) and sprinting after the friendly bus driver were our greatest adventures, this year involved taking our brand new son Mason on the trip. The competent McCormick place staff directed us to 3 different floors for entry into the show. And thinking we were smarter than 1 million other Chicagoans we bought our tickets on the Internet so we could go to the special “Fast Line”. You know, the one that ended up having 1 million other Chicagoans in it.

OK, about the cars…You can tell the economy has been horrible by how few concept cars there were. The 2002 Concepts didn’t seem to have nearly the imagination as last year’s either. I really think the car companies are all played out on the cross-over SUV and were just out of ideas for this year. My favorite trend however is the retro-new vehicles. My favorite is the Chevy SSR. This thing is part truck, part convertible, part hot-rod. It is bad ass! I like that the car companies are digging into the past – a time when people didn’t have to please all the demographics to get a car produced. Funny that I found a classic 1950’s Chrysler 300 to be best in show.