My thoughts from the 2009 New York International Auto Show. Day 1

As many of you know, I was covering the New York International Auto Show, and it was truly breathtaking to take part in such an event. This was like some kind of dream, because I remember reading about the event in the pages of Car and Driver, Road & Track, and even CAR. This is the type of show the manufacturers debut their concepts, or introduce their brand new production ready models. With these introductions, there is the usual staging extras like a car draped with an appropriately colored silk cover, background lighting, smoke machines, and sometimes musicians. This year, most of the manufacturers had some kind of opulent stage performance. What was surprising however, was the number of manufacturers that didn't. Most of the big introductions were already performed at earlier shows like Detroit, Chicago, Geneva, and Los Angeles. And let's not forget, all the automakers are feeling the slide in sales, with at least a couple that are on the brink of shutting down. With this kind of turbulance, the overall feel of the show (at least from what I gathered from the other journalist at the show) was a show with a facade of hope, but with relatively little in the way of new product. Let's take a look back at this years New York Auto Show.

Mercedes held the first press conference on the first press day, on Wednesday, at 9:00. They had a full compliment of models on display, with a couple of the models under the required white satin cover. As I made my way to an area I thought would be good for photography, there was some tension in the air, with throngs of Mercedes personnel speaking in German. They were clearly feeling the economic turmoil, more so because of their stake in the ever dysfunctional Chrysler. Anyway, the time came for their first introduction, and the usual executives were on stage, with all three teleprompters spooling their lines. Then out popped the new ML450 Hybrid, that is built only for the North American Market. I thought that was odd, a non Diesel Mercedes that is suppose to be green.

After about 10 minutes, they returned the ML behind the curtain, and brought out the new E63 AMG, with a roarty exhaust note. Great, another silver gray Mercedes AMG Sedan. It is suppose to be better than the one it's replacing, but is it a trendsetter? I'm not so sure. The one car I wanted to really hear about was the Mercedes E250 Bluetec, a 4 Cylinder E series Diesel, that Mercedes is gauging the public to see if they will accept a 4 Cylinder Luxury Diesel. So what were the two cars under the covers? A New GL Class (Who cares) and a new E Class Coupe (now that's more like it). There were a lot of other models sprinkled throughout the display area including AMG SL Black Series, and tucked away in the corner a Maybach Zeppelin. Odd that this car was in a corner almost out of sight.

Right after the Mercedes press conference was the Chrysler Press Conference. I was trying to get to it, but I had the Mercedes story to write about (at another blog....), but here are some of the highlights: Jim Press, Vice Chairman and President for Chrysler was escorted out in a Fiat 500. That was odd, but it wasn't a surprise (because I was wandering around on the floor the day before, without my camera) since the Fiat and Chrysler tie up is currently on-going. The big announcement was the new Jeep Grand Cherokee, and it drove up on stage taking the stairs as it's route. It's a Mercedes ML platform, with a Jeep body. I'm glad I missed it, because in all reality, do we really need another SUV?

Speaking of SUV's, the Land Rover press conference was next, and you guess it, I decided not to go to that either, mainly because I didn't think that there were any new Land Rovers to introduce. Well, I was wrong, as they introduced three significantly upgraded Land Rovers. You can read about them elsewhere, because I have next to no information on them. Besides, I was getting ready for the Acura press conference. Acura promised a game changer during it's introduction (and I got a brief glimpse of it before it's unveiling). The Acura display was very modern with all of their models on display, including the new V6 TSX (Honda Accord in Europe). The White sheet was pulled off, and it was, in essence, a BMW 6 Series interpreted by Honda. Yes, I saw a glimpse of the front end with the rest of the car under the white cover, but come on, another useless SAV? Yes the interior is modern, but this is no game changer.

I had to run to stake my spot at the GMC, Buick, and Pontiac display area, because this was going to be the only major introduction GM planned at the show. Their heavyweight management staff were all missing, including Richard Wagner, and Bob Lutz. In their place was Ed Wellburn, head of GM Design, and Susan Docherty, Buick-Pontiac-GMC vice president. Susan rambled on and on about how GM has made progress in, well, everything, but many reporters here were waiting to see if GM goes comatose. Well, they should have, because the major introduction was the GMC Terrain, a small, car based CUV, based on the Chevrolet Equinox. Literally, within minutes, the display area cleared, with very few people asking about the Terrain from the GM executives in attendance. Why did everyone run? Because Toyota's Scion division was about to do a special introduction.

I really hate to say this, but this introduction was the highlight of the entire show, so that should tell you about the level of excitement (or general level of feeling letdown) at this years show. Toyota reserved the Gallaria area of the Javitts Center for this purpose, and it is at the top level of the hall. Appropriately, there was a lot of excitement, then the smoke macines started, and the Techno started blaring, and a bright green/yellow little car dropped from the ceiling. As soon as it meet the stage, four stage hands unhinged the cables used to lower the car, and it spun on the turntable. This is the Scion iQ, which is really the Toyota iQ with fender flares, and bright paint (appropriately called "Radioactive"). This is the reason why I wanted to come to the show, blaring music, exciting introductions, and throngs of photojournalists. Like I said, this was the highpoint of the show so far. Little did I know, it was going to be the highlight of the show, period!

Volkswagen gave a luncheon, and introduced another version of the Golf (already on sale in Europe), with BMW (Introducing the X6, and X5 "M" series), Bentley (Introducing the Bentley Continental Supersports, and get this, it runs on E85!), and Porsche (Porsche 911 GT3, which was nice and all, but still another 911!) giving press conferences wrapping up the first day of introductions. What was very intersting is that the Bentley and Porsche Introductions were fairly low key, with little to no fanfare.

While the BMW Press Conference was on going, I decided to wander and observe other parts of the show. Lamborghini, and Rolls Royce, were only there because Manhattan Motorcars brought vehicles from their showroom to the show. Spyker, SMS Supercars, and Iconic Motors were also in the main "Crystal Palace" locations as well. That was it for Day 1, and there will be other postings for Day 2, and a Wrap Up piece as well.