Went to the Chicago Auto Show......

[BlownMe]

Aside from the fact that it was friggen PACKED I enjoyed it. Saw the Camaro and the Challenger. I hung out around the Challenger for a bit and I heard a lot of comments about how people liked it more than the Camaro. It'll be interesting, when they both hit the market, which one sells more. I checked out the Charger and liked the exterior but wasnt digging the interior too much. Seemed kinda cheap. Saw the Denali and not sure if I like it or not. I do like the new Tahoe and Surburban. I liked the Cadillac Escalade display. I fell in love with the Mercedes SLR!! That car is just SEXY!! Lincoln has a lot of decent looking stuff coming out. Overall, was a pretty decent car auto show. Next year, ill be going during the week so it wont be so packed.

[Yooformula]

I read that the Camaro got bumped until 2010, did you hear that at all?

[BlownMe]

I didnt hear that at the Auto Show or at work. I'll see what I can dig up at work tomorrow. There are gonna be some exterior and interior changes to the Camaro. From what the guy said at the auto show, the Challenger is pretty much in production form already. He said a few minor interior changes were in its future but they will most likely help the looks and functionality of the interior. The crowd around the Challenger were happy to hear that it wasnt gonna be changed much. The crowd at the Camaro was bigger but there was more indecision about whether people liked it or not. The general consensus was pretty much the same about the interior......its gotta go!.

[STEALTHZR2]

I went to the show on saturday. it was great. Really packed. I like the Challenger better than the camaro. The challenger was sexy looking.

[92lxcoupe]

I also went Saturday. I liked both the Challenger and the Camaro, but liked the Challenger more. Other than those two and the GT500, the show was less than I expected.

[HITMAN]

I went Saturday as well. Nothing too mind blowing for me.

Here are a few of my observations from the show:

The best looking car at the show for me was the Infinity G35 coupe concept. That has to be the sexiest looking silver I've ever seen. It looked like liquid mercury. :wow :shades

I sat in the new Z/06. While I would still love to own one, I can't believe that a GM still puts cheap looking plastic surfaces in a $70K+ car. If Ford can put REAL aluminum trim in a $25K Mustang GT, why can't GM do the same for it's premier halo sports car? :durr :rolleyes:

New Camaro and Challenger. Both are very cool, but the Camaro looks better in person than in print, and the Challenger looks better in print than it does in person. The Challenger looked a little slab sided to me, and without at least the illusion of front and rear bumper, it appeared a bit unfinished. That is just my perception, having grown up around the originals.
The Camaro is one sexy beast. What a beautiful profile. I don't care for the headlight/grill treatment and as the car nears production I expect that to change. I really hate the tail lights and I think they should be changed to more closely resemble those on the first gen Camaro. The roof-line looked neat, but I expect it will be raised in inch or so before the car actually makes production.

New Mercedes S class. Yuck. Why would Mercedes want to give the nasty looking RX8 fender treatment to it's solid conservative and previously beautiful premier big car. Even the AMG treatment didn't help. :durr

New Mustang SVT Cobra. I refuse to call it a Shelby, as it isn't produced by him, and as for calling it a GT500, whatever. Cool car, with TONS of potential, although it keeps gaining weight (3930lbs empty at last report, with 58% of that tonnage on the front wheels). Will it be worth $40,000 plus dealer gouge (Remember, it says SHELBY on the back now... :rolleyes: ) for this thing? Not to me...

New Saturn Sky :shades MUCH better looking IMO than it's cousin, the Pontiac Solstice. More edgy, and less chick-car-ish. It will be out this spring, with the turbo version planned for a later introduction. If I haven't made a car purchase by the time the turbo version comes out, I think I will have to seriously consider one of these things. Or I could just buy the non-turbo version and send it to Mallet for one of his LS2 conversions.... :devil

[HITMAN]

I read that the Camaro got bumped until 2010, did you hear that at all?

Actually, Autoweek has said that the intro will be moved up to '08, and I think they're right. Based on the excitement and positive feedback they're getting, I think GM smells profit here, and wants to get in on the retro-muscle car craze while the getting is good.

[HITMAN]

I checked out the Charger and liked the exterior but wasnt digging the interior too much. Seemed kinda cheap.

Did you look at the regular Charger or the SRT-8 version? While I think the base Charger is kind of ugly, the font fascia, hood, spoiler and interior of the SRT-8 really appealed to me. It makes the car look much more aggressive. The interior of the SRT-8 was very nice, with the best, most supportive seats of any car I sat in at the show. Plus, the black leather with the white stitching gave the interior a custom look. It didn't look cheap to me at all.

The Z/06 on the otherhand... :slap

[Rocket Power]

Actually, Autoweek has said that the intro will be moved up to '08, and I think they're right. Based on the excitement and positive feedback they're getting, I think GM smells profit here, and wants to get in on the retro-muscle car craze while the getting is good.
Well if GM is looking to bandwagon jump then it won't come out till 2015 when the retro thing is way over. Look at how they waited till PT Cruisers stopped being hot to come out with the HHR/PT Loser ripoff :rolf

[Brian98GTP]

I went on Saturday too... the cars were nice... food was crap.... Camaro and the Challenger were both nice... BUT,.... the one thing I noticed........

...there were hardly ANY Hott Chix there.... I might have seen one or two here or there over by the Ferarris and Mercedes area.. but that was it...
It seemed like I picked the day where all the fat Wisconsin farmgirls decided to go... :licky

:puke :puke :puke






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[Karps TA]

I'll be shocked if we see the Camaro before 2010. Before a 2008 release they'd need to already be pretty far along on whatever other vehicles are going to share the platform. Lutz said at the unveiling the Camaro would need to sell 160,000 units a year to be profitable and justifiable to GM to build it. That's twice as many units then the Camaro and Bird were selling together during the 4th gen years. So they'd need atleast 1 probably 2-3 more cars to share the platform with. Supposedly both Buick and Pontiac will get RWD cars off the platform, but they'd have to be shown and pretty close to production ready by next years shows to make that.

[0TransAm0]

i went on wensday..it was ok wasn't really packed either.. i even got to go for a ride in the dodge srt10 viper truck... i thought it was ok..i did a couple of the raffles and won a back pack from the suzukie peeps.. and bought some metal polish for my new wheels..over all i thought it was a good show.

[Yooformula]

Here is the article I read, doesnt mean its gold but rumors usually start somewhere. http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=109327

[GrimreaperSS]

I just went today. I also felt the same about the show. Other than the Camaro and Challenger concpets, it felt kind of dissappointing. I felt both cars looked better in person. I like the Camaro interior much better in person than the photos I've seen. Also, for being a domestic kind if guy, I was pretty impressed with the Ralli Art Eclipse. Wouldnt mind seeing those cars around town. I found that Dodge is making the Super Bee option available to the SRT-8 Chargers. I think it looks far better than the Daytona R/T option.
The GT500 was alright. Not very impressed the the interior. Looked kind of bland to me. Another import to catch my eye was the VW Jetta GT R. Very cool looking. Impressive numbers, especially with the DSG trans. and 4motion.
Truck-wise..... nothing too crazy out there. I also like the new Escalade/Yukon/Tahoe design. The Ford Super Chief was kinda cool. I dont see it ever making production, but still cool. Would hate to have to try parking that thing, would be always at the back of the lot, easier parking. Dont know why, but so many people were commenting on the bar between the back seats. Nothing new in my mind. One thing that caught my attention when walking to the "high end" side, was that this year Cadillac was over there. I'm pretty sure they were on the opposite side last year. I just thought " good for them " when I saw that. Impressed that you could also sit in ALL the V-series cars this year, including XLR-V. You could definitely tell you were in a "different world" on the high end side. Everyone was dressed better and so damn many of them were speaking another language. I just wanted to yell at them to speak english! :stare It also seemed to be lacking a few manufacturers this year. I didnt see very many of the exoctic car lines.
And I dont know about yesterday, but there were plenty of the nice ladies there today. :D

[BlownMe]

When I went Saturday early afternoon, there were PLENTY of hot chicks both working there and walking around.

Hitman: I sat in the Charger SRT-8. I just wasnt impressed with it. It looked cheap. Kinda felt like something GM would put in a car. I liked the interior of the new Z06. Looks a lot better than the interiors of the C5.

There werent many of the high end exotics. Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley, and Aston Martin made a nice showing but Lamborghini was absent. I wouldve liked to see a Pagani Zonda there too but thats probably a stretch. I got a bunch of nice pics there. Ill post some soon.

[wikked]

:pics