At the time I was thinking of becoming a historian, a slightly more respectable occupation than a journalist.
I wasn’t sure about that, but I knew that I was never going to be in a position to pay ten thousand for a car. Nowadays, of course, ten thousand dollars might get you a used Honda Civic.
I haven’t gone to the auto show in a long time. But this year, I think I actually might, despite, or maybe because of, all the media moaning about how diminished this show is compared to past years.
Some of this moaning, I suspect, is because our ailing auto companies have turned off the spigot on all the freebies that the media used to enjoy in such abundance. Chrysler, for example, provided acres of free food and booze at a renovated old firehouse across the street from Cobo Ce nter.
This was greatly welcomed by the media, because it was traditionally the first time they had gotten free food from Chrysler since the company’s Christmas party a month before.
Yet this year the freebies have dried up. That’s largely because these great pillars of private industry are being kept in business by billions in government loans they just received. To use that money to throw a well-lubricated party might not be seemly.
Especially, that is, in the eyes of the lawmakers who Chrysler hopes will give them more money later on.
So while there may be no freebies, I think this year’s auto show might be worth seeing because we are on the cusp of something new. If the current financial crisis has made anything clear, it is that the old auto industry is finished.
It has to change or die. My guess is that this year’s show will show us the industry in its transitional phase. Sort of like the world at the end of the age of the dinosaurs. Some of those old lizards are still thrashing around the swamp.
But the spotlight is shifting to the mammals -- or in this case, the hybrids and the electric cars. Chrysler is exhibiting a hot new electric concept Dodge. To be sure, there some gas powered cars that look interesting, such as the newly redesigned Ford Taurus.
But I have to confess that my concept of a sexy car has changed over the years. Today, I am turned on by comfort, safety, and reliability. That’s what I look for when I buy a car.
I love looking at Corvettes, but no longer feel the need -- or ability -- to impress anyone with what my car looks like.
This year, however, I suspect we may be looking for something altogether new among Detroit’s entries at the North American International Auto Show. We’ll stare, and wonder - could this just possibly be the car that might enable this company to survive?
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