Car Show Thoughts and A Dodge For Bobby G!

After the big car shows in Detroit, New York and elsewhere, the auto industry fans out and does smaller regional shows all over the country. Ours is always the first week of March, usually just before the basketball post season starts. Sponsored by the dealers and others, it's a good time to take a look at the new models of cars being offered in a low pressure atmosphere. You can get literature, ask questions and not be pressed too much. The only thing you can't do is drive the cars--although a few manufacturers were doing drives this year.

The Dodge Charger is slightly redesigned for 2011 and continues to be a good seller for Chrysler.

The rear is really neat now, taking design cues from the retro Dodge Challenger. Generally the redesign has gotten good reviews from the car press.

Back when I first started going to this show, you would see more concepts and possible future models. Now the shows travel much lighter, with only preview models of cars actually in the pipeline. They rely on dealer stock to fill out the cars for display at their spots on the show floor. Ford brought the most "outside' stuff, with displays, interactive things and preview models. This year two major makers, BMW and Nissan, chose not to participate in our show. I was amazed to find that I missed them!

Mopar has upgraded the interiors of all models--a huge improvement over the previous interior. It's much better finished and feels more lux. Note the screen for the GPS and other goodies to the right of the wheel.

Photographing the car show can be problematic. One can only look so much at pictures of cars, cars, cars. I like to mix it up, car photos and people interacting with the cars and each other photos. I took over 90 photos! There will be more posted on the photo blog, to join the post on the gull wing Mercedes already there.

These here Dodge pics are for my reader Bobby G in honor of the recent ride he had in a Dodge Charger.

The rear of the Challenger. This is the super fancy big SRT model.