the Los Angeles Auto Show

We avoided the malls and hit up the L.A. Convention Center for the annual auto show on Black Friday. Although there were a few cool concept vehicles on display, it was pretty obvious why the automobile industry is in such big trouble.... boring cars!! All the "new" cars seemed like they were taken from the spare parts boxes of other cars. A side panel here, a hood and grill here, and a trunk from here, and voila! a "new" car! However, despite the generally poor offerings from most manufacturers, we still had fun!

Michael is in heaven here... while sitting in his dream car, the Subaru Impreza STI! If you look closely, you can see that he is actually drooling!

In case anyone hasn't bought our Christmas present yet, please consider getting us the above car. One in orange for Debbie and one in yellow for Michael. Thanks in advance!

Who knew? Michael actually fits in the FIT! The Honda Fit is surprisingly spacious and has a lot more cargo room than many larger cars. Now if only Honda could improve its mpgs...

One theme was clear - there were plenty of ghetto-mobiles to go around. Ford seemed especially enthusiastic to embrace the gangsta market with the low-riding, big-wheeled Flex! (see above for the rapper version and below for street art version of the same vehicle.)

Finally, we saw GM's sad display of trucks and other over-sized vehicles, interrupted only by their Swedish subsidiary Saab.

Until next year...

p.s. if anyone has any tickets for the C.E.S. please let us know!