2015 Minneapolis Auto Show

"All Motor Is Best Motor" (acidicheartburn) 03/13/2015 at 21:24 • Filed to: Auto Show, Minneapolis Auto Show

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I just got back from the 2015 Minneapolis Auto Show. I'd say it was pretty good this year. Scroll down for pics of some of the better appearances.

I went around and sat in pretty much anything and everything, including the Camry. There were some pleasant surprises this year.

I feel like most cars generally have OK to uncomfortable seats in them. Notable exceptions: Honda, Acura, Hyundai, and Volvo (the seats in the S60 are truly as incredible as everyone makes them out to be). Honda knows how to make comfortable seats in their upper level cars, especially in the Acuras. The seats in the RLX were particularly great. I'm probably a bit spoiled by the frankly pretty darn good seats in my 2001 Acura CL. The seats in the Porsche Boxter, Cayman, and 911 they had present seemed to also be pretty good but the cars were unpowered so the seats were stuck in terrible positions.

Another thing I took away from the show was that, according to my own tastes, most car interiors are really kind of "meh". I really am not a fan of all these capacitive touch controls in a lot of cars these days. I don't like how flat it makes everything look, and I really hate the functionality. I was pleasantly surprised with the interiors of a few cars, including (and yes I'm actually saying this) the Mitsubishi Mirage. For a car that starts at just over $11,000 and gets such awful reviews, the interior really wasn't too bad. Better than the Chevy Sonic's godawful weird pod tachometer. BMW's interiors are still typical BMW (visually a mess and pretty confusing). Mercedes are still kind of a little wonky but nice. Audi's interiors are still pretty clean and a little boring (in a good way) and everyone else had most "meh" interiors. The Buick LaCrosse has a nice dash, as did all of the Hyundai (except for the new Sonata) and Kia's, surprisingly.

A standout brand IMO is Dodge. For whatever reason I really, really enjoy the interior aesthetic and layout they have going on. Very clean and simple with dark materials that feel functional and easy to use. Subaru's interiors felt pretty cheap if I'm honest, and I still feel like the seats in their Impreza and Legacy suck.

Mazda's entire lineup, minus the Mazda 5, is pretty much unbelievably beautiful. I cannot believe an underdog brand such as Mazda has a lineup of cars that looks better than 90% of the major car brands on the market. I really need to get around to driving a Mazda 6. Volkswagen had pretty much nothing interesting at all minus a lone GTI. Chevy had its usual lineup of cars, including a couple of Camaros (there was a Z28 just hanging out in the middle of the show floor).

Pics!

I didn't take too many crazy shots of cars since I know you guys can get better photos elsewhere. I also apologize, the bright white lights of the convention center didn't jive well with my relatively inexpensive point-and-shoot, so reds have all turned out awfully.. orange. Similarly, I didn't spend very much time taking pictures so most of these were grabbed pretty quickly on the fly.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in the show was this beautiful orange Red Viper:

Close by was this Charger Hellcat!

Elsewhere in the dodge booth was this racing "sim" set up where you "drive" inside of an actual Charger a digital Charger in some racing game that could have been a modified Gran Turismo of some kind. The real Charger actually would rumble and rock a little bit according to what was happening in the game.

In the Ford area sat a couple of Mustangs, and then a Shelby GT 350! I was really not expecting to see one of them!

The Chevy area had a lone Corvette Z06 convertible in a really lovely shade of metallic blue.

Over near the Minis was a lone BMW i8 for some reason (another surprise appearance).

I had to grab a lone front end shot of this outgoing Audi R8 in black.

Maserati had an insanely gorgeous Gran Turismo in a pearlescent white that does not show up well on camera (11,000 extra, that).

Near by was a lone Alfa Romeo 4c in white! Yet another surprise appearance!

Way off in a far corner of the center were a trio of achingly gorgeous Aston Martins!

On my way out I wandered into one of the smaller rooms, feeling like I might be missing something. To my amazement sat a McLaren 650s! I never thought I'd see one of these here!

Bonus: On the way home I snapped a pic of this ridiculous donk with some crazy insane negative camber going on. It doesn't look that bad from the photo, but believe me these wheels were lifted and stanced .

Overall it was a great time, and I think this year in particular has been one of the better years for seeing some really cool cars. There was a Lotus Evora S, a couple of Jaguar F-types, and a bunch of great performance cars I never thought I'd see at the show. I've gone every single year since 2001, and the last time I saw anything this good was the year when the Ford GT was being shown as a concept car in yellow with black stripes next to the Ford GR1 Concept. Anyone in the area who is thinking of going this year should definitely go!

Sam > All Motor Is Best Motor 03/13/2015 at 21:28

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Interesting vehicles to bring to a place where the average person is likely to buy a Camry or a Fusion. It's great seeing halo cars actually being used to sell the lower models.

Also, you use the word 'lone' a ton.

All Motor Is Best Motor > Sam 03/13/2015 at 21:34

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Hah, funny. I never noticed my overuse of the word. The past few years have been kind of disappointing for seeing halo cars, but this year was a real treat.

Tohru > All Motor Is Best Motor 03/13/2015 at 21:58

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Wisconsin plates. That's funny.

Tohru > All Motor Is Best Motor 03/13/2015 at 22:03

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Shame they had the 650 blocked off. They didn't at Chicago.

All Motor Is Best Motor > Tohru 03/13/2015 at 22:26

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The car's owned by a company that offers specialty storage for expensive cars. I'm not really sure why you'd base such a company out in Wisconsin other than probably cheap real estate.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > All Motor Is Best Motor 03/13/2015 at 22:45

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I really like the Mazda lineup but the 3 just didn't live up to my expectations of it being a wonderful little hatchback.

I'm a big guy with short legs and a long torso, and in the base Sport model, I found myself with my knees against the bottom of the wheel. Driving dynamics were very good, and the car was smooth and quick but between that and the unintuitive touchscreen inforadiotainment system I would have to say it's a really good car but not great. Maybe a Touring with some power seats would help.

It's amazing the difference I can feel in the LX and Sport Accord. The LX has supportive and comfy manual seats but I can't seem to find a good position. In the Sport and EX models, a good position is always easy to find.

All Motor Is Best Motor > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 03/13/2015 at 23:08

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They really do cheap out on the seats in the lower models, and it's a shame. Cloth is generally inferior to leather. They usually use cheaper foam with worse support. It's total BS.