New York International Auto Show Day One: #Blessed To Be At #NYIAS

"Andrew T. Maness" (theroadlessdriven)
04/02/2015 at 10:00 • Filed to: NYIAS, New York Auto Show, Andrew Maness, BMW, Cadillac, Honda, Mazda, Miata, Volvo, Alfa Romeo, McLaren, 570S, Ford, Focus RS, Oppo, Koenigsegg, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Veyron

When I was just a wee lad growing up in the green mountains of Vermont there was a car show that took place every June just 20 minutes from home. It was a pretty good size show and featured everything from a Model T to a hot rodded hearse. Even then I felt very lucky to have been exposed to what I thought was a very wide range of vehicles. Then as I grew up, I realized that there was so much more to the automotive community than American muscle and my tastes began to change as I discovered the worlds of DTM, F1, rallying and drifting. While I didn’t have a way to watch the races I learned about the manufacturers and that (coupled with a massive die-cast collection) is how I learned to appreciate all cars, not just the poster children. I think that nearly every vehicle has a purpose and while some may not be my growler of beer, they probably mean something to someone. There is no place that is a better reminder of this than an auto show.

The cars that have debuted at the 2015 New York Auto Show have been flashy (McLaren 570s) elegant (Cadillac CT-6) aggressive (Lexus RX) and restrained (Mercedes GLE). Each of those vehicles is massively important to the brand and each has its audience that was probably giddy with excitement before they pulled the sheet off it. At the Honda Civic concept debut yesterday I could not have cared less about what it was going to look like, I’m not a Civic guy, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t the biggest crowd I saw all day, even bigger than the McLaren reveal. My point is that it’s all too easy to become jaded in this industry or even industry adjacent in my case. Hell I walked right by a Koenigsegg, Lamborghini, Bugatti lineup because I’ve seen them on the street in Los Angeles before and they don’t seem like anything out of the ordinary. Then I stopped and actually thought about how hard 10 year old me would kick current me in the balls for not taking a picture of those insane machines. I turned around, snapped a couple photos and in doing so actually felt better about the day.

Maybe auto shows don’t have to be such a drag for the automotive community, maybe they can be fun, maybe they can restore a sense of wonder and remind journalists of why they got into this business in the first place. As for me I don’t need any reminding, I know why I’m here, I fucking love automobiles...and free coffee.

Cheers,

-Andrew

*While writing this post my card reader crapped out, thus holding hostage all my photos from yesterday. Please accept these i-Phone photos as appetizer, the feast shall commence tomorrow .

The GDP of many Latin countries is lined up right here.

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It’s as good as you want it to look and then some. The proportions are just right.

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RHD Miata hiding in the basement.

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Go ahead and talk shit, this thing is absolutely gorgeous in person.

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Oh how I cannot wait til drive this thing. 34 speakers...three, four, you read that correctly. Going to go with deep cuts on the CT6 playlist.

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XC 90 R-Design really is the top dog in the luxury SUV segment.

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Alfa brought out the big guns to remind everyone who they are.

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Be still my beating heart

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WTF are creature comforts?!

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BMW has the best coffee...so far.

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Andrew Maness writes about cars because he has one and also has a computer. He’s been known to drunkenly tweet as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and upload photos to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . He also has a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and thinks talking about himself in the 3rd person is really weird but knows it’s necessary if he wants to be taken seriously as an automotive journalist.

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