San Diego International Auto Show

The San Diego International Auto Show actually spanned two years – starting on Dec. 29, 2004 and ending on Jan. 2, 2005. The show hours really made it easy to attend. I left home late in the afternoon on Jan. 1 and still had plenty of time to see everything. That day the doors were open until midnight.

Several years ago the show was spread out over several levels of the San Diego Convention Center. That made for a lot of walking up, down and around. This year everything was on one large, easy-to-navigate level. It seemed to take less energy to see everything.

To a great extent, the San Diego show enables showgoers to see much of what is new and available at dealerships – but without the added pressure of salespeople eager to make a sale. Some of the cars from Chevrolet and Nissan were even available for test drives. There was also a generous selection of exciting concept vehicles, as well as some classic cars (courtesy of the San Diego Automotive Museum, the Z Club of San Diego and the San Diego Pontiac Club) and other vehicles that defied description by mere words – like Eddie Paul’s machine gun-toting motorcycle (stuntman Eddie creates vehicles for the movies).

One line is used to describe this show: “Where the Cars are the Stars.” I agree. So, rather than fill the rest of this space with words, I’ll let the cars (as well as trucks) speak for themselves. Enjoy…