Yesterday I was able to go to NAIAS for the Industry Preview. Overall, it was a pretty small show as expected. Nothing really glamorous or exciting. Ford had a pretty nice display, and the whole show was nice for what the industry is going through right now. However, again, there wasn't a lot of pizzazz, not much new, just kind of a bunch of dealerships in one place with a few concepts. I can't complain though; nobody in the industry has money to throw something new out there. It was definitely weird to not see Saab, Saturn, Hummer, and Lamborghini (among others who were missing) this year.
I was pretty impressed by the setup in the basement. The pictures turned out terrible due to the poor lighting and not fixing the settings on my camera, but it was pretty nice. We took a ride in a Tahoe Hybrid. I've been in one before, but I jumped in to join my coworker. It was a nice ride and I think you should all check one out if you get a chance, even if you can't afford its steep MSRP. It's really pretty respectable to hardly ever know if that big six-liter V8 is pumping or not.
While I was there, I figured it'd be fun to eavesdrop on people looking at the GM vehicles to hear their opinions on GM's latest offerings. So, here are a few direct quotes I heard from other onlookers...
"Not too bad overall." (said with an optimistic tone) -- GMC Terrain
"This is real nice!" -- Cadillac XTS
"It just screams 'get out of the way.'" -- Cadillac CTS-V Coupe
"This blows away the A4 all day long. This is really nice." -- Buick Regal GS
To view my gallery of this year's show, CLICK HERE