Yesterday I visited the Chicago Auto Show. It was the biggest Auto Show I’ve ever seen. Since one my other passions besides photography is cars, this was one show that I couldn’t miss. First of all, let me start by appreciating the organizers for not only permitting people to freely film and photograph everything, but also encouraging it. Way to go! That’s the way every public place should be. If you wish to skip all the bla bla, please feel free to dig right into the picture gallery, but not before I make 2 things clear:

1. Don’t expect art. This time my interest lay in simply photographing the cars that I was interested in, not making art out of it. Some of the pictures aren’t properly exposed. Some are too bright, others too dark. I don’t care. Neither should you. I wasn’t paid to do this after all.
2. Feel free to use the pictures BUT please don’t remove the copyright notice or I’ll be pretty upset and there will be legal repercussions.

2007 Chicago Auto Show Gallery

Now let me get on with my bla bla.

The show’s hours were between 10a.m. and 10p.m. My plan was to be there the whole 12 hours. It failed miserably. I got there at around 11a.m. and stayed until about 4p.m. I couldn’t stay any longer due to various reasons beyond my control, but fatigue was also a contributing factor. I mean, the whole thing is huge. I’ve heard that the showroom floor (it was held at McCormick Place in downtown Chicago) is the largest in the world. On the other hand, if you’re there just to see the cars, without wanting to photograph them, it should take you a lot less to see everything.

Me, I was interested in quite a few models and brands, and I also tried to photograph them from all angles. As it is, I didn’t get to see all the brands. There’s still a few of them that I need to see, probably next Saturday, when a second visit is planned. The ones that are missing are primarily VW, Audi, BMW and Dodge. Why Dodge? Well, I want to check out the build of the Neon SRT4 and the new Viper. As for the Germans, I’m positively interested in the GTI, the R32, the RS4, the S6 and the future M3 (though I’m not sure they’ve brought that to the show).

Overall, I wasn’t very impressed with the whole show. No particular reason either. One of the more shitty negatives was that most cars with manual transmissions, and also a few automatics, were missing the shift stick knobs. WTF?? I’ve never seen that before in an auto show, even in less “civilized” countries. There were two possibilities here: either the organizers had removed those knobs in advance (so that they wouldn’t get stolen), or they had got stolen in the meantime. Both of these cases are absolutely retarded in my opinion. Why the hell would anyone steal a shift stick knob?? I mean, ok, some people would, but how pathetic is that??

One other annoying thing was the huge masses of people who milled all over the place, very often stepping right in front of my camera as I tried to take a shot. The more exotic models were absolutely teeming with people, like flies around a shithouse.

I had high hopes for certain models, namely the Civic Si and the new Hyundai Accent. The Accent SE, which is the standard feature rich model, is a sporty-looking little car and quite inexpensive at $14,000 but not exactly cheap. On the other hand it doesn’t compare to a $30,000 car either.

The Civic Si was a major disappointment. I loved this car before I got the chance to climb inside it. On the outside it looks good: sporty, dynamic and appropriately menacing. The engine is a high-revving gem and Honda offers a standard limited-slip differential in the basic $21,000 package. However, once I got inside, I felt sad for this beautiful machine. Not a single review that I’d read mentioned the poor quality of the dashboard plastics, nor the crappy cloth that covers the seats. I won’t even mention the cheap plastic door handles on the inside. The side paneling on the doors is also partly covered in that silly cloth that the seats use. What’s the deal with that material? It looks and feels like cheap dark-gray velvet and it’s a perfect magnet for dirt, grime and especially hair. Way to go Honda! I wasn’t particularly excited with the two-tiered instrument console either. It looked to me like you had to sit high in order to see the speedometer, which would be covered by the steering wheel if you simply lounged in your seat.

The current Toyota Corolla is also an advocate of cheap interior materials. Even though it’s more expensive than the Accent SE, the Korean has it beat in almost all categories.

Of all Japanese cars, the Nissans came closest to impressing me. The new Altima looks very sporty and refined. Of course, by the time you add all the essential options to the base model, you end up spending a few thousand dollars north of $20,000. I wasn’t such a big Nissan fan before the show but the Altima and the new Sentra helped change my mind. Wait till you see the future Altima Coupe though. It will rock your socks. It certainly rocked mine. I can definitely see some of the Infiniti G35’s lines in it, but that’s a good thing and the Altima Coupe looks damn sporty. I would take it any day over the G35. I’m pretty sure the top model will cost a fair bunch.

Also gravitating around $20,000 was a well-equipped Sentra, with leather seats and other options. I found the interior more nicely put together than that of the Civic Si and the materials were also a notch higher in quality.

Another “performance” car that I was interested in is the Chevy Cobalt SS Supercharged. I would put the interior slightly above that of the Civic Si. The outside styling however has got too old. This car doesn’t really exude performance in my book anymore.

One final word about the concepts. There were several of those out there. I thought they were interesting design and style studies but nothing more. The only one I was absolutely smitten with is the future Honda Accord Coupe. I wouldn’t even call this a concept because the final model will most likely look almost identical to the so-called “concept”.

This is it for now but in all probability I will visit the show a second time to take some shots of the brands that I’ve missed and maybe also shoot some details with the Canon 50mm f/1.4, using available light only. Oh, for all these shots I used the Canon 30D with the Canon 10-22mm and the Sigma 500DG Super strobe.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 11th, 2007 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Article, Canon EOS 30D. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.