Place: White Castle
Lunch: 6 White Castles (turned into three doubles by discarding the bottom buns and pairing two together), regular Fish Nibblers (with tartar sauce), six piece chicken rings (with ranch), ice water
At exactly 4:00 this morning, I awoke startled due to a heavy pressure feeling in my chest. A feeling that had sort of a rumble.
Then I realized it was Chester. He was sitting on me, purring, staring at my with his big cat eyes.
I shut my eyes again.
No good. I'm not going back to sleep.
So I get up. Chester jumps off and runs to the top of the stairs, where Maggie is also awake, looking excited. They both run down the stairs, expecting me to follow. But I don't. I walk into the bathroom.
They gradually come back up, looking confused.
This is not abnormal. We go through this same routine every morning. Just not usually this early.
When I finally do go downstairs, they're running ahead excitedly. Maggie jumps on the kitchen island and Chester runs for the fridge. Both are meowing. They want treats.
I pull out the Greenies. Maggie loves the Greenies. Chester, not so much. He's holding out for deli ham. He isn't getting any, so he regretfully accepts a Greenie.
I'm wondering what to do with what promises to be a super boring day. Then I remember that it's the last day of the auto show. But I've already been to an auto show this year. So? I haven't been to THIS one.
So at 0-dark-30, with a minimal amount of sleep, I decide to drive to Minnesota. The cats are looking at me like "You can't leave! We have your whole day planned!"
Sorry, kitties. Checking out cars is fun. And there's only once...okay twice...a year to do this in one place.
9:30am: I'm hanging out in the Greater Minneapolis Convention Center, waiting for the ticket booth to open (at 10). It was a beautiful morning for a drive.
The Greater Minneapolis Auto Show claims to be the nation's 7th largest. It is a bigger show with more cars and more fun concepts. Maybe I'll get to see the stuff that was conspicuously absent in OKC.
I am not disappointed.
Audi - Audi was not present in OKC. They're here in a big way, though, including their new Q5 CUV. Essentially a Tiguan with a V6 and a really nice interior. It actually feels SMALLER than my Rogue. It feels TOO small, frankly.
Lexus - Lexus was also absent in OKC. The much ballyhooed 2010 RX is here. I'm not familiar enough with the old one to know why it's better. It has all those token luxury touches, I guess. What's the deal with sloped center consoles? Why do people like these?
VW - Remember the Heaven Blue Metallic New Beetle? Well they have a Heaven Blue Metallic New Beetle Convertible on display. Quite lovely.
Porsche - The Cayenne instrument lighting is YELLOW? Like the Saturn Vue? Well...a little more mustardy than the Vue. Brownish mustardy. Like Grey Poupon. "Pardon me, but do you have Grey Poupon instrument lighting?" "But of course!"
Revenge of the Muscle Car - Dodge had no less than FOUR Challengers out. Two red, one white, one orange. Make mine lime green, please. I would totally consider getting one in lime green. Chevy had three new Cameros out. They were not getting near the attention of the one in OKC. Somebody commented to me that they didn't like the black wheels, which I originally thought were dummies (not for the production model), but I might be wrong there. Have you ever noticed that Minnesotans will strike up a conversation with anybody? Ford had the redesigned Mustang on a turntable. Look close and you MIGHT see the differences.
Mazda - As I was walking through the display, a Mazda guy asked "Have any questions?" I refrained from saying "Yes. When is Mazda going to come out with something new and interesting?"
Subaru - Speaking of uninteresting...
Pontiac - Pontiac's slogan should be "Why do we bother". Solstice aside, this is one tired, boring product lineup. There's no point in GM continuing this division. Considering they've been consolidating the GMC, Pontiac, and Buick divisions into single dealerships over the past couple of years, I'm thinking this has been the plan all along.
Nissan - Nissan had a Cube here, but it was roped off. The OKC show had one you could get into. This was one of only two advantages the OKC show had to this one (the other being free parking. Oh...and state fair corn dogs. Fine...three.)
Ford - You know how they have F-150 special editions, like the Eddie Bauer special edition? Well now they have an F-350 Cabela's special edition. It's Cabela's green. It's freaking huge. They also had something called the F-150 Raptor. It looked like a seriously obnoxious aftermarket job.
Chrysler - Chrysler brought a concept vehicle called the Eco Voyager. Remember the Plymouth Voyager (aka the Plymouth-badged Chrysler minivan)? This looked nothing like a minivan. It looked like a big Prius with a Cadillac front end.
Lincoln-Mercury - They had a REALLY nicely appointed Mariner with a deep purple paint job and a two-tone leather interior. Probably the most beautiful Ford Escape I've ever seen.
Chevrolet - Chevy DID display the new 2010 Equinox here (albeit roped off with no inside access allowed). It's hideous. Absolutely hideous. The outgoing model had kind of a cool looking front end. The thing actually looked mean. This looks like a tall Malibu. And the back side looks like the previous generation Saturn Vue. I hope they at least fixed the steering.
Cadillac - It appears Cadillac is getting their own version of GM's Theta-platformed CUV. The SRX looks far better than the 'Nox and has neat accent lighting that may or may not act as the DRL's. It was on a turntable, so it was hard to see what the interior looked like. It probably has lots of fake looking wood paneling with easily broken plastic compartment tabs. Speaking of which, I tried breaking the tab in the Escalade the way I did in OKC...and I succeeded! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
GMC - I'm sitting in the Acadia, marveling about how something this big can have the same design flaw my little Rogue does that restricts my left knee space, when a GMC dealer rep comes up and asks "So how do you like it?"
Me: "What color do the instruments light up in?"
Dealer Guy: "Um...um..."
Me: "I should just go to a dealer and ask?"
Dealer Guy, agitated: "No! I'm a dealer! I'm just having a brain...moment..."
He asks another guy, who says "I think...red."
Huh. I would have guessed blue. Most GMC's use blue lighting.
GMC is also getting their own version of the GM Theta CUV, which was once labeled a "transfer" of the Pontiac Torrent to the GMC line (as the 2010 Terrain) but it's not here. The Terrain is officially being debuted April 5, apparently, so showing it here would be HORRIBLE and TRAGIC. I guess.
And with that, my feet are tired.
Oh...You know what the coolest feature is in new cars today? Mood lighting. It's essentially one or two LED diodes (I'm assuming) in the overhead center console pointed down at the cup holder area, giving a slight illumination to them. My Rogue has a single orange light that does this task. It is ridiculously awesome. I don't think I'd own a car without this feature again.
Seriously. Check it out when looking at new cars (in the dark). You'll be hooked.
