My wife, my young friend and I went to the Dallas Auto Show on Saturday. We paid too much for parking--15 dollars. The Auto Show has (perhaps improbably) become an annual tradition for me. While the 2009 and 2010 shows had a "very weak economy" Spartan gloom about them, this car show seemed alive and full of interesting new products.
I plan buy a new car in the near future. I therefore focused on cars which I might like to drive someday soon. The models that impressed me were
a. the Chevrolet Equinox, which gets 33 mpg on the highway despite being a CRV.
b. the Lincoln Mercury hybrid, which gets a whopping 41 mpg in the city and 36 on the highway.
c. the Chevrolet Cruze Eco, which gets 40+ mpg in a small midsize conventional
d. the Hyundai Sonata hybrid, which seems (as is customary with that company) very well thought-out
e. the Scion xD.
I left the show convinced that I will have no problem finding a good and affordable new car. I have never paid for more than 15,000 dollars for a car. I will have to break that record this time, but
still should be able to get something very workable at a reasonable price.
I also found myself impressed with:
a. Rachel, of the Ford Product Team, who knew about a new model and gave us the 411, some moments after an older guy on the Ford team told us he knew nothing about it because it was a 2012 model.
Though I rarely like gender generalizations, this show had a pattern that female show reps seemed more like car enthusiasts while male show reps seemed more like weathermen;
b. Sony car steros, even if the showpiece pickup truck they used featured speakers the size of alien dinosaurs' dinner plates;
c. the forlorn loneliness of one woman, no longer called upon to give her half-hourly product promo, sitting on a car on a revolving platform, fashionably but not provocatively attired, waiting for destiny as it spun her right round; and
d. the cheerful Boy Scouts passing out programs.
After the car show, my wife headed off to meet a friend at the Renaissance Faire called Scarborough Faire. My young friend and I went to Dimassi Mediterranean Buffet in Richardson, which I almost managed to stay on my eating plan. Then we had a short meeting with a nice woman about future career options.
My snapfish photo books arrived in the mail. They're lovely!
Last night my wife and I went to the Pho Que Huong on Legacy Drive for pho ga'. Then we took our dogs for a night walk. Ted cannot walk quickly anymore and is easily distracted by things to sniff. But she's still a wonderful dog, age 16 1/2, and I'm grateful she can go for walks at all.
(backyard penstemon in bloom)