Interesting comment ...and that's the way I felt initially. I was thinking of going to the show in Chicago ...but now I'm thinking "why bother" I'll be able to see most of the cars in a showroom within a year anyway.

Previous years I'd complain that they were bringing out all these cool concepts that would never be built, so I guess I'm just one of the "you can never please 'em" folks.

The final analysis for me though is that they may have finally achieved "gotta have" with the Nomad. I will be extremely dissappointed if a version of it doesn't get built.

 

I left the show feeling the same way, really (this was my third straight year coming up for the show). Maybe knowing so much about what was on display ahead of time zapped the surprise.

 

I went to the show wanting to see only one vehicle, Chevy Colorado. I dont care for the Mustang one bit, the C6 was great but I cant buy one, I saw GTO last year when it was sitting around by itself and this year it gets attention (go figure), and the Nomad concept was interesting. I need a replacement for my daily driver/ winter transportation and I was very impressed with Colorado. After sitting in it, I not only want it, I absolutely must have it. Still waiting for one of those....what do you call its??? Oh yeah........CAMARO CONCEPTS! Still waiting for one of those.

 

To me, that makes things waaaay more exciting at Auto Shows, seeing cars that are headed for production in a year or 2. That's just the way Chrysler did it in the 1990s (Bob Lutz, anyone? ).

Also worth considering is that GM is doing most all their designing & engineering on computer now. This means that there isn't a need to do much more than a few studio clay models, a fiberglass model for styling clinics, and the need to create engineering mules is all but eliminated till late in the development cycle.

In short, the day may soon come that the 1st time we see a new car is when it's all but done with development, and months away from production. Mustang, Chrysler 300, and the Dodge Magnum "concepts" weren't concepts but production previews.

In other words, we'll soon see the end of the "concept" car.

 

Seeing the Kappa cars was very exciting for me, It is good to know that GM can build a platform for low volume niche cars that can all look VERY different, sell at a LOW price, be RWD, and still be profitable.

They even had the Vauxhall Lightning Roadster Concept in the Kappa Display, very awesome looking cars.