By Kamil Kaluski
The Covid-19 pandemic has killed so many fun things. One of them was auto shows. The New York International Auto Show has been cancelled for the last two years. The good news is that it’s back for 2022, running now through April 24th at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.
Ross and I made it there for the opening press day. Typically those are two days of premieres and press conferences followed by evenings of automakers’ wine and dine events. But that was not the case this year. There was basically half a day of smaller premiers and one or two casual evening things. Also missing were many automakers themselves: Audi, Acura, BMW, Jaguar, Honda, Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes, MINI, Porsche, and Volvo. GM was lacking some brands until we realized that they were in a separate location that we completely missed. Oops.
Notable things:
- Nissan and Kia, following the example of Ford, Honda, and Subaru, made their SUVs more off-road-y. It mostly consisted of smaller wheels, all-terrain tires, tow hooks, roof rack, and water resistant-ish interior trims.
- Lots of EV talk and several EV makes that I’ve never heard of and will probably never hear of again. There were three EV “test tracks” – one at Ford and two downstairs.
- We counted at least seven tents. Everyone is so outdoorsy these days. There tents on the cars, on trailers, on the ground. Tent, yeah! There were a few camera vans, too. Prices weren’t listed, because #vanlife isn’t just for the poor anymore.
- Radwood stand had the best cars in the show. Absolutely drool worthy stuff.
- I may have fallen in love with the GR Corolla. More on that later.
I got a new computer and so far it has zero photo editing software on it. Sorry?
Jeff Glucker
Nice! A Citroën BX 4TC showed up at the 2019 Radwood show in Tacoma, WA, too. I have a great fondness towards pretty much any vehicle that the manufacturer later attemped to suppress by simply repurchasing and destroying as many examples as possible.
Citroen already had form for that too!
Does anyone know what the blue mid-engined car with the big wing next to the RS200 is?
Well, yes, they did have some previous experience along those lines with the GS Birotor, didn’t they?
The blue car is a Venturi 400.
Thanks, I remember Venturi but not one looking like that!
It’s a deliberate selection, this one, but I notice how colourful paints are back in force. This has been a trend building steam for years, but it’s certainly providing some nicer shades of blue, red and yellow now than we have seen in a long time.