Few media outlets cover the prestigious and magnificent Buenos Aires motor show. Mostly because the things shown there are rarely of any interest for anyone outside the Latin American Market and they’ve probably been released ages ago in other countries. But because of the funny way our cash-strapped market works they’re only being release here now. Fortunately, I am in Latin American so I could be there (through the magic of going to the website and looking up what they were going to release) to bring you the most up-to-date way to waste your coffee break.

Here’s something that you wouldn’t think was still kicking. The Chevrolet S-10. You thought that it had died a decade ago when it was replaced with the Colorado but Nope, here it is alive and kicking. Of course eagle-eyed readers will notice that all it is is actually a Colorado with a nose and badge job. On this show Chevrolet introduced the tarted-up High Country version with lashings of chrome and special wheels. Only fitted with a 2.8 turbodiesel engine, expect to see it stateside as the Colorado diesel sometime next year.

One car you will most definitely will not see in the streets of the United States is this: the Chery Tiggo 5. Chery of course is mostly known for making Chevrolet Spark ripoffs so blatant you could perfectly bolt on the doors of one to the other without any problems at all. The Tiggo doesn’t seem to be a blatant copy of anything, rather a mishmash of every styling trend you can put on compact crossovers these days. It features a “double barrel dashboard” (that is, a dashboard with two dials that are surrounded by plastic with an LCD in the middle.) and leather upholstery. Engine-wise it has a 2.0-liter four producing 139 horsepower.

Chery also had another vehicle release at the show. The amazing(ly boring) Arrizo7. A compact sedan that looks like the result of a passionate night between an Audi A3 sedan and a Ford Taurus. It seems that the designers at Chery have stopped taking as much inspiration from the cars that you can see in real life and decided to instead look to the streets of Los Santos and Liberty City for their future designs. I wouldn’t mock them though, simple designs just means that they’ll age a lot better, assuming that Cherys (Cheries?) last long enough to age.

My first article here was about the reasons you wouldn’t want to own a brazilian ute, then I told you why you wouldn’t want a VW Amarok either. But if what you took out of those articles was that you absolutely, positvely needed something that combined the two vehicles. Or you’re the sort of man that wanted a Chevrolet Avalanche but thought it was just too big then don’t worry, because Renault’s got your back with this. The Duster Oroch. Presumably Calling it the Orochi may have caused problems with Mitsuoka. Being little more than a Duster Pickup Truck means getting the same engines and the same low, low price. Just remember all the pitfalls I’ve warned you about.

Personally I was more excited about the Sandero RS. Sadly, James May is no longer contractually obligated to feign interest about it so instead you get me with real interest. Don’t for a second think that it’ll make competition with that other car that carries an RS badge or indeed, almost any other car that has the tiniest modicum of sporting credentials. Power comes from yet another 2.0-liter four. Naturally aspirated and producing 150 horsepower, it’s good for 60 in 8.5 seconds. Not bad if you want a cheap warmed-up hatch.

It’s at least better than the New Fiat Punto Blackmotion. No 6.2 liter V8, just a normal Fiat Punto that has raided big sis Abarth’s jewel box and its now wearing all it contained.

And…that’s pretty much it really. Anything else either falls in the “sticker job” category or on the “It was released overseas or in America about a year or so ago.” I think you’re probably beginning to see why it’s not the most covered auto show in history, or why car manufacturers aren’t making the most flamboyant shows to release their latest and greatest here. This is more of a place where normal people just come around and see the cars that they may actually just have a shot at buying if they work really hard. It’s not a lavish presentation of concepts and marketing drivel to make you believe that when buying the base model of the base car you’re getting all the prestige and the image of something that’s an order of magnitude more expensive. Considering some of the import restrictions on some Mercosur countries, literally an order of magnitude more expensive.
Or at least it looked like that from here. Argentina is very far away.