2012 New England International Auto Show

Really not a place to spend $ 15 for. You get absolutely nothing for your money. Exotics are locked and have fence around. You can watch them on the street for free. Everything else you can find in your local dealership.
There is something for kids though. Only if you are willing to wait in line for like half an hour.
It is definitely not a SHOW.

Not incredibly impressed, especially since I had to pay to get in!
I think this event is fun and «worth it» IF:
1) you are a car enthusiast. And by car enthusiast, I don’t mean a gear head or someone who is into modifying their cars, or into vintage cars. I mean those people who like to trade in their cars every two years.
2) are looking to buy a car this year or next.
Pretty much every car manufacturer is here, and they have their current and upcoming cars on display. Most of the cars, you can go inside and see what it’s like. Some of the fancier cars (like the 250k BMW) are locked and you can only see the outside of it.
My 2-​year old LOVED wandering around and sitting in the cars and «driving.» I liked it because I found a few models that I would consider upgrading to in a few years, and it saved me a trip or three to different dealerships.
I would probably skip this next year, or until I actually am ready to pull the trigger and trade in my car for a newer one.

Who doesn’t enjoy sitting in a car next to an absolute stranger?
I’m totally fitting the gender stereotype in the fact that I was bored out of my mind, and was much more interested in what was on the dash than under the hood. If I weren’t poor, maybe I would be more excited with staring at nice cars.
To the man who purchased the million (half a mil?) dollar car, I hate (love) you.

Remember when auto shows were exciting? You got the first look at concept cars, innovations, and there was an atmosphere of hope and promise of a bright future? Cool keychains and t-​shirts abounded
Enter Auto Show 2012. No concepts. Nothing super new and exciting. Mostly you will be waiting for someone to move their kids and middle-​aged ass out of a Camry so you can have a turn.
In fairness, I did see the new Lambo Aventador with a matte black paint job, which was sweet. A few classic cars… really nothing mind-​blowing. I know it’s lean times for manufacturers, but I did expect more.
*Tip: stop bringing your kids to these. There are few things more infuriating that waiting for a 5-​year old to get out of a Mini Cooper.

Every three to four years, when I’m going to buy a new car, I spend a few hours at the auto show going through all the cars I think I’m interested in, indoors, without pushy sales people trying to get me to buy now. All of my hands on research, in one day, under one roof. Nice.

So its a Thursday, I’ve got the day off. I head over to the Boston Convention Center for the Auto Show. I went to the one two years ago and wanted to see if the auto makers had anything interesting up their sleeve… Well I did’nt see any prototypes at all. I did see the Tesla sports car. It looks a lot like the Lotus Exige. Mercedes, Land Rover, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Pontiac, Volvo, Porsche, Cadillac and Saturn did not have displays at all. The section that sold accessories seemed a bit smallish too. At the Audi display I did get a rather impressive couple of snippets of info about the A4 and the other new models. The spokesman was tall as he was loquacious, I had to break off the conversation, which is a once in a lifetime thing.
The Scion display seemed a bit sparse, but I did enjoy the key chain and hat I got off the friendly dude behind the counter.
The Kia Soul that they had done up in B2 bomber gray was probably one of the cooler things in the show. But I don’t know if that will be actually an option or it was just a teaser.
The Hyundai Genesis looked very impressive, the Koreans have come a long way baby.
It was worth the six bucks, but for those of you who missed Boston Globes two for one Thursday special, I don’t recommend going. Your better off just driving down one of the Auto mile type places and check out the cars for free. The car companies can and should have put a bit more effort into this show. But I guess we are a second or third tier market and its just not worth their time and money, well I’m probably just going to buy another used car next month. Lets hope next year they will try a bit harder…