Core-Toons breaks down the 2010 Chicago Auto Show
Field notes on the 2010 Chicago Auto Show - Click above for the series
Without doubt we have never come across a more comically true summary of the auto show experience. A nine-panel series on the experience of the Chicago Auto Show by the magnificently named Lunchbreath is so spot on that it's already giving us PTSD about the Geneva Motor Show, and Geneva hasn't even happened yet. From the camera phones to photo profiling to that guy in the Escalade, it's all in there. If you like the panels below, check out his Unsolicited Proposals to Detroit, and the Housewares Trade Show for something completely different.
In-car entertainment turned it up another wireless notch at last week's Chicago Auto Show when Volvo showed off "the industry's first Internet connected Rear Seat Entertainment System with Windows XP, WiFi and a 500G hard drive."
Officially, it remains a test-bed study for the moment, but the idea is that you can do everything on a rear headrest touchscreen that you can do on your home computer. You can also plug your computer into the car and load the XC70's system with your own music and video to keep things quiet in the back row. While it's officially only in the 'conceptual phase,' we have it on very good authority that the system will be available in 2011 Volvo XC60 and XC70 models beginning this summer.
Follow the jump for Volvo's take on the RSEi-500 setup, and be sure to get ready for Geneva, where Volvo will reveal an XC90 with a crappy rolling chair, a cubicle and a water cooler.
[Source: Volvo]
A little confusion travels quickly. As long ago as last year and as recently as last week's Chicago Auto Show, the bed-happy gents at PickupTrucks.com were told that a new Honda Ridgeline would be arriving sometime in 2011. Now the guys have been told by Honda, "That's not the case." The proper information: "there will be no significant change to the Ridgeline through the 2011 model year."
That leaves the Honda pickup to soldier on through a 50-percent decline in sales and EPA numbers on the wrong side of frugality for at least another two years. And with a five-year-old design. Perhaps Honda wants to see how the truck market (and the auto market in general) does in the near term before it decides what the next Ridgeline should be. Or perhaps the company wants to get its core models in order, like those hybrids, before it makes another play at a small segment. We only have guesses - but there are certainly people out there who'd rather have a new Ridgeline.
[Source: PickupTrucks.com]Scratch that: Next generation Honda Ridgeline not coming in 2011 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:03:00 EST. .
Spokesmodels of the Chicago Auto Show - Click above for high-res image gallery
This year's 2010 Chicago Auto Show is just about over, at least for us media types, and while a couple of significant vehicles were unveiled here, it's basically a repeat of Detroit - the industry has definitely scaled back. Although Chicago hasn't always been one of the pre-eminent events on the calendar, we usually get a lot out of our trip to the Windy City, and while that's generally new car debuts, there's plenty else to occupy our time here.
Thankfully one area where automakers seemingly didn't skimp again is booth professionals. Lots of models are positioned by the vehicles, quick with a smile or an answer to any question we had. As the auto show season marches along, the gals just seem to get prettier and friendlier at every event.
And as we pointed out in our booth babe post from Detroit, we're not being sexist, but rather consumers of a valuable service according to Sirens of Chrome, an entire book celebrating the culture of car models and their history on the auto show circuit. Check out the gallery below to keep the economy going.
Racecars at Chicago Auto Show - Click above for high-res image gallery
It isn't so much "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday," here at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show, maybe more like "Show on Sunday, sell on Monday." While many manufacturers have their newest production cars on display here at McCormick Place, a number of them also dragged out their racecars to remind the public of their motorsports heritage. Racecars are always a popular attraction at auto shows, and the ones here in Chicago are exemplary. There are dragsters, funny cars, and pro stockers for the quarter-mile fans, NASCAR stock cars, amateur racers, open wheelers, and even Le Mans runners. Mazda, Audi, Ford, Kia, Toyota, Volkswagen, Chevrolet, Acura, Honda, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Mitsubishi and others are all here with stickered up and numbered racecars. You can see them all by clicking through to the gallery below.