North American International Auto Show (NAIAS)
Call me a jaded journalist, but when I see too much fanfare around a car, I get concerned about the car. It’s like an overweight woman who has her acrylic nails perfect, her accessories all matching, and her hair perfectly coifed. All that will not hide the fact that she is still overweight, wishing she were a size 8 that could wear washed jeans and a lightly starched white shirt. Oh wait, that’s me.
Richard Petty with his smile, cowboy hat, and dark glasses, coming out to anoint Dieter Zetsche and Kasey Kahne after the pit crew comes out and unhinges a Nascar replica to reveal the new Dodge Charger must have cost a bloody fortune. It didn’t help.
The Dodge Charger is supposed to be produced to fill the void of the Intrepid. What void? There is no void. The Chrysler 300 has won so many awards and is such a leap and bound away from where they were. The Chrysler Firepower concept is beautiful. Didn’t Chrysler get the memo? We want what they’re making now, not a void-filler.
If Chrysler is going to spend that amount of time and money (according to the Detroit News it was around $1,000,000) showing it off they ought to do it to the public at the auto show. They’re one of the few companies left that really believe that we journalists need the hype to feel the emotion. Sorry, I am void of all emotion till the car speaks to me.
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