By Erin Kirsten Stein
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 9, 1998

Driving through the auto show

Arizona Daily Wildcat Erin Kirsten Stein

Bright lights, thumping music, glittering spokesmodels and shiny cars. Welcome to the 1998 North American International Auto Show.

Every January, a sea of people floods Cobo Center in Detroit for a week and a half, just to look at cars. All 700 of them.

The fascination is easy to explain. Who wouldn't feel great roaring down the freeway in a swanky car (obeying all speed limits of course)?

Cars are cool.

An auto show is an experience quite unlike anything else. Cobo Center is a huge exhibit hall with two levels. Each car manufacturer is given an area of the floor and millions of dollars are spent building displays around the cars.

The companies bring their new models and anyone can sit in the driver's seat and decide if they want to buy it. So if your lease is going to be up soon, you can shop around and compare cars without having to go to the dealerships.

So, that's the idea. But really, you go to see the displays and the concept cars.

The displays were bigger and more expensive this year. The highlights included Mercedes' giant car wash brushes spinning overhead. Picture "Honey, I Shrunk the Mercedes."

The Toyota Corolla was up off the ground, and the spokesmodel had to do some rock climbing to get up to it, then she got in through the sunroof.

But, you want to know about the cars, right? First, let me explain concept cars. Most big car companies unveil a concept car at the show. It's the coolest car they could design which may or may not go into production.

Each concept car is presented by a spokesmodel - excuse me, a product specialist.

Here are the vehicle highlights as I saw them:

BMW presented the Z07, a concept car and it is awesome. A sporty black convertible, it looks like a tiny Batmobile. Austin Powers might be cool enough to drive this baby.

Pontiac's concept was a minivan/sport-utility called the Montana Thunder. It's atrocious. The only thing going for it is the bright pink/orange color scheme, which I kind of like, but made my family want to puke.

Chrysler's concept vehicle is a behemoth, a boat of a car called Chronos. It's big and silver and ugly. Its potential price is $100,000. I don't think so.

The Jeepster made its debut. If Godzilla stepped on a Jeep, it would be a Jeepster.

Plymouth's Pronto Spyder and Mitsubishi's SST look like the same concept vehicle, except that the SST is tacky and the Spyder is lovely. The Spyder was designed with European '50s racers in mind and looks very smart. The tortoiseshell steering wheel is the ultimate accessory.

I'm not big on trucks, but some were so huge I couldn't ignore them. The new GMC Sierra is so big, I'm not sure it would fit on the road and the Dodge Big Red Truck could fit Clifford, the Big Red Dog, in the back.

Jaguar got a little confused and brought a plane to the auto show. For just $2,654,000 the Beechcraft King Air C90 can be yours.

But the coolest of the cool are the Aston Martins. The Aston Martin Project Vantage is a concept with potential. It's sleek, it's sporty and it's British racing green. What more could you ask?

Every year there is usually one car that is the belle of the ball. Last year the Dodge Viper was a hit; this year it's Beetlemania.

Volkswagen secured an entire room downstairs, separate from the main VW display, to revive the Beetle. In a carnival atmosphere, six Beetles were presented for the public to peruse and squeal over. They had car races for the kids, a woman roaming around with a ventriloquist dummy, a Beetle you could sign you name on and free micromachine Beetles (my dad got two). I waited in line so I could sit in the driver's seat of the new Beetle and I thought one woman ahead of me was going to have a heart attack she was so excited. There's a bud vase in the dashboard!

If the hordes of people crushing into the Beetle exhibit are any indication, VW won't have a problem selling Beetles.

I want a green one.

Erin Kirsten Stein is a senior majoring in creative writing, journalism and general fine arts studies. Her column, "Shaken, Not Stirred," normally appears every other Tuesday.