Sacramento International Auto Show
This past weekend was the Sacramento International Auto Show. While not receiving the attention of the large internal auto shows in Los Angeles or San Francisco, Sacramento benefits from a broad community of support from local car dealers, car clubs and car event hosts, such as EuroSunday. These collaborations have created a fun, family friendly car event that will give the show visitor a chance to actually experience many of the cars on display. TLP split up the event into to two different days due to some scheduling conflicts. The first visit was on Friday when the show first opened. Crowds were minimal giving us access and some opportunities that probably wouldn’t exist over the weekend.
Based on past experience, we were pleasantly surprised at the number of exotics and high-end sports cars on display, proving that Sacramento car culture is making a name all its own.
The most surprising part of the Friday visit, was not really related to the show, but more about what we learned. It was while looking at the sticker for the BMW I3. BMW's electric people's car had a sticker price of $53K and change. WOW! That’s performance car money for most other brands. That’s Audi S4 territory. Of course, that $53K gets you this big baller wood grain on the passenger side dash. LIKE A BAWS!
The Sunday crowd was much bigger. A great mix of Sacramentans decided to take advantage of what was most likely one of the last weekends of beautiful weather we'll have this year to kick the tires on the crop of 2015s. As usual, Ford, GM and Dodge brought most of their respective lines for folks to test drive on various parts of the Cal Expo fairgrounds. While walking through some of the buildings, we could hear many a wannabe racecar driver killing cones and begging the jeers of onlookers....always a great part of the show.
All in all, the show was great as always. We got to see everything from the pedestrian to the exotic and our swag bags were stuffed with the usual tonnage of super glossy brochures and trinkets. We maintain that you can have a whole lot less fun for a whole lot more money than you'll spend at this show. The kids got to climb all over everything, we all got a lot of exercise and we can't wait to see some of these cars on the road next year.
If you didn't go this year, or haven't been to a new car show, please take our advice and put one of these events on your calendar. You don't even have to be a dyed-in-the-wool gearhead to enjoy one of these events. The manufacturers are there to dazzle you with their new hardware and information without the pressure of going to a dealership. There's no pressure from anyone and everyone there (whether paid to be there or just attending) is friendly and chatty and just there to take it all in. Just to reiterate--Unfettered access to new cars without salesman!
