We went to the New York International Auto Show yesterday. I never make a point of going, but it just so happens that I’ve now gone two years in a row. Each year, it seems, it gets less inspiring. You pretty much get what you’d expect. Design, for the most part, has been taken off the table and replaced with paint. Much more attention is lavished on emissions and fuel consumption.
It’s a sign of the times, I think. Budgets are tight. It’s becoming more profitable to chase after tax breaks and other government incentives than actually go out and compete in the market place. Like in the old Soviet Union, all the cars now look pretty much the same.
Notable too has been the trend of the female ramp models dressing down. It is now become virtually impossible to tell them from the people who have come simply to gawk. Also, male models have now begun making inroads in a profession that had been purely gender (and beauty) based.
The car that drew my attention was the yellow 1970 Fiat. I guess this proves that I’m still susceptible to nostalgia. Fiat has come out with a new model that mimics the old but is quite a bit larger. By it, it hopes to replicate the recent success of the British (German-built) Mini Cooper.
Last week, there was an accident down the block where I live. I heard the tires screeching and the inevitable hollow bang while I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth. I went down to take a look. A considerable crowd had already gathered, but the police were still to arrive. Even from a distance I could see that a small Honda had rear-ended a much larger car at the intersection. The Honda (circa 1980) seemed pretty much intact. The larger car’s back end had been totally destroyed. Arriving at the scene, I saw that the large car was no less than a Bentley. I was truly surprised at the extent of the damage. It seemed incongruous to the car’s reputation. No one was hurt, which told volumes.
Peter Koelliker; pkoelliker8@yahoo.com
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