Silicon Valley Auto Show 2011

In San Jose, the 2011 Silicon Valley Auto Show presented by Motor Trend held Thursday 1/6 – Sunday 1/9 is much improved over last year. Although not as large as the “other” major city shows like Chicago, Detroit, LA and New York that feature new model and concept introductions, there are distinct advantages and some very interesting observations.

Access is particularly easy and parking is affordable. Since it’s not too big, and on Thursday night not too crowded, you can really crawl around the cars and take in all the details. And of course, some under-supervised little kids walk all over the cars leaving details too. Hint to parents – pretend these cars belong to your boss, okay? Perhaps the lack of the crowd meant everyone seemed to be friendly, courteous, in good humor and polite. This folks was not like a trip Costco.

Sadly, Porsche, Nissan and Audi among others were missed and these smaller-show cars tend to be in drab black and grey colors. And Mercedes, in a dimly lit hallway location, didn’t have any of their high performance models with those boring colors. Jaguar, planned or not, was also in the hallway but their color choices were actually striking in that lighting, as well as their performance models.

In the upcoming slideshows, you may notice the drab colors so the eye was drawn to more meaningful designs and observations. Some details were very clever, some archaic, you decide for yourself. There was no sorry attempt to fill space this year either, apologies to classic Camaro owners from last year. Another benefit with a smaller crowd is the representatives from the factory and dealers have time to talk in detail.

The vendor displays again were very good and Club Sportiva had the first red Ferrari 458 I can recall seeing in person. By this time the thirst generated meant paying $4.00 for bottled water. That is not a typo but it sure was cold.

Stay tuned for further coverage and pictures from the show.