2009 Chicago Auto Show and Cadillac owners meet. MANY PICS.

[Jesda]

We took the Crossfire to Chicago. The roads in the Chicago area were TERRIBLE, -and- there were tolls. Basically, I was charged to drive on roads that rivaled most third-world nations. People drove quickly when they could, at least.

Chad found this Ridgeline with 20s and a plow. WTF.

Thanks to Shatner, we got a room at the Hyatt in Lisle for $41 a night.

Went to Jon's and checked out his Fleetwood.

Did some drinking at Nicki's. Tried to eat her dog.

My camera dates back to the Clinton era.

I slept in. The other guys went to go see some exotics:

Le'suzu

We went out for ribs.

Chad showed us what the end of the internet looked like. Its frightening.

TANNER

I bought this; we shared. Not bad!

Snow started falling. Gary drove an Escalade. My poor Crossfire struggled at first but eventually got its footing.

Chris and I went to Hot Doug's to try their foie gras and duck sausage, but the line was too long.

Enjoyed deep dish pizza at Giordano's. Parking was $18.

Digesting. Drinking.

On the way back to the hotel a guy in a Honda Odyssey stalked me. When the light turned green he didn't move, so I honked. Then he moved forward at 2mph just to be a d!ck, so I honked again. He pulled over by my hotel and I passed him, then made a u-turn because I skipped the parking lot entrance.

He followed me into the hotel parking lot and followed me as I looked for a spot, passing me on occasion and giving me the finger. Then, the guys showed up in Jimmy's CTS and started following me. I didn't know who they were until they called, and the guy in the minivan got confused and pulled off to the side.

We parked and got out, total of six guys. I pointed at the minivan and noted the hilarity of his attempted stalking. The retard in the Odyssey looked at the crowd, decided not to confront me, and drove away quietly.

Idiot!

We went and drove Chad's '99 S-class. It was superb, and the I6 had more than sufficient power.

Gary bought me a Makers.

XLR-V, my dream car.

CTSV





Electric Cadillac Converj

DTS Platinum with a sparkling blue paint job. The doors had stitched leather and the headliner was suede or alcantara.



Escalade. I didn't care for the door panels.





Stingray Sideswipe concept.

Bumblebee

Camaro

Something from Saab

9-3 convertible.

A few cheap bits on Saabs, like the door lock latch.

Some forgettable Saturn thingamajig.

Zzzz...

G8 GXP

Model car display.

A base Impala. Who buys this stuff?

I got Ian a Range Rover. Among few non-Sport Range Rover models.

Nice 3-series.

I hesitated at first, but eventually I came back and bought this little Crossfire.







Subaru's displays were very technical. The HK audio demo booth was neat.



Kia Soulster. Too much orange.

Hyundai Genesis safety cutout.

The Genesis coupe.

Beautiful Genesis sedan.

Fusion. 41mpg!

Harley F150

New Taurus and Taurus SHO. I voted for it as "Best in Show"

The Flex was just the right size.

Ford's Ecoboost display. White lab coat means he's smart!

'10 Mustang

Shelby GT500

Mustang underside.

New Mazda 3. Meh.

Revised RX8

New Mazda 6!

The Miata celebrates 20 years of awesomeness. Various concepts, models, and variations on display.



Don't rob a bank, or this will chase you and eat you.

Zzzz... we pretty much just walked through the Lexus and Toyota areas.

Volvo S80. Backless center console.

Lincoln MKT. Turned sideways, its still ugly.

MKZ got new tail lights.

Some Lincoln thing.

Hideous fat new Maxima.

370Z

Cube

GTR. Still ugly, far better looking in person. Always an attention grabber.

Not much to see from Honda.

Neat little Jeep setup for kids.

Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep off-roading demonstration.

$3.90 for this.

New Ram's interior was cheap. Not impressed.

Viper ACR!

Viper SRT10

Dodge Journey, or something. Don't care.

Ugly Dodge Dakota. This is all you need to see.

SLR Mclaren. $500k.



Overpriced MB gifts.

Smart cars are not smart.

I fit in the back seat of a Mini, COMFORTABLY!! A shocker.

New C-class was cheap and ugly.

Revised RL

Ugly TL and TSX

Topless Infiniti G

Gorgeous 3-series convertible. The rear deck has an unfortunately awkward cut line due to the folding hard top. Clever cupholders. I miss my E46 convertible.

3-Coupe

Improved Z4

Ugh.

Stunning R8

A5 coupe

A8 L and its world-class interior.

Kia

Kia Borrego

Scion display

Supercharged Range Rover. $102k

XFR

Supercharged Jaguar XK has an incredible interior. The dashboard has finely stitched leather. Even the seat controls are ornate.

Only worthwhile thing in the Chrysler-Dodge area.

200C would be a nice Sebring replacement.

Wrangler

Someone left their beer in the Grand Cherokee SRT.

These people have no taste.

Hello again, Grand Marquis. I will see you next year, and the year after that.

MKS interior was decent but nothing special.

Venza. Zzz...

Sweet, House is on!

LOLWTF

The view from Nicki's condo. Why bother going up the Sears Tower?

IT TOOK ME FOREVER to find her building. I followed the directions but apparently there were UPPER and LOWER levels of the same streets. At this point, I became irate and got tired of being in the city.

Chris and I decided to skip the Sears Tower and went exploring. We mostly sat in traffic.Incredible Italian beef and sausage combo somewhere downown. The parking was $14. Also went to a bar next door.

Believe it or not, there's more pics. That's enough for now.

Overall, the 2009 Chicago Auto Show was underwhelming compared to 2008. GM, Hyundai, BMW, and Ford had some interesting cars while the rest were rehashing old stuff. Bentley, Aston-Martin, and Rolls Royce did not make an appearance this year. Parking was easier, crowds were smaller, and cars were more spaced out to fill floor space. Malaise is here.

The Crossfire did get a lot of looks, mostly from kids and women. Outside of a gas station in Bloomington, some children in a minivan waved at me, so I put my window down. One gave me a thumbs up and said "HEY MAN, THAT'S A COOL CAR!" I said 'Thank you. I appreciate it!'

The Crossfire was fantastic for darting through traffic in Chicago. I have a tremendous appreciation for the car now. On the drive home, it was completely comfortable except for the poorly maintained roads in Northern Illinois.
Modified by Jesda at 1:25 AM 2/16/2009

[MySXisSlowerThanUrs]

Half the pictures dont work! Or is it just my computer?

[AZ89two4Tsx]

It's not just you.

[Jesda]

Working on it.

[Otto.]

Jesda totally freaking WINS at picture linking!

[MySXisSlowerThanUrs]

damn No pics of that badasss Matte blue LP560-4?Also why not pics of that Baller white genisis with the 22"s on it? In all honesty besides for the color of the wheels and the interior, i thought that thing was really sick looking!

What time did you go to the autoshow today jesda?i was around there about 5-7pm today

[Otto.]

Looks like fun. Your reaction to the Yaris S was priceless.

Why do you put your explanations of the pictures at the bottom? Much easier to understand if they were at the top of each series of pics.

[MinisterofDOOM]

That new Stingray concept is my desktop background right now. Beautiful.

And the Caddy Converj is better looking than the CTS coupe. What gives?

The revised Z4 looks so much better. Bye-bye concave doors.

[Infinitiguy19]

That sting ray concept is so weird looking, But other than that the show was great.

[Epik151]

The new MKS tail-lights are horrible.

Kia has winners with the new Soul and Forte. The orange jeep thing labeled as "kia soul" seems to have a Suzuki emblem on it.

What'd you think of the Genesis Coupe?

New Taurus is definitely a huge step forward for Ford. Interior looks excellent and exterior is not-so-great but inoffensive.

Great pics, thanks for sharing!

[MySXisSlowerThanUrs]

I thought the Honda Section SUCKED! They 1 S2k and they had pretty much all their base models as last year, nothing new from them.. also they should of atleast has a S2000 CR edition

[Jesda]

Oh thats right, there was a Kia Soulster there that looked like that orange Suzuki. All a bunch of soft-roaders with pastel colors.

Evan: I was there from 11am to 1p, I believe.

[Jesda]

I also want to add that I fit comfortably in the back of a Mini Cooper. Shocking amount of room in that car.

[snwbrdr435]

Awesome pictures jesda.

[Papi Chulo]

[AZ89two4Tsx]

Holy crap, los of pics! Anyways, looks like fun Jesda.

[HashiriyaS14]

CORVETTE CENTENNIAL CONCEPT!!!!ZOMG

That's cool that they had a factory NB Miata Coupe there, I've never seen one in the flesh.

The mpg on that Fusion is absurd, everyone should be buying those.

Thanks for at least trying on the foie gras dog, pizza alternative looked tasty. Expensive parking!

[Rex]

Jesda as always, great pics ... there just may be too many of them.

Is it just me or does the CTS wagon look like an updated IS300 SportCross?

[Bubba1]

Fun pics as always. I saw you visited the exotic dealer in Downers Grove. My brother lives in that town.

[Jesda]

Thanks for at least trying on the foie gras dog, pizza alternative looked tasty. Expensive parking!

Total parking expenditures:Rush St - $14Jackson St - $18McCorkmick - $17Total for weekend: $49

I slept in and skipped the exotic dealers, but Gary took some beautiful photos. The guys were taking mass transit, something I don't really care for. Plus, I wrongly assumed that Bentley, Porsche, and Aston-Martin would be at the show this year.

[hsckris]

Went to the (substantially smaller) NC show here.

I was most impressed by two Gms: 1) Cts-V2) G8 Gxp

I actually like the G8 Gxp so much I'm seriously considering replacing the Focus with it in a couple of years when the Gxp's value has dropped and you can find some used ones.

Good pics Jesda. I'd love to go to one of these huge shows & Sema.Edit -- the Kia Borrego made the cut but you skipped the ISF
Modified by hsckris at 12:45 PM 2/16/2009

[EW]

Kenne Bell Challenger

[raremotive]

Well, thank you for giving us the tour of your weekend. It was much appreciated at my end. Now you made me hungry for a philly cheese-steak.

Hope to see more from you in the future.

[Jesda]

On the way back it was 26F out and a headlamp bulb went out. It is NOT fun trying to extract a halogen H7 and its accompanying clip when you have an inch of clearance.

[SeVa-S13]

Oh **** you went to Hot Doug's.

[240marcuSX]

Looks like an awesome trip. Way to trump my ATL thread.

[NSR_s30]

Sweet pics man. Looks like fun