I was always a big car fan, well before I even learned to ride a bike. My mom says when I was two or three, I’d run around with my Lincoln Mark IV and Cadillac Fleetwood Pocket Cars, and if I tripped, I wouldn’t let go, to keep the cars from getting scratched. So when my mom and dad took me to my first-ever Chicago Auto Show in 1988, to say it was a big deal would have been an understatement.
As anyone who has read my posts knows, I’m a big Volvo fan. Through the years, my folks had a ’73 1800ES, ’77 245DL, ’84 244GL and an ’86 240DL, just to name a few. So I just HAD to see Volvo’s display. Irv Gordan’s famous 1800S was there – it had recently turned over one million miles and Volvo got lots of PR out of it.
This is me and Mom in front of a 760. I’m not sure where the rest of the car is.
I had to have my picture taken behind the wheel of a new car. I am pretty sure this is an N-body Skylark sedan. All in all, I thought the Chicago Auto Show was really great. It would not be my last.
Fast forward to 1992. We are looking at one of Volvo’s venerable 240s in gunmetal gray. Don’t you wish you could go back in time and get a brand-new 240? I do.
By now my dad had the 1991 940SE that would be my first car in the not so distant future. Mom had traded in her navy blue 740GL wagon for a ’92 Grand Caravan, but we still liked Volvos. This 940 Turbo is especially sharp in bright red.
Here’s a 740 station wagon, in its last model year. We had two of these, the above-mentioned ’90 740GL wagon with saddle leather interior and a burgundy ’89 740GL wagon with tan leather.
In 1992, Volvo brought back the GL trim level to the 240 series. I was especially taken with this particular emerald green 240GL, with its turbine-spoke alloys, sunroof and saddle leather interior. Me, my mom and my sister are on the right, checking it out. I have no idea who the guy on the left was.
Sick of Volvos, you say? Okay, let’s wander around and see what else is on display.
How about a nice Ferrari 512TR?
If the Ferrari is too expensive, there’s always the classic Alfa Romeo Spider. You better hurry though, because they’re not going to be around much longer. I still have my Alfa brochures from these shows.
The W140 Mercedes S-Class was all-new this year, replacing the long-lived but still attractive W126. So which was the last brick-outhouse Mercedes, the W126 or the W140?
If you lost your shirt during the S&L fiasco and had to turn in your leased Mercedes, you could get one of North America’s lowest-priced cars, the Hyundai Excel. If you told anyone in 1992 that Hyundai was going to be a big deal in 15-20 years, closing in on Toyota and Honda in sales and quality, you would have gotten laughed at.
Don’t forget the concept cars! Pontiac fielded an interesting targa-topped concept, the Salsa.
I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a sports car or a sporty car, but the overall proportions remind me of a compact crossover, a segment which did not exist when this photo was taken.
Honda fielded a pretty wild-looking concept, the EP-X. With its canopy and aerodynamic lines, it puts out a serious aircraft vibe.
In 1962, this is probably what people thought everyone would be driving in thirty years, complete with nuclear power or jet propulsion. They were a little off.
Well, thanks for joining me on my trip through the new cars of the past. I remember when all these cars were new, and today they’re all Curbside Classics! Oh well, time marches on. For all you Diamond-Star fans, here’s a parting shot of a Plymouth Laser.
That’s awesome!
I wish my parents had taken me to the Chicago auto show. We lived in Madison in the 1980s when I was a kid.
+1.
My first auto show? I hooked school (8th grade), and rode a bus into downtown Baltimore to see a roadster show at the Civic Center; must have been 1967.
I love it! My first auto show was the 1989 NAIAS. I took some pics, but for some reason I wasn’t in any of them! Oh well…I didn’t get to go to another one until the 1997 NAIAS. Each time I had a blast and of course I had to get the bag of brochures! When we moved back to Michigan in late 1999 I determined that I would attend every NAIAS I could, and so far I haven’t missed one since 2000. I have lots of free stuff and brochures. Oh, and pictures, lots of pictures, just not many of me.
I have been taking friends with me from my church and Sunday School class the past five years, and we do always conclude with a pic of us at the Honda display, because that’s the last place we look at before leaving! I’m on the right, with my friends Collin, Kevin and his son Ethan. Thankfully I am a lot smaller since then!
I went to NAIAS at COBO for years 1974 thru 2002. Use to get invited from age 20 or so to the VIP show on fridays before the offical opening. Going on fridays with well to dos without the crowd was very nice. You really got to inspect the cars and sit in them without being rushed.Now I go to the dealer when I’m interested in a car and only when I’m about to compare or buy. The thrill is gone!
I remember going to the 1991 Dallas Auto Show and being absolutely mesmerized by the Toronado and entire Land Rover line.
How did that work out for the Toronado ?
Heh, back when it was all in McCormick Place East. Went there with my junior high school in that same time period, 1991.
Looking back on these auto show pictures, there’s one big change from the late 80’s/early 90’s to the modern day.
Cars like the Volvo 240 and the Alfa Spider soldiered on for decades with gradual powertrain, interior, and trim upgrades. A 1992 240 wasn’t very different from a 1975 240.
Nowadays, I’m hard pressed to think of a vehicle design for sale in the United States that hasn’t been substantially redesigned in the past five or six years.
I can name quite a few:
Mercedes G-Class (introduced 1979)
Ford Econoline (introduced 1992)
Chevy/GMC Full Size Vans (introduced 1996)
Volvo XC90 (introduced 2003)
Audi A3 (introduced 2003 in Europe, though not sold in US until 2005/2006)
Mitsubishi Galant (introduced 2004)
Chevy Colorado / GMC Canyon (introduced 2004)
Nissan Armada/Titan (introduced 2004)
Nissan Frontier/Pathfinder/Xterra (introduced 2005)
Acura RL (introduced 2005)
Chevy Corvette (introduced 2005)
and probably some others that I forgot.
Granted, most of these are not big sellers and many sell primarily to fleets.
“Don’t you wish you could go back in time and get a brand-new 240?” Yes I do!
In the ’60s and early 70s, I lived in the Chicago suburbs, so most every year, we’d make the pilgrimage. Considering that my father kept cars 3-4 years, it made a lot of sense. Highlights include the Spirit of America tricycle and various Corvette concepts. I don’t know if the Vega-based roadster (XP 885?) fits as a highlight or yet another GM misfire, but it was there.
My last auto show was in San Jose in 2002. Not remotely close.
I had 2 friends who owned Volvo’s, one an early 90’s, I think 740 wagon in gray, the other friends had the newer V70 from 1995.
I never rode in the older 740 but saw it a time or two, but have ridden in the 95 wagon, dark green with tan or saddle leather. Friends didn’t keep the V70 very long and it was replaced with a ’98 Plymouth Voyager and that was replaced a few years later with a gently used ’01 Sienna van that they still drive.
My first car show must’ve been in the early 80’s as I remember going to the show one day with my parents and they had the then new Jeep Scrambler, the pickup truck based Jeep CJ. This was in the fall of ’82 if I remember right and I was in a love affair for the Jeep CJ-7, after having learned to drive a manual in my cousin’s ’76 Jeep CJ-5 that previous summer while visiting my Dad’s side of the family. They lived in the hills of N. Georgia.
I go to the auto show here in Seattle, though for years it was held in the old Kingdome and I think one year, it was at the Tacoma Dome and then it was held in the exhibit center that was really an inflatable building type of structure that hugged the old KD before it was torn down and now it’s in the exhibition center at Seahawks Stadium, literally on the grounds of the old Kingdome. Wasn’t able to go this year though.
Well, motor shows aren’t quite as big here in NZ, but my first was the 1986 Auckland Motor Show. The highlight is a photo of Dad and I sitting in a brand new Lamborghini Countach – at the time NZ was just coming out of years of economic depression and the Countach made headlines due to a) being the first in NZ, and b) being the most expensive car here ever. I remember the motor show organisers couldn’t find an insurer prepared to cover the entire car, and they eventually ended up with two insurers who insured half each. They recouped the cost by charging people to sit in it and have their photo taken. I still love the photo!
Second highlight of that show was that the sales manager at the Austin-Rover-Honda dealer where Dad worked went to the press-only evening, and accidentally picked up a full press pack – which he passed on to me. It’s an awesome bit of memorabilia.
The Auckland Motor Show appeared irregularly every year or 3 through the 80s and 90s, and was always a must-see for me. Hasn’t been a decent one in NZ for about a decade though. Being a Volvo fan, the Volvo stand was always a highlight – although they were a tad stingy with their brochures, but my ex-Volvo owning Grandfather got me the brochures a couple of times. I guess they figured he could afford one whereas I couldn’t as I was still a kid lol!
The last motor show I went to was about 2002, and there were two highlights for me. The first was, somewhat bizarrely, the Renault Vel Satis. I remember thinking it was a tad ungainly, but it was somehow just ‘me’. Sadly Renault decided it wouldn’t work here, so never imported it officially (though I saw one on the road recently). And highlight two was a 2002 Chrylser 300M – very distinctive, very stylish.
Thanks to the internet, I can closely follow coverage of all of today’s motor shows, but it’s still sad that we don’t have awesome big ones here. One of my dreams is to attend a few of the big ones overseas when funds (or lottery winnings!) allow.
I don’t really remember my first car show. I’m thinking late 60’s as I remember sitting in the Saab 96 & being enamored with it as well as a Citroen DS of some sort and being overwhelmed by it’s sumptuous luxury (eventually I owned one &, well dealt with it), and sitting in a Fiat 600. So it must have been in ’68 or ’69, as I think the 600 was gone soon after. Volvos, Cortinas, Renaults, Peugeots, Audis and so much more. For a 14 year old car freak I was overwhelmed!!!
Tom,You might be interested to know that my Volvo P1800 is still rolling and will shortly be hitting the 3 millionth mile! Thanks for the great memory of the Chicago Auto Show. Irv Gordon
Hi very excited indeed. ..do you byany chance more dhots of the W140 from that era…
thank you.
Regards
Ayhan