St Louis Auto Show

I couldn’t believe that it had been a year since the auto show was last in St Louis. This is the largest new automobile event in the St Louis area & featured more than 600 new cars, trucks, SUVs, & concept vehicles from over 30 manufacturers. Since the show is held in the America’s Center & Edward Jones Dome (both of which are just across from the office), I spent a few hours looking around one evening after work.

Before heading into the show halls, I went across to the Toyota Trucks Off Road On Site Adventure. This was located in the parking lot at the main entrance to the Edward Jones Dome (7th Street and Convention Plaza) & was filled with 1000 tons of dirt & 20 tons of gravel to make an off-road course. I drove a new Toyota Tundra pickup over the specially built course that included moguls, logs, sand pits, berms, a hill climb (with blind descent), teeter totter (which was really difficult to get the vehicles to balance on), & frame twister.

The Dodge area was at the entrance to the show, with the Challenger concept taking pride of place amongst the Chargers, Nitros, & Rams. The Challenger concept looked even better in real life than in photos & Dodge confirmed that the production version will be on sale by 2008. With a 6.1L V8 Hemi engine & knockout styling, it looks like the Ford Mustang’s days as being the king of retro cool are numbered!

There were plenty of other vehicles at the show worth looking at. Ford had their Edge crossover SUV, the California Special & convertible Shelby Mustangs, the new Focus, facelifted 500, & new Escape. GMC & Chevrolet had their new pick-ups & SUVs on display, as well as the performance versions of the HSR, Impala, Cobalt, & the Corvette Z06.

Other US manufacturers included Pontiac, Buick, Saturn, Mercury, & Lincoln. Lincoln have been trying to update their image & although their vehicles are based upon the equivalent Ford vehicle (much like Mercury), their styling is spot on. If I couldn’t afford a Dodge ram SRT-10, or Roush F150 pickup (I can’t!), I’d happy own a Lincoln Mark LT truck. This has a huge chrome grill that looks really imposing & the interior is all leather with a real quality finish.