Miami Beach Convention Center (Sept 2016)
09-19-2016, 07:11 AM
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Miami Beach Convention Center (Sept 2016)
As many of you know the convention center was not an option for the boat show in February 2016 due to the remodel/rebuild or whatever they are calling it. I attended the annual Miami Auto Show at the convention center over the weekend and it is virtually untouched! On the north end there was some iron framework going on but it appeared to be more of an addition than anything. The interior of the building was untouched, still painted almond with blue accents.
Auto show was definitely smaller than in prior years. Mercedes had about 6 cars, I don't remember seeing BMW or Mini at all. Nothing from Rolls Royce/Bentley. It might have been a corporate decision by BMW to skip this year if they thought the convention center was not going to be viable.
Food vendors were definitely in short supply and they took a page from boat shows and forced you to walk through the Dodge display in order to get into the main convention center hall. One thing that was increased were the test drives. Chevy, Toyota, Nissan and Chrysler all had test drive operations set up outside where you could drive new cars on surrounding city streets.
New Porsche 718 Boxster was neat but 71K window sticker for a 4 cyl turbo seemed expensive. They had a Raptor on display but it was a pre-production model and looked very similar to the last year's model. New Acura NSX and Alfa Romeo Giulia were showstoppers! New Corvette Grand Sport was there (81K sticker) and looks like a ZO6 but only has the stock Corvette motor.......I'd rather buy a slightly used Z06 for the same money and get the extra 200+ HP.
Auto show was definitely smaller than in prior years. Mercedes had about 6 cars, I don't remember seeing BMW or Mini at all. Nothing from Rolls Royce/Bentley. It might have been a corporate decision by BMW to skip this year if they thought the convention center was not going to be viable.
Food vendors were definitely in short supply and they took a page from boat shows and forced you to walk through the Dodge display in order to get into the main convention center hall. One thing that was increased were the test drives. Chevy, Toyota, Nissan and Chrysler all had test drive operations set up outside where you could drive new cars on surrounding city streets.
New Porsche 718 Boxster was neat but 71K window sticker for a 4 cyl turbo seemed expensive. They had a Raptor on display but it was a pre-production model and looked very similar to the last year's model. New Acura NSX and Alfa Romeo Giulia were showstoppers! New Corvette Grand Sport was there (81K sticker) and looks like a ZO6 but only has the stock Corvette motor.......I'd rather buy a slightly used Z06 for the same money and get the extra 200+ HP.
