Auto Show Blues - 2021 Edition

In New York City, Easter usually signals the arrival of the annual international auto show, as it has since 1987, when its organizers began holding it at the then-new Jacob Javits Convention Center on the west side of Manhattan.  But it was postponed, then canceled, for 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, and now it's being held in late August this year with the understanding that the pandemic won't end soon enough for staging it during Easter Week.  Heck, late August may be too soon.

At least there's a chance that the New York International Auto Show may be held this summer.  The Geneva show, usually held in March and canceled at the last minute for 2020, was canceled for 2021 as far back as this past June.  Going to a European auto show - nay, just going to Europe, period - has been on my bucket list, but it's become difficult if not impossible to hold an auto show anywhere on the planet when to do so would cause a lot of people to kick the bucket prematurely.  And I don't even expect to go to the auto show in New York this summer, either - mainly because the bus line to Manhattan that serves my town (which has no rail service) has shut down indefinitely and does not appear to have a plan to restart any time soon.     

It's gotten to the point where I don't really miss the auto show anymore.  Many of the brands that pulled out of the 2020 New York show even before the pandemic began will likely skip the 2021 event, assuming it takes place, and most of the cars I would see there are likely to be sport utility vehicles, so predominant are they in the U.S. motor vehicle market.  If I want to see the upcoming eighth-generation Golf GTI so badly, I can always see it at my VW dealer when I go back for maintenance on my Mark 6 Golf after the Mark 8 GTI's U.S. introduction.  The reasons for going to an auto show are few for me now, and those few reasons aren't worth it.  There is no reason for me to hang out at the Ford display at the auto show, for example, as there won't be a single sedan or hatchback to check out there.

So, it looks like my auto show going is over, and that will be the case even after the pandemic is over. 

Unless, of course, I make it to Geneva in 2022 or Munich in 2023.  Those exhibitions are still on for now, and I might make it overseas - at last - by then. But if all I'd see in New York are SUVs, then who cares about that?