VW at the 2023 New York Auto Show

(This blog post originally appeared on my now-defunct Volkswagen Golf 8 blog.)

I went to the New York Auto Show last month for the first time in four years, and even though many brands chose not to display their latest cars (least of all Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac), Volkswagen was there. and unlike its 2022 New York Auto Show display (which I saw on YouTube), this year the VW display actually didn't suck. There was an example of every vehicle Volkswagen sells in the U.S., along with the as-yet-unreleased ID. Buzz minivan.

Above is an example of the Mark 8 Volkswagen Golf GTI, the photograph taken by yours truly.  Finally, I got to not only see a GTI in person, I got to sit in it - in the driver's seat and also the back seat.  I played around with the much-ballyhooed touchscreen controls . . . and I was utterly frustrated at trying to master it.  I can say without fear of contradiction that this touchscreen was a bad idea . . . and the sliders are worse. (This is precisely why, the for the first time in recent memory, Car and Driver did not include the Golf GTI on its annual 10Best list for 2023.) 

A VW product specialist saw me admiring the GTI while in the driver's seat, and he asked me if I was a Volkswagen customer.  I told him that I certainly was, and I had owned a fourth-generation Golf and I currently own a sixth-generation Golf, both base models, and I told him that I was very disappointed with the lack of a base model in the States.  He apologized, but he added that sport utility vehicles are what sells, and 83 percent of VW's sales (five out of six vehicles sold) are now sport utility vehicles.  (And, as noted, that figure was higher - 90 percent in the first quarter of this year.) 

I'm glad that the auto shows are back in New York.  But they won't be the same as they were before the pandemic.  And neither, in North America anyway, will Volkswagen. 

Auto Show Blues - 2022 Edition

I just realized that I went through March without hearing a word about the Geneva Motor Show, and, given all the news about annual events returning after cancellations or being held after postponements, I wondered if I had just missed the news about it.

I didn't miss a thing.  After being canceled due to COVID in 2020 and 2021, the Geneva Motor Show was canceled again this year.  Apparently, the third time an auto show in Geneva was attempted was not a charm.

It turns out that the cancellation of Geneva 2022 had only partly something to do with COVID and nothing to do with Omicron.  The decision to pull the plug on the auto show was made this past fall, when Delta was the COVID strain of concern and Omicron hadn't even been discovered yet, and another factor was the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage that has made producing cars so damn difficult.  Once again, our overdevelopment of the natural world, which let COVID happen, and our technological overkill, which led to cars that are really computers on wheels, did something only Hitler had previously accomplished - disrupt life as we know it beyond belief.

Meanwhile, here in America, where the feared Omicron BA.2 surge hasn't happened yet and may not materialize at all, the New York Auto Show is a go for this Easter Week.  I was thinking of sitting this one out, since I feared that a few of the German marques would not be present, as had happened before, and because too many brands have tilted to SUVs to the point where I had to rule out seeing the Buick, Ford, and Lincoln displays due to their SUV-only lineups (except for Ford's Mustang).

Then Volkswagen announced it would be showing its new ID. Buzz electric van in New York.

Oh, dear.  I love VW vans.  Even the ones that have never been sold in the United States.  I actually spotted a not-for-America Sharan minivan with New York plates parked on a Manhattan street and I left a note for the owner wishing him or her luck with this obviously gray-market vehicle.  And I'm particularly excited about this revival of the original Microbus concept.  Should I go to the show this year?  Should I risk traveling by bus to spend a few hours in a convention center with thousands of my follow Tri-Staters in a pandemic that has abated but not entirely ended just to have the opportunity to see the first Volkswagen EV to be offered in the States that I might actually want? 

Or would looking at a picture like the one above suffice?

I'm waiting to see how the COVID numbers look by the last possible day  I could go to the show, but don't be surprised if I stay home.  I can't think of much else that I feel I just have to see, and even the new Golf GTI is something I can wait to see until I visit my dealer for service on my own Golf later this year.  I may just give up on auto shows altogether.  Auto shows themselves were becoming less relevant even before the pandemic, and the auto market these days is something I no longer recognize as relevant to my automotive interests.  That, of course, would be in keeping with my penchant for giving up on so many other things, like a relationship, foreign travel, and a real career.  Heck, I've thrown in enough towels to stock a linen store.  Why should I stop now?

The folks in Geneva might be getting those towels out right about now.  Three cancellations in a row have cast doubt over the Geneva Motor Show's sustainability over the long run, and hopes for a more impactful show in March 2023 seem like pie in the sky . . . by next year, the shows organizers could end up feasting on humble pie.

With second helpings.