2007 Chicago Auto Show Rolls Into Town
By Todd McClamroch in News on Feb 8, 2007 1:25AM
The Chicago Auto Show is the largest auto show in North America and it is ready to kick off for the 99th time. The show, located at McCormick Place, is open to the public starting Friday, February 9 through Sunday, February 18. The hours are 10am-10pm each day except on the final day when the show ends at 8pm.
The event boasts nearly 1,000 domestic and imported vehicles. Chicagoist accepted General Motors’ invite to catch a sneak peak of this year’s show. One of the things we love most about the auto show is checking out the concept cars. Most of the major manufacturers had one on hand. The wildest concept car of this year’s show is the Ford Airstream concept which melds futuristic car design with the fifties mobile home look. We were also impressed by the Chevy Volt concept car and will share more about that tomorrow. We uploaded several photos from this year’s show and tagged the concept cars separately so you can check them out.
After checking out the concept cars our next favorite thing is to check out cars we could never afford on our meager Chicagoist salary. We went straight to the Bentley exhibit where the nice folks let us sit in the convertible version of the Bentley Continental GT with a price tag just over $150,000. We also ogled several Maseratis.
After that we jumped back into reality and checked out some more practical cars of which there are plenty, most of which you are free to hop into and check out. We enjoyed being among the first to see the new Pontiac G8 (left) which was revealed for the first time here in Chicago. General Manager Pontiac/Buick/GMC John Larson commented that this was a performance-based sedan capable of accelerating from 0-60mph in under six seconds.
Tickets to the 2007 Chicago Auto Show are $10 for adults (13-61), seniors (61 and older) and children between the ages of 7-12 get a discounted rate of $5. Children under the age of 7 are free when accompanied by a paying parent. Tickets can be bought directly from the Auto Show website. Discounted tickets are available on certain days, check out the Weekday Discount Tickets page for more details.
Since the show is so large we highly recommend you check out a map of the show floor before heading out to the show so you can make sure not to miss some of your favorite cars. We uploaded our favorite photos from the show to Flickr.