Went to Indy Auto Show over the weekend

I usually don't go to these things. However, I was so bored and it was too cold to detail any of the cars that I was game for anything that would kill a few hours to get me closer to Sunday, and my Directv NFL Sunday Ticket fix.

So I paid my five dead dudes and entered the Indianapolis Conference Center.

The very first vehicle I saw was the Charger R/T Concept car that you might have seen in some of the auto rags. It was a sort of sunburst orange metallic color. They wouldn't let anyone get their sweaty hands close to it, but it looked like some of the window moldings were coming unglued, plus it had a couple of nice door dings the size of half-dollars on the driver side door. The sign said it had a 350 engine in it, but they wouldn't pop the hood to let you look at the engine bay, so it could have been empty for all I know. I did like the retro look, and the original Charger was my favorite when I was just a stupid little kid and thought that any American car was better than a German one. However, I don't think I'll be shopping for it anytime soon, even if it is eventually produced.

Other things that caught my eye were the Lincoln Blackwood and the Cadillac Escalade EXT, if only because they were so humongous. I couldn't help thinking to myself, "who in his right mind would want to buy either of these bloated pigs?". What the heck is wrong with this world, that it was cause rational people to determine that the automotive public needs either product? I just don't get it.

Not that I was interested in any of their vehicles, but Mercedes had all of their vehicles locked (elitist bastuds) with the exception of the C240 and the new C230 (both pieces of cheap junk if you ask me). I did kind of like the midnight blue CLK430 Coupe, but for that kind of dough I'd rather get an M car.

Which brings me to the BMW display. To their credit they did have every vehicle open, so you could crawl in and play around in it. They had a steel blue/gray 325Cic; an electric red 330Ci; an orient blue 325i; a titanium silver 325xiT; a sterling gray 525i; and the two that caught my eye - a cosmos black X5 4.6is, and a carbon black M3 with SMG.

I'm honestly not interested in the X5, but any model or year BMW in cosmos black gets my heart to racing. But I couldn't keep my eyes off of the carbon black M3. I originally spied this color when I picked up my cab from my dealer after doing Euro Delivery, back in May. It caught my eye on the showroom floor then, and it really had me going at the Auto Show. The paddle wheels looked pretty cool, but the chrome shift knob is definitely something that looks totally out of place.

If I had to make a call on it today the M3 would definitely be my next new car. We'll see how things stack up in 16 months when I will probably be back in the market for a new one.

All in all the entire show was pretty worthless. I guess it's all right for grandma and grandpa who can't decide whether to get the Century or the Regal, but nothing really for the enthusiast. No real exotics, or anything neat that you would find at the bigger shows like in Detroit or Chicago.

But it did kill a total of 5 hours and got me out from under the watchful eye of my bitter, er rather, better half (aka the warden).

Not bad if you can't spend any time on your real baby (the car, not the wife)