Planning your day at the LA Auto Show

After going to the LA Auto Show for a few years, here's some tips I picked up.

1. The best days to go are weekdays. 

These days are the least crowded.  That means there's less waiting for you.  For 2014, the Auto Show ran from November 21-30.  I went on Monday the 24 and waited no more than 10 minutes for anything.

2. Prepare to spend all day there.

To get the most out of the Auto Show, be prepared to spend all day there.  If you scored free tickets, go multiple days.  Bring a backpack for snacks or medication.  Thick socks and gel soles for your feet.

3. Get there early.

The best part of the Auto Show is getting to test drive cars.  I arrived at the Auto Show this year around 2PM and missed a few brands.  In order to test drive at least once from every car manufacturer, you probably need to get there when the show opens at 10am.

Start at the main entrance at Pico and Figueroa and walk south towards Venice.  Find Figueroa Drive and there will be some test drives there.  When you finish, walk back to the entrance and then towards the overpass on Pico, there will be more test drives.  Next walk towards Staples Center.  You will find a lot of cars to test drive here.  For the last test drive, walk between the Convention Center and Staples Center.  Walk down Chick Hearn Court a bit for the last test drive from Ford.

My favorite drives from this year's show were the Fiat 500e electric and the Ford F150.  The F150 has massaging seats that blew my mind.
Test drives end at 5PM.  With a break for lunch, you should be able to finish all the test drives by sundown. Go have dinner and then buy your tickets to go inside.  That's right, you've had a full day and haven't bought tickets yet.  Test drives do not require admission, just your license.  You could go home and come back another day to go check out what's inside.

4.  Enjoy the show.

At this point of the show, I walk around and take pictures of cars.  Depending on the car and if there's a large crowd, I'll hop in a car to try the seats.  I love the interactive exhibits.  My favorite for 2014 were the booths that had an Occulus Rift setup. Don't forget to pick up free bags from Toyota and Hyundai for your groceries.  If you have any time left, go downstairs for the customs and exotics. 

Here are my photos from this year's show.

Nintendo at the LA Auto Show

N8 | A view of the Nintendo 3DS booth


N8 | The Mario Kart 7 backdrop


N8 | Luigi's kart


N8 | Mario's glider kart


I got to test out Mario Kart 7 while at the LA Auto Show.  It was a lot of fun.  The 3D is very well done.  The new items were interesting.  I never figured out how to use the 7 super item.  Mario Kart 7 is a blast to play with other people.  Highly recommended!

Cars that go vroom at the LA Auto Show

N8 | Jaguar


N8 | Mercedes Benz SLS AMG gullwing


N8 | Porsche


N8 | Aston Martin


N8 | Lotus

Small cars of the LA Auto Show

N8 | The Volkswagon Beetle


N8 | Mini Cooper S


N8 | Smart Car Electric with Bike Rack

At the LA Auto Show

N8 | View from the top of the Toyota booth


Last Sunday I attended the 2011 LA Auto Show.  It was pretty crowded and I didn't get to do as much as I would have liked.


N8 | Mitsubishi electric concept

I spent the first hour checking twitter to see the Chargers score.  I didn't realize I could just sit in a car and listen to the radio.


N8 | Hot Wheels Hot Rod


Ford had a really cool 5 screen google maps interactive display.  I forgot to take a picture of it : (
I noticed most people looked up where they lived.  Some people looked up the pyramids in Egypt.




N8 | The Mini Slot machine


What I loved about the Mini booth was this slot machine.  The three slots on the screen were projected on the roofs in the background



N8 | There's 2 gigs in that thing

The 2009 LA Auto Show

Last week, my old friend Ozzie invited me to the LA Auto Show. He works for Honda so he has tons of passes. Kinda strange hanging out with him. Despite being a dad and engaged, he's constantly hitting on women.

Monday is the best day to attend. Its not crowded at all so, it makes it easy to talk to everyone there.

The Ford exhibit had lots of games to play. The Fiesta display was pretty cool. They set up a kiosk (with a very poor metal keyboard) that was set up with access to facebook and twitter. There was a neat interactive display that had pictures of a few of the people involved with the Fiesta Movement. I also saw a Grand Theft Auto type game and a table with a 4 player car race. There was also a great F-150 off road driving simulator.

There was also a foosball table set up and I got in a game with 5 random people. The other team jumped out to an early lead but my team made a comeback after I got moved off being the goalie. The game came down to the wire with 1 point left to score for each team and I scored the winning goal!



I think my favorite trend I saw this year was USB jacks next to the charger ports. Makes things simple. Volvo's booth had New Moon product placement, which was weird. The Lincoln pavilion showed off Microsoft Sync, which has a creepy avatar that talks.

I'm bummed I never found the time to go back and check out more cars. There's always next year.