Photos by MJ Klein
Hui-chen and I got up at 05:45 on Saturday to meet friend and blogger Andre and Karen for a movie and then the auto show.
The movie was Avatar and it was better than I could have imagined. During the entire movie (which is just short of 3 hours long) I kept thinking that I was witnessing the future of motion pictures. After a great lunch (sorry, no photos) we were off to the auto show.
The auto show takes place in the shadow of Taipei 101. Right across the street in fact.
It was one of those gray, threatening days. But the rain held off. I was just very humid and water drops formed on many objects.
But inside the show, the place was packed and the atmosphere was totally different.
This one shot pretty much sums up the entire day: lots of cool cars to look at, but people always in front of you, especially when trying to take photographs.
The show was an opportunity for me to find out if I could actually fit inside various cars. Believe it or not, it’s hard for me to find a vehicle that I can comfortably fit inside of.
This is Mercedes new car.
She’s quite a looker. I’m talking about the car of course.
Here is the “new” Jaguar. Their cars were very impressive looking. I’m sure the price tag is equally impressive.
This is my favorite of all the displays: the VW display.
I had never seen a huge van from VW before, but it makes sense if you know the company.
This is our favorite VW car – the Caddy van. Not only it is spacious and roomy inside, the visibility is good and so are the appointments.
Here are 3 cars from Porsche.
I like the Cayman the best out of these three. I didn’t get to sit in any of them though.
Next on our tour was Mitsubishi. This car seemed to be pretty good and I could tolerate sitting in the driver’s seat.
Meanwhile the Mitsubishi showgirls were busy throwing stuff into the crowd of admirers.
We passed through the Ford display. This is a cool looking pickup, but the bad news is the salesmen couldn’t tell us the price, when it would be selling in Taiwan, or even if it would be selling in Taiwan! Why are they showing it?
The color of this Audi car was incredible in person. It was nice to see something besides the white/black/silver colors of Taiwan cars.
This is an Audi SUV. It was huge! I didn’t bother sitting in it because it’s too big for my taste.
This is another Jaguar that was being wiped down for fingerprints by this guy you see standing here. I like how this car looks. It’s a new “E” type.
I heard a ruckus up front and it turned out to be the Hyundai girls going on stage. In this case it was a lot easier to shoot from behind than to go around front and face the madhouse.
While the Hyundai girls were doing their thing in front, we were looking at the cars in the back. We like their diesel models.
This was a typical scene all day. Photographers pushing and shoving their way up to the front to shoot the showgirls. About a minute after I shot this, 2 “photographers” brushed past me and stood immediately in front of me as if I didn’t exist, blocking my view. Thanks guys!
Have you ever seen a 4-door Porsche before? There were several at the show.
I have no idea who this auto maker is, but their car looks cool.
We stopped at the Luxgen display, and they girls started doing a dance. In the center was a girl dressed as a robot. That’s all I can tell you!
Now this is a very cool concept car.
Notice the top of the door and the hood – they are covered with solar cells.
All the lighting is LED, including the main headlights.
Inside the car is made of space-aged materials that don’t pollute when making them.
This is a Peugeot SUV. This is the biggest car I’ve ever seen from this auto maker.
Of course, this being Taiwan, they had to put a few stuffed animals in the back to make it “cute.”
Nissan was going to unveil a new car – the Cube. I was bored and didn’t want to wait for it. If you want to see what it looks like, go here. To my eye, it looks like it’s been done before.
This is a little pickup truck from Suzuki. I could not fit in the driver’s seat! Cute truck though.
As we neared the end of our tour around the auto show, we saw the new Bentleys. Nice!
And the new Aston Martins of course.
I’ll leave you with this parting shot. Don’t you feel like 007?
Thanks for reading! We look forward to your comments and recommendations below.
Nice, but with all due respect to the cars, those shows are about the girls and there ain’t enough of those here! 🙂
.-= Fili An´s last blog ..My 2009 – A year’s summary =-.
Fili, it was murder trying to get photos of the girls in the first place. they were all mobbed like they were stars and lots of pushing and shoving. i just stood back and laughed at it all, and took a few shots where i had a clear opportunity. i did enjoy seeing the cool cars, and i wish i could have tried out the Porsche Cayman!
MJ, looked like an interesting day. My favourites were the Mercedes, have small but nice twin airbags…
The Bentley, that is the car I want, not the others. I would give a right arm and left leg for one (I just pity the person who I take them from)
I hate people at these days, they are so ignorant. Of course there isn’t anyone else but them there wanting to take pictures.
And it isn’t worth saying anything as they are too stupid to know why you are pissed at them.
Thanks for sharing MJ, some really nice looking cars.
.-= Brunty´s last blog ..Merry Christmas from Isaan Style Thailand 2009 =-.
Brunty, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon. saw lots of cool cars and nice looking accessories 😉 thanks for dropping by and for your comments. you are so right.
The Octavia is a a car from Skoda, a Czech manufacturer which is now a subsidiary of Volswagen. It is not unusual to see them in France.
hi Alain. Andre told me the car was from the Czech republic. i’ve never heard of Skoda, but their cars look very nice. thanks for the information!
Nice pics from the car show 🙂
They had a similar car show in Boston… I think early December… at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. I didn’t go to it… but I wish I did go. From what I seen when Ch 25 was live there one morning… it looked liked a really nice car show.
Not sure what is going to happen with the World of Wheels car show. It is “usually” the 2nd weekend in January at the Bayside Expo Center. This year its been changed to mid-March. However… UMass-Boston is trying to by the place (for campus expansion). They’ve signed a letter of intent to buy the place… and they hope to have a deal to buy the place finalized sometime in January. If UMass-Boston does buy the Bayside Expo Center… then no one knows what is going to happen with the events that are currently scheduled to be there this year.
Now… time for a shameless plug. Just uploaded pics of ice sculptures from New Years Eve 2009 in Boston. They can be seen at…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike01905/
It was a cloudy, snowy day in Boston. The “daytime” pics didn’t look all that great as the ice sculptures kinds of “blended in” with the cloudy sky and snow. They looked a LOT better as it got darker and they put multi-colored lights on them. One of the ice sculptures was still being worked on when I left Boston to go home.
.-= mike01905´s last blog ..New Years Eve 2009 – Boston =-.
Mike, that’s an interesting situation developing there, with the possibility of the Expo center being bought.
the ice sculpture photos look good. thanks for the shameless plug!
There was something on the news today. It apepars that the Bayside Expo Center will operate thru April 2010. There are currently 7 events scheduled to be there between now and April (including the World of Wheels show and the Phantom Gourmet Food and Wine Phest). Nothing is being added yet for after April… since they don’t know what is going to be going on with the Bayside Expo Center and UMass-boston.
So it look as if Mar 12-14… I will find myself at the Bayside Expo Center for the World of Wheels car show.
.-= mike01905´s last blog ..New Years Eve 2009 – Boston =-.
so, the good news is that we can expect to see some car show and Phantom Gourmet pics on your Flickr soon!
Well… I don’t think I’ll be going to the Wine and Food Festival… and I’m not a wine drinker at all. Also… most of the food that will be available there… is stuff that would go best with wine.
The Beer and Food Festival… is a bit different… probably a better selection of food (well… for me at least).
Nothing… compares to the BBQ Beach Party tho 🙂
.-= mike01905´s last blog ..New Years Eve 2009 – Boston =-.
A Flickr contact of mine got a good series of car shots (and a few girls). Worth checking out on his blog at http://zeropro.blogspot.com/2009/12/2010_27.html
.-= Craig Ferguson (@cfimages)´s last blog ..Off-Center Portraits =-.
thanks for that link, Craig. i can just imagine what he had to go through to get decent shots of the showgirls!