2006 South Florida International Auto Show

The show comes every year to showcase all of the manufacturers latest and greatest for the nest coming year.  This can be big if a model redesign is up for a particular company (such as Nissans Sentra) and it can be a bigger deal if an all new vehicle is being shown to the public for the first time.  The Miami Beach facility is a huge arena for just such a venue occupying a city block by itself.  You can get a sense of it from our pictures.  (The shot below was just inside the entrance shooting across the venue.)

You can usually count on some sexy prototypes to make you drool about what could (never) come next!  But, as stated on the opening page, there weren't any prototypes on hand.  No Nissan Skyline, no Mitsubishi Evo X, not even the special addition Subaru STI.  Mazda's Mazdaspeed line was strangely missing as was Volvo.  I was looking forward to checking out their new C70 and S60-R and Jaguars X-Type R as well.  BMW and Benz did represent with the M5/M6 and AMG E and S class rides although there isn't a C55 replacement available yet for 07.

The new VW Rabbit GTI was displayed and while it is a sweet little machine and homage to the days of old by bringing it back, the reality is that the Golf is so close they could almost be twins.  Now a reinvention of the Scirocco would be a nice addition because that car though a mechanical nightmare was a beatiful machine and a decent sporty ride.  Of course both Audi and Porsche have "TT" models so a VW with a TT isn't that much of a dream.

Million Dollar alley was just that with more Ferrari, Lamborghini and Ashton than you could shake a stick at but their ultimate 'Supercar' (IMO) was the Mercedes McLaren SLR.  That is one sexy-ass machine!  It even had it's own security personnel..!!

Follow the link to the site!  2006 South Florida Auto show