By Chris Cosci

This past weekend, I went to the Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York. The Auto Show is attended by a wide variety of people. There are people who are looking to buy a new car and see the show as a one-stop shopping Mecca. There are car enthusiasts who have an unnaturally vast knowledge of details and could probably tell you how much horsepower the ’85 Corvette had. Then, there are people like me who go to the show to see what’s new and unusual.

The last time I went, Chrysler introduced the PT Cruiser. It was easily the most talked-about car at that show, and it quickly became the most sought-after car on the market. Nowadays, it seems everywhere you look, there’s a PT Cruiser.

Although there were no cars that stood out as much this year, there were certainly a few attention-grabbers. One of the spotlights was the Lexus SC 430 (never let it be said that Lexus wastes money on coming up with catchy names). This car, which has been in production since last year, was the first retractable hard-top convertible. I stood behind a huge crowd of people to watch the demonstration, which admittedly, was pretty cool. The hard roof and rear windshield separated into segments and folded into the trunk. Unfortunately, at a base price of over $60,000, the SC 430 won’t be popping up in every parking lot across the country. Still, it’s not the most expensive convertible at the show. That distinction belongs to the Rolls-Royce Corniche. Even without the new hard-top technology, the Corniche has a jaw-dropping base price of $363,000.

Should this be slightly outside your budget, there were a few interesting cars with slightly lower prices. Garnering much attention were the Mini Cooper, which looks like a set prop from an Austin Powers movie, and the Toyota Prius, one of the newest hybrid cars available on the market - powered by a combination gasoline/electric engine.

The real attraction at any Auto Show, though, are the concept cars. These concept cars show off new ideas without any promise of actually being manufactured. They’re like teasers. It’s as if the car companies are saying, “this is what we can do - but we’re not actually going to do it just yet.” Some cars are made to show off new, sleeker designs. Some of these designs fail miserably (the Scion bbX - a van-like vehicle that looks like a production accident), while others show the promise of great things to come (the Cadillac Cien - entirely what a futuristic sports car should look like). Other cars show off new interior designs, which, judging by the cars I saw, means a generous use of chrome and a penchant for using very bright blue fabric. Finally, there are some concept cars that show off new technology. One such car replaces side-view mirrors with cameras that produce digital images on the dashboard so that the driver never has to look sideways - the driver will always be looking straight ahead. Other technologies are turning cars into home theaters, with multi-disc CD changers, television screens, and DVD players. At this rate, we’ll soon install refrigerators and ovens, and people will stop buying homes and just live in these automobiles.

Of course, there’s more to the Auto Show than just cars. There are brochures. Every car company has brochures that show off their entire line. By the time you leave, you have a bag that weighs a thousand pounds and is filled with material you will probably never read. However, this year, a few of the vendors raised the stakes. Toyota found the quickest way to the attendees’ hearts by handing out free bottles of flavored water. They were also one of three vendors that gave out enhanced CDs featuring a sampling of music, plus CD-ROM features that enable you to view the new cars on your home computer. That alone was worth the trip.

For a few hours, though, I got lost in a world of XM Satellite Radio, demonstrations by over-perky announcers, and the Batmobile, which really does have the OnStar service system installed. It was a world of cars. Too bad I had to take the train to get there.