I walk past the convention center every morning and evening, so I stopped to look at the Motor Trend Auto Show here in Baltimore yesterday. I visited the same auto show a few years ago, when Pontiac was still a brand. Back then I wanted to see the Prius, the Escape hybrid and the Smart Car; tonight I wanted to see the Volt, the Leaf, the Sonata Blue Drive hybrid and the Smart Car, which wasn't at the previous show.

One nice thing about an auto show is that you can sit in a variety of cars and look under hoods and in trunks without driving from showroom to showroom. Another is that you can generally avoid hovering salespersons. Since I'm not shopping, just curious about what is out there, that's a plus. It wasn't very crowded, but not so empty that I felt like the only customer.



Chevy's area was closest to the entrance, so I looked for the Volt (above). A pearly white model was on a revolving pedestal. Actually two pearly white models - an attractive young woman dressed in the same pearl white, black and chrome as the car was presenting a canned spiel into a microphone. She opened doors, trunk and hood so we could have a look, but we couldn't actually touch the new beast. The car was attractive, but I wanted physical contact.

The Volt costs a great deal of money: $41,000 minus the federal incentive of $7,500 is still $33,500 - a lot for a compact car. But it is a great concept - a car that you can drive in electric mode for the daily commute, but with a gas engine to recharge it in case you have to drive to Cleveland.


Over a year ago, I sold my very high-mileage, but comfortable and durable Buick Regal to a kid that knew how to rebuild it. I thought that Regal was finished, but in the Buick area was a rebadged Opel Insignia with the Regal nameplate. Many Saturns and Chevys had been Opels, too. I was curious about the highly-touted Buick LaCrosse (above), but it wasn't as eye-catching close up as in pictures.

I moseyed past other areas. In a far cry from their tradition of safety first, Volvo offered a C70 convertible. Four hamsters, err, people were crowded into a Kia Soul. I squeezed into a Scion tC (above) and the salesman gave me a quick pitch, showed me the two-opening sunroof and gave me a Scion keychain that was even heftier than the nice Scion keychain I got last time. I'll use it for something, but at 23/31 mpg, I won't be getting a Scion tC. I would have liked to see the iQ (below) which was on the list but not shown.



I squeezed into a Yaris (above) at the last show, and bumped my head. That's my first test for a car. I'm not immensely tall, but I bump my head on a lot of subcompacts. My second test is leg room. Yaris had failed that, too, so I didn't try again. The Prius had passed before, and passed again, but there was a large center console that made it tough to imagine anything more than handholding on a date. Fuel economy numbers in the 50s are a strong argument, though, and either the styling is a lot better than the 2nd generation Prius, or we're getting used to the Kammback shape. At a base price of about $23,000, the Prius (below) is still the hybrid to beat.



In the VW area, another fellow tripped on the same Jetta platform that I did, and we started chatting about the TDI diesels. He asked if I thought the country would go diesel or electric. I told him bicycles, or maybe electric scooters. He agreed that the manufacturers seemed clueless that we were in big trouble with oil. He said he used to lead a local electric vehicle club, all conversions, decades ago. He asked if I had seen the Leaf. His patient-looking wife smiled and quietly urged him along to the next car. Too bad my patient wife wasn't there - they might have had a lot to talk about.

I did find the Nissan area, which seemed really quiet - there was no electric Leaf on display. Bummer. I still have bad impressions of Datsun B210s, but the hatchback Versas I have rented  were champs in fuel economy, comfort and utility. I wonder if the Leaf will take as long to deliver as the Volt. BTW, the new Nissan Juke (below) is pretty odd-looking.


I strolled past Subaru Foresters (I came close to buying a Forester in the 1990s) to the Hyundai area. Hyundai has supplanted Toyota and Honda in the reputation of making good cars that won't bankrupt you. One of my coworkers loaned me her Sonata last year to get to a meeting, and I loved it. It had better leg room than our old 1995 Elantra, and was nicely appointed inside. So I wanted to see the Sonata, particularly the new Hybrid.



Thankfully, the Sonata Blue Drive was on display, and was a lot more attractive than some of the promotional photos. It passed both my headroom and legroom tests and had great fit and finish inside. But the fuel economy while quite good at 35/40, didn't in my mind, justify the $26,000 base price. Especially since all the accessory goodies were in one $5,000 package, meaning that the car could really cost around $31,000.


Next to the Sonata was the Elantra (above), roughly $11,000 cheaper, and with a stated fuel economy of 29/40. The 2011 Elantra was far more roomy than the 1995 model, and also more nicely appointed inside.

In 2008, Edmunds had calculated that some hybrid's fuel savings would offset their higher price in only a few years, but their calculations were based on prices reaching $3.67 a gallon. Other than the Prius, I can't see the current crop of gas-electric hybrids paying off unless gas shoots well above $4.00/gallon. Cars.com generates an efficiency cost rating from 1,000 multiplied by the combined city/highway mpg divided by the base MSRP.

2011 Volt Elec Mode: 1000 * 96 / 32780 = 2.92
2011 Elantra: 1000 * 33 / 14830 = 2.22
2011 Prius: 1000 * 50 / 23050 = 2.17
2011 Versa: 1000 * 30 / 16510 = 1.81
2011 Sonata Blue: 1000 * 37 / 25795 = 1.43
2011 Sonata 1000 * 26 /19395 = 1.34
2011 Volt Gas Mode: 1000 * 36 / 32780 = 1.09

So if I was looking, obviously a car like the Elantra would be the sensible financial choice unless I drove a lot in the city, which would exploit the strengths of the Volt or Prius. Hybrids may be a better environmental choice, but not owning is better yet. In actuality, I plan to join ZipCar, which has two Priuses parked near the light rail, and keep riding my bike as much as possible, saving our used car for longer trips.

Oh yeah, there was still no Smart Car.