^^ 100% It would have been sweet if they did yearly hour and a half specials from Detroit like the BBC did in the mid70s-late90s with british auto shows.
Because they put everything online. Everyone stares at things through a phone screen now and they don’t want to go in person. The NY Auto Show was missing several key carmakers. It was boring.
There are sooooo many amazing concepts that never made it to production here, but you can clearly see their design cues in their production models. Theres so much to unpack here. This was an amazing time for the automobile. And, it was all downhill from 2009 to now. Auto manufacturers really used to care about the designs of their cars, and what went into them, and even took the consumer into consideration when designing then so that we could afford them. Its the total polar opposite now. They throw any old screen, and a few badges, at large jelly bean shaped crossovers, and call it a day. They dont care what it costs us, so long as they make money. Thanks for the look back yall! Really brings me back to when cars were cars.
I miss those days. I used to look forward to seeing coverage of the NAIAS every year! Between Detroit, Chicago, and NY. And then there was Geneva, Frankfurt/Paris, and Tokyo.
I remember attending this Auto Show. Contrast it with the last show I attended in Chicago in 2023. Major names skipped it. I was badgered by sleazy salespeople hawking timeshares and other totally non-automotive crap. Parking/admission/meal was nearly $75. Never again.
It’s the same for the Toronto Auto Show, I’ve gone every year since 1999 and I can honestly say last year was so bad it not sure if I’ll come back for the same reasons you mentioned about Chicago
Been attending the Toronto Auto Show since 1990, not the shows fault, SUVs have ruined the entire Auto landscape. You can see hints of it in this episode, SUV like this and that... GM leading the charge in EV in 1998... Wow. Pontiac Oldsmobile, Mercury, etc all gone...
A group of friends and I go to this show every year. Two of us started going the year of this show video, 1998, and it has grown from there. Heading for opening day tomorrow. It has definitely ebbed and flowed over the years. The 2008 show was the saddest when 2 of the then Big 3 were in bankruptcy. I believe it was the final year of Pontiac as well.
FYI- recent data points to the fact these auto shows are diminishing in attendance due to lack of major brands participating less and less since the COVID pandemic. 🤔🤨
@rodmunch69 Maybe Jan 2009 but definitely not 2010. Pontiac went away in the spring of 2009 and Pontiac was definitely still a thing. The financial crisis of that time began in 2007 and grew worse from there. Prior to that there was an energy crisis when gas was $4 per gallon in mid the mid 2000s.
@@jdm1039I was paying $4.25 in college in the Midwest around 2006. When minimum wage was little more than $5/hr at the time, and I used my small truck for one of my jobs 365 days a week. Cracks me up when people moan and whine about $3/gallon now 20+ years later
4:41 Interesting Enough this concept would lead into the 2nd Generation TL. But, even more ironic, when the TL was discontinued, it was renamed the TLX like the concept shown, which is still being produced today.
Oh man, this is so awesome. I'm 33 years old and I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. Every year my Dad and brother and I would attend NAIAS, sometimes with one or more of my sisters in tow (but usually just the three of us). NAIAS will forever be part of my childhood. Lots of great memories there at Cobo Hall!
Thanks for sharing this timely clip! Wonder how the 2025 Detroit Auto Show (apparently it's no longer "international"?) will compare. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Auto Show was cancelled for 2025. "As the calendar continued to inch closer to show time (March 13-16), it became apparent that the limited number of brand commitments versus those brands who had opted out or were yet to determine their participation made proceeding with the event impractical and untenable for consumers, exhibitors, and other stakeholders." Ugh.
@@severinjohn havent missed a single Detroit autoshow in 40 years, first auto show I was 6months old, but I truly miss getting the posters as a kid!!! Got a Bentley continental product book one year, was sooo excited to get that!!!
Chicago, and the entire north for that matter, is a dying region. If anyone is going to spend money, it's going to be on a big show in Texas or Florida.
I miss the time when car companies took risks and made their own unique looking cars. Now everything looks the same, and they're all crossover vehicles.
I remember I used to love reading coverage of these and seeing what innovations automakers were coming up with in style and technology. Now these shows are just shells of what they used to be and are more about promoting current models and vehicles that are already slated for future production then being a real sign of things to come. Nobody rolls out concepts for feedback and all the inventiveness that used to be at these shows is now greedily regulated to industry insiders at SEMA.
3:19 I used to have one of these! The SUS! I had an 06 STI too. The SUS was better in deep mud by a long shot. They both could get through pretty much anything though.
Watching this after just leaving the 2025 North American Auto Show. Crazy how times have changed. It’s basically just a floor of local dealer demos now.
It's a shame Chrysler was never able to release the concepts they revealed in this show. I doubt they would be where they are today if they were able to pull it off.
I was born that year,and as far as I know growin up,cars really had character. Each brand and their cars. Now they become monotone all of them aerodynamic,somehow same look,only difference is logo.
This was an Era - WTF happened to these kinds of concept cars. Hey Detroit - ya want to make money - Look at some of these concepts and put them into production !!!!!
Yeah, but look at the concepts and what got built? This is why I stopped paying attention to these shows decades ago. Rarely is anything desirable ever built - instead you get the Chevy Malibu.
They were....sorta right. However, they could have come up with a better concept. Whatever that thing was, it was butt ass ugly, and gave me second hand smokers cough from bingo night.
Ah the good old days when cars still had a touch of analog. Today an auto show is as interesting as CES i.e. = zero interesting . There is no affordable car today that deserves my trip to a show and even less to a dealership.This era is unfortunately also the beginning of increasingly bigger and taller pick-ups.
I just realized that 1998 actually defined the next 20 years of the American domestic car market. Except for the absolute disruption caused by the success of Telsa. If the domestic legacy automakers had actually moved forward with the designs and innovations (GM was literally the EV leader), things would have been so different. Chrysler had so many amazing designs and ideas, but the execution was atrocious. The final products were just garbage. This is coming from a past owner of a 1999 Sebring LXi coupe-looked good, sounded good, and the front suspension was awesome. However, if you pushed this car beyond 2/3 of its potential it just collapsed. Meaning, if you got anywhere close to 70 mph on the highway (which you could legally do on rural highways-I-81 in Virginia) the car ran completely out of steam and got all wobbly with line transitions. Also, the interior materials/assembly, transmission, brakes/rotors, engine management were just for jokes. I will never purchase another Chrysler product. Every time I see a Chrysler video, I feel compelled to provide a respond. They should be better. They’ve had some amazing designs and ideas in the last 25-30 years.
@@rodmunch69 its true everything is gone down the tubes now. detroit car companies now engineer the cars in , China, Mexico, India, they dont care. No jobs for younger americans.
It was in the US that the Beetle really became a counter cultural statement to the larger vehicles we had at the time and became one of the vehicles of choice for hippies.
These were exciting times. I used to look forward to auto show each January. Nowadays, however, it’s a total bore. Nothing special, just production cars, no concepts, no new unveilings. Some automakers don’t even bother anymore. Too bad…
REMEMBER WHEN DETROIT 3 WERE SIGNIFICANT GLOBAL PLAYERS AND DETROIT AND AMERICAN CARS MATTERED AND WEREN'T LEAPFROGGED BY EVERYONE ELSE, REQUIRING TARIFFS TO KEEP THEM "COMPETITIVE"???
The beginning of the end of decent automobiles. There hasn't been any vehicle built since the 90s that's worth owning. Modern vehicles are disposable appliances. Garbage crossovers are the worst. I don't know what happened to manufacturers. But they definitely changed for the worst. Cars used to be designed with ease of maintenance and repair in mind. They were styled to be different and beautiful. Now, they make it so you can't even change your own fluids and brake pads without plugging in a $10k computer to reset the system. I will never buy a modern vehicle. The technology that was supposed to make things better Has only made things more expensive and overly complicated. Too much unnecessary technology. I'm ready to go back to points ignition and a carburetor. Mechanical things that wear out slowly and let you know when there's a problem. Not like these electronics that just randomly quit without warning. Leaving you stranded with nothing but a large repair bill. Okay, my rant is over. I'm curious, how many people agree with me? Let's get a conversation going
I love these retro auto show coverage. pls. upload more and earlier ones. Been following MW since the late 80s.
^^ 100%
It would have been sweet if they did yearly hour and a half specials from Detroit like the BBC did in the mid70s-late90s with british auto shows.
Auto shows today are a shell of what they used to be.
No more brochures or posters just a QR code
This is now called the Detroit Auto Show and unfortunately there's very little hype for it. Begins tomorrow for anyone interested.
Because they put everything online. Everyone stares at things through a phone screen now and they don’t want to go in person. The NY Auto Show was missing several key carmakers. It was boring.
How?
So are most of the brands in this video.
"Jeep Jeepster" was really cool for the time.
It's still cool looking.
They should have built it. Looking back in almost surprised they didn't, considering what they were making at the time.
Lol
There are sooooo many amazing concepts that never made it to production here, but you can clearly see their design cues in their production models. Theres so much to unpack here. This was an amazing time for the automobile. And, it was all downhill from 2009 to now. Auto manufacturers really used to care about the designs of their cars, and what went into them, and even took the consumer into consideration when designing then so that we could afford them.
Its the total polar opposite now. They throw any old screen, and a few badges, at large jelly bean shaped crossovers, and call it a day. They dont care what it costs us, so long as they make money. Thanks for the look back yall! Really brings me back to when cars were cars.
In 1998 people were complaining about the “good old days” of two+ decades ago when ‘cars were cars’.
It’s all relative
I went to the 2008 ny international auto show when i was a kid. It was a great experience.
I miss those days. I used to look forward to seeing coverage of the NAIAS every year! Between Detroit, Chicago, and NY. And then there was Geneva, Frankfurt/Paris, and Tokyo.
What a cool time for cars.
I miss 98😢
I was there. I was 16. It was wonderful.
Nice era to live in
Who could have foreseen, back then, that in only ten short years brands like Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Mercury, Saab, Isuzu, etc would be gone! 🤨🤔🤦♂️
Isuzu still exists
Isuzu still in business.
@@Joshua_N-A Yeah but they are hardly a player in the NA industry anymore.. same with Mitsubishi and Chrysler that are hanging by a thread here.
@@Scambush Mitsubishi Motors is just a fraction of the whole Mitsubishi Group. They make more than automobiles.
I remember attending this Auto Show. Contrast it with the last show I attended in Chicago in 2023. Major names skipped it. I was badgered by sleazy salespeople hawking timeshares and other totally non-automotive crap. Parking/admission/meal was nearly $75. Never again.
It’s the same for the Toronto Auto Show, I’ve gone every year since 1999 and I can honestly say last year was so bad it not sure if I’ll come back for the same reasons you mentioned about Chicago
Been attending the Toronto Auto Show since 1990, not the shows fault, SUVs have ruined the entire Auto landscape. You can see hints of it in this episode, SUV like this and that... GM leading the charge in EV in 1998... Wow. Pontiac Oldsmobile, Mercury, etc all gone...
No one wants to go to Chicago.
Houston auto show is so bad they combined it with boats and have more boats then cars
NY auto show in 2023 was similar: many major brands were missing
One of the Best years in auto show episodes from motorweek
Remember when Chrysler felt like a company with a bright future?
A group of friends and I go to this show every year. Two of us started going the year of this show video, 1998, and it has grown from there. Heading for opening day tomorrow. It has definitely ebbed and flowed over the years. The 2008 show was the saddest when 2 of the then Big 3 were in bankruptcy. I believe it was the final year of Pontiac as well.
FYI- recent data points to the fact these auto shows are diminishing in attendance due to lack of major brands participating less and less since the COVID pandemic. 🤔🤨
The economy was still roaring in Jan 2008. If the show was in Jan, then you're thinking of 2010.
The Big 3; FOMOCO, GMC, Chrysler Corporation. Oldsmobile was closed followed by Pontiac. Chevrolet may be next.
@rodmunch69 Maybe Jan 2009 but definitely not 2010. Pontiac went away in the spring of 2009 and Pontiac was definitely still a thing. The financial crisis of that time began in 2007 and grew worse from there. Prior to that there was an energy crisis when gas was $4 per gallon in mid the mid 2000s.
@@jdm1039I was paying $4.25 in college in the Midwest around 2006. When minimum wage was little more than $5/hr at the time, and I used my small truck for one of my jobs 365 days a week.
Cracks me up when people moan and whine about $3/gallon now 20+ years later
4:41 Interesting Enough this concept would lead into the 2nd Generation TL. But, even more ironic, when the TL was discontinued, it was renamed the TLX like the concept shown, which is still being produced today.
Oh man, this is so awesome. I'm 33 years old and I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. Every year my Dad and brother and I would attend NAIAS, sometimes with one or more of my sisters in tow (but usually just the three of us). NAIAS will forever be part of my childhood. Lots of great memories there at Cobo Hall!
Imagine how amazing it would be to buy some of these vehicles new today. I love these old videos, keep em coming!
Thanks for sharing this timely clip! Wonder how the 2025 Detroit Auto Show (apparently it's no longer "international"?) will compare. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Auto Show was cancelled for 2025. "As the calendar continued to inch closer to show time (March 13-16), it became apparent that the limited number of brand commitments versus those brands who had opted out or were yet to determine their participation made proceeding with the event impractical and untenable for consumers, exhibitors, and other stakeholders." Ugh.
The present day show is a sad joke but Detroit continues to pretend it's a big deal.
We didn’t know how good we had it 🥺 I miss those days ❤❤❤❤❤
I worked on the interiors of a lot of these cars in this period. Certainly was good to see many of these cars again.
Dealerships no longer have color pamphlets of their vehicle lineup. Everything is online only.
Yep, I used to collect the print literature. Now it's "Scan this QR Code". Nope...ain't gonna do that.
All shades of black to white and maybe one red, one blue. That’s basically it! Sad
@@severinjohn havent missed a single Detroit autoshow in 40 years, first auto show I was 6months old, but I truly miss getting the posters as a kid!!! Got a Bentley continental product book one year, was sooo excited to get that!!!
@@JJPMustang Just like architecture. We livevin dystopia.
Quite the goof of Motorweek having the graphic for the Pontiac Grand Am say Grand Prix!
The current Chicago auto show is joke of its 90’s self!
It’s too bad, used to be fun to go to!
Chicago, and the entire north for that matter, is a dying region. If anyone is going to spend money, it's going to be on a big show in Texas or Florida.
5:50 that cougar always reminded me of a 2g eclipse
I don't think I've been to an auto show since 2016 or so. I used to go at least every other year.
AINT MISSIN MUCH!!! NOT ANYMORE, IN DETROIT AT LEAST
I loved the forwardness of the Chrysler sedans. The design was ahead of their time.
If I could go back in time!
Take me back, please!
4:56 That Honda Odyssey concept looks like a Sienna ca. 2008.
I miss the time when car companies took risks and made their own unique looking cars. Now everything looks the same, and they're all crossover vehicles.
8:43 The Spice Girls at the auto show lol
I was there! Fun memories!👍
I remember I used to love reading coverage of these and seeing what innovations automakers were coming up with in style and technology. Now these shows are just shells of what they used to be and are more about promoting current models and vehicles that are already slated for future production then being a real sign of things to come. Nobody rolls out concepts for feedback and all the inventiveness that used to be at these shows is now greedily regulated to industry insiders at SEMA.
3:19 I used to have one of these! The SUS! I had an 06 STI too. The SUS was better in deep mud by a long shot. They both could get through pretty much anything though.
Can see how the Jeep Jeepster became the basis for the Jeep Liberty, while the Chrysler Chronos became the basis for the mid-00s Chrysler 300.
Watching this after just leaving the 2025 North American Auto Show. Crazy how times have changed. It’s basically just a floor of local dealer demos now.
I miss auto shows 😥
I was born that year, i feel old....
Lol... I graduated in 95'
I was 25 then
I'm old enough to be your dad😂
You feel old? Lmao
I was a 14 year old high school punk😂
I was a junior in HS....now get off my lawn! LOL
It’s wild to realize that 5 of the brands mentioned in this video no longer exist.
It's a shame Chrysler was never able to release the concepts they revealed in this show. I doubt they would be where they are today if they were able to pull it off.
Idk, Chronos looks vaguely similar to the eventual LX 300. Two NAIAS later and the Crossfire concept was unveiled.
I long for the 90s!
Sadly Buick was right about that Signia. And we are all worse for it.
You don't see any of the older Chrysler vehicles on the road.
WRONG! There's a 98 Intrepid down the road from me. It's been parked on the street with expired tags for years because it doesn't run.
@GOPRepubliklan my apologies, kind sir.
Seems like I remember hearing and/or reading that the Lexus RX was the brand's sales leader for a LONG time.
I was born that year,and as far as I know growin up,cars really had character.
Each brand and their cars.
Now they become monotone all of them aerodynamic,somehow same look,only difference is logo.
Pretty sure the Plymouth Pronto won’t make it to production
That Chrysler would have been something to remember Chrysler by to this day had it gone into production. ❤
back when they were worth going 2
3:09 the Grand Am or Grand Prix?
I want a Dodge Big Red.
Poor Plymouth. Love the Chronos. Poor Chrysler.
My first autoshow was in 2007 and after covid and numerous trends have really ruined the experience. The car industry has jumped the shark.
The RX300 was the very first SUV like we all drive now!
The CR-V debuted in Japan in '95 and went on sale here in '97
This was an Era - WTF happened to these kinds of concept cars. Hey Detroit - ya want to make money - Look at some of these concepts and put them into production !!!!!
Yeah, but look at the concepts and what got built? This is why I stopped paying attention to these shows decades ago. Rarely is anything desirable ever built - instead you get the Chevy Malibu.
Back when Chrysler was on fire! Makes me so sad my childhood!
4:37 Wow.. a TLX in 1998?
Where’s all those hybrid cars now?
Regarding the Buick Signia… Buick was right.
They were....sorta right. However, they could have come up with a better concept. Whatever that thing was, it was butt ass ugly, and gave me second hand smokers cough from bingo night.
Ah the good old days when cars still had a touch of analog. Today an auto show is as interesting as CES i.e. = zero interesting . There is no affordable car today that deserves my trip to a show and even less to a dealership.This era is unfortunately also the beginning of increasingly bigger and taller pick-ups.
I just realized that 1998 actually defined the next 20 years of the American domestic car market. Except for the absolute disruption caused by the success of Telsa. If the domestic legacy automakers had actually moved forward with the designs and innovations (GM was literally the EV leader), things would have been so different. Chrysler had so many amazing designs and ideas, but the execution was atrocious. The final products were just garbage. This is coming from a past owner of a 1999 Sebring LXi coupe-looked good, sounded good, and the front suspension was awesome. However, if you pushed this car beyond 2/3 of its potential it just collapsed. Meaning, if you got anywhere close to 70 mph on the highway (which you could legally do on rural highways-I-81 in Virginia) the car ran completely out of steam and got all wobbly with line transitions. Also, the interior materials/assembly, transmission, brakes/rotors, engine management were just for jokes. I will never purchase another Chrysler product. Every time I see a Chrysler video, I feel compelled to provide a respond. They should be better. They’ve had some amazing designs and ideas in the last 25-30 years.
That’s been Chrysler Corp’s MO pretty much since the 70s. Their bean counters ruin reliability and their stealership network is even worse!
Life used to mean something. It's all dystopia now.
Get over yourself.
@@rodmunch69 its true everything is gone down the tubes now. detroit car companies now engineer the cars in , China, Mexico, India, they dont care. No jobs for younger americans.
“America made the Beetle an icon…”
What?
It was in the US that the Beetle really became a counter cultural statement to the larger vehicles we had at the time and became one of the vehicles of choice for hippies.
@ I think you might underestimate the impact the beetle had in post WWII Germany.
Let's just say that the Plymouth concept didn't make it.......neither did Plymouth!!!
These were exciting times. I used to look forward to auto show each January. Nowadays, however, it’s a total bore. Nothing special, just production cars, no concepts, no new unveilings. Some automakers don’t even bother anymore. Too bad…
Man, they show lots of cool concept cars, but only few of them would make it to production. Which is the norm, sadly.
I’ll take the 1999 Toyota Solara ❕
I was there. Sad how much this show and the global significance of Detroit has fallen. Obviously nobody likes to mention it.
REMEMBER WHEN DETROIT 3 WERE SIGNIFICANT GLOBAL PLAYERS AND DETROIT AND AMERICAN CARS MATTERED AND WEREN'T LEAPFROGGED BY EVERYONE ELSE, REQUIRING TARIFFS TO KEEP THEM "COMPETITIVE"???
😊😊😊❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉
Nope nope nope nope..
I don't want to think about the year of my birth being considered old or retro.
Jeep Jeepster😂
Jumping from '86 to '97, huh?!!!
Buick wasn’t wrong
Went to the as its called now the Detroit auto show last night. It was a disappointment and shell of what it once was
The beginning of the end of decent automobiles. There hasn't been any vehicle built since the 90s that's worth owning. Modern vehicles are disposable appliances. Garbage crossovers are the worst. I don't know what happened to manufacturers. But they definitely changed for the worst.
Cars used to be designed with ease of maintenance and repair in mind. They were styled to be different and beautiful. Now, they make it so you can't even change your own fluids and brake pads without plugging in a $10k computer to reset the system. I will never buy a modern vehicle. The technology that was supposed to make things better
Has only made things more expensive and overly complicated. Too much unnecessary technology. I'm ready to go back to points ignition and a carburetor. Mechanical things that wear out slowly and let you know when there's a problem. Not like these electronics that just randomly quit without warning. Leaving you stranded with nothing but a large repair bill.
Okay, my rant is over. I'm curious, how many people agree with me? Let's get a conversation going
Fast forward 2025.not a single concept in detroit
My student loan at Seattle University is the only evidence that I may be a navy officer
That Buick was the ugliest concept I've ever seen
Zach zach Zach zach 🧔🏻♀️🇨🇦🧔🏽♂️🐶👨🏻
I was born in98
Some cool concepts, but ugly production cars at that show.
Some of the blandest cars ever to roll out a factory