THE LOS ANGELES AUTO SHOW: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SUPERBAD

The Los Angeles Auto Show which is currently exhibiting now until November 29th has pulled a few surprises out of its sleeve. Some of which have been warmly welcomed, and others less so. A major event for the automotive industry in the United States, this year it featured around 50 new models from various brands that included Jaguar, Lamborghini, Lincoln, Cadillac, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

One of the most buzzed about was the latest version of the Land Rover Evoque, which is fair enough, considering it just had its head chopped off. It is the first luxury SUV to hold the title of also being a convertible. While the unanimous opinion appears to be that it is ‘interesting’, as to whether ‘interesting’ translates to ‘profitable’ is yet to be determined. Auto expert, Bill Visnic offers less conjecture, believing that the “SUV-Convertible mashup” is not a smart move as it did not surface through Land Rover identifying that this was a need in the market that needed to be filled “The 2017 Evoque is coming next summer regardless of the fact that nobody on this planet has indicated a desire for a convertible utility vehicle of any size or stripe,”

Other cars that were appreciated more for their potential, include the Subaru Impreza Sedan Concept that has a sharp and confident design “with no fussy details”; the 2017 Buick La Crosse “a formal but contemporary big car without baggage” along with the 2017 Fiat 124 Spider that he believes might be a ripped off version of the Mazda Miata, but still comes off looking better.

As usual the Lamborghini fuelled much of the excitement, particularly with the launch of the Huracán LP580-2 that boasted a rear wheel drive making it undeniably “the all-time-car for hooligans to shoot up their favourite long freeway on ramp to see if it will slew a little sideways and light up its big tires”. Thrills for dills perhaps, but when one is driving the Huracan you’re pretty much expected to exhibit bad behaviour.