Decided to go to the dreaded big city and take my sons to the San Francisco international auto show today and guess what- Mercedes had absolutely nothing there No cars, not even a booth! I was disappointed to say the least as that was our main focus of making the long trip to the concrete jungle. Anyone know why Mercedes didn't attend? The rest of the show was so so. What mostly caught my attention was the price of most of the new vehicles was pretty high, and the MPG numbers were pretty low. I thought that fuel efficiency would have gotten a lot better since I last bothered to even look at new vehicles about 10 years ago. I'm wondering if the EPA estimated mileage figures got more realistic than they used to be for some reason or if we just haven't made much progress in fuel efficiency. Oh, and the beer was rather pricey as well- $7 for a bottle of MGD!! Anyhow- we all had a good time and my 16 year old has decided he wants a Jeep Liberty now, so maybe I should be happy that there weren't any Mercedes' there.

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1984 300TD 1981 240D

I am glad you guys had a good time, and thanks for saving me a trip back to my own home town, which, I have to tell you, basically HATES cars, and thinks they are those yellow things with numbers on top. (like in NYC)

I went to the show in Sacramento, a pale imitation of San Francisco's last year. There was little to see that interested me, -- no Porsche, Audi, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Maserati, Lamborghini, nothing very good there.



Sometime much later, I found out why. The big chain that owns all those dealerships in the Sacramento area is owned by a single family.

The owner was informed that somebody in the "Press Corps" had, the year before, at the show, climbed into one of the brand new E class Mercedes Benz convertibles and stood on the leather seats with his muddy boots on, so as to be able to take videos.

Nobody tried to stop it.

The owner was so outraged by this disrespect that he simply said, "I'm done", and pulled out of the show PERMANENTLY.

It would not surprise me to lern that some similar reason got Mercedes Benz's exhibit of that car hating city, due to idiots and left wing bicycle nut jobs and loonies - people that would drag a key down the flanks of a nice Mercedes because they think only "rich bastards" own them and need to be punished for their sins.

The hot show this near is the LA auto show. It's almost as good as Detroit's, (they say), and I almost went down to the LA convention center this week to see it..

Lots of news roll-outs are being shown for the first time. Last day is 11/28.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

The last auto show I attended was detroit (last year), it was basically a waste of time (but I was stuck in detroit for the weekend and had time to waste). I don't think I saw one car that I would own on display, including the new benz. Nothing but plastic crap.

I was at the San Francisco Auto Show in November 2008 and the one car there I liked was the then premiered E350 BlueTec diesel.

When got back here I called several Mercedes Benz dealers and most of them had never even heard of it; and the ones that had, said none were in stock.

After that, I soon found out the car was not even certified by CARB (California Air Resources Board) for sale in this miserable state.

Though you could get one in, from out of state, theoretically, with a great deal of trouble, as a used car, if you could even *find* one, that was for sale, with 7,500 miles or more, legally into California. Likely for MORE than the price of a new one at the time, sold by a greedy speculator;

So I simply quit the idea of getting one, and gave up in disgust.

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

There's no Mercedes Benz display at this weekends Arizona Auto Show in Phoenix. The only MB on display is an E Cabrio that's being raffled off. The Porsche spot was also pathetic . . . only a Panamerica and a Cayenne.

I want to see the new lotus sports cars in the metal/plastic!