Detroit & The Auto Show: Quite The Thrill For This Texano!

Juan Alanis

12 years ago

You might have noticed the first part of this week I was in Detroit for the North American International Auto Show (#FordNAIAS and #FordTX online). The Ford Motor Company was nice enough to invite me for the second year in a row. Last year, my first time in Detroit and the auto show, was really quite the experience so of course I was thrilled to go back and check out all of the latest models from vehicle makers the world over, especially from Ford.

Besides what better way to kick off a New Year than with a trip!?

As expected, the trip itself was a lot of fun. We got to visit Ford’s world headquarters; drive a handful of their new cars and trucks; stop by the Henry Ford Museum; and my personal favorite, talk one on one with the very creative and quirky TechShop team. That night was especially hands on as we got to sandblast our own beer mugs, silkscreen our own tote bags, and play with a whole bunch of other cool tools that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise ever gotten to touch. They even had a 3D printer. That was pretty awesome!

Here’s a quick recap of what we got to experience:

This was me in Dallas where I had a layover both on my way to Detroit and back to Houston. I got to travel with other Texas bloggers from Dallas.

On our first full day, we visited the VIRTTEX Driving Simulator at Ford headquarters. Basically real people drive a vehicle inside that big bubble looking thing and the techs on the other side simulate different environments for the driver. You can watch it all, including the driver’s reactions, on TV screens in the tech room. The goal is to implement new safety features to Ford vehicles like what this driver was testing – a way to tug at the steering wheel when the driver is driving outside of their lane.

Then it was time for us to test drive some of Ford’s latest models at their Product Review Center. We didn’t get to do this last year, and boy was it a lot of fun. I wanted to race on the test track. We couldn’t though. They had radios in our cars to tell us if we were going too fast or too slow. It’s kind of lame, but I made the below video anyway to show you some of the drive.

These are all the cars I got to test drive.

As you can understand, after all that driving we were pretty hungry. For lunch on this date we were treated to a step back in time. To January 14, 1850 to be exact at the very fun Eagle Tavern at Greenfield Village. The food was delicious. The presentation and delivery pretty spot on. I was ready for a siesta after lunch.

The following morning was Ford’s big press conference at the Auto Show where among other vehicles they got unveil this beauty of a pickup, the brand new Atlas. I am so in love with this truck already. Check out the actual full unveiling of the Atlas at the press conference in the video below.

Back on the showroom floor, Ford had both old and new models on display. The auto maker is actually celebrating 150 years of making vehicles this year. Not too shabby, eh?

I did wonder off at one point to check out all of the other cool models on the floor. This little number was my absolute favorite! It’s a concept car called the i8. ¡Ay, yo lo quiero!

What do you all think? Pretty snazzy no? I think this car suits me.

Bueno, there was so much more we got to experience, but this kind of gives you an idea of what I got to see, hear and touch in Detroit. I hope you like the pictures!

I was a guest of the Ford Motor Company for their Digital Summit at NAIAS. All opinions are strictly my own.

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