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L.A. Auto Show: What’s Hot in L.A.
Nov 20 2008 by Lori Hindman
Here on the L.A. auto show floor, it’s hot, hot, hot! There’s so much to see it’s hard to make sense of it all, but a few design trends are popping out.
While there’s no shortage of your basic exterior colors (tons of silver, in particular), a few interesting new shades are scattered about the auto show. There are calming teals and soft greens gracing some of the cars here, as well as a few super-bright lime-green and yellow cars. But the color I can’t seem to escape is orange. Dodge, Hummer, Mitsubishi and Scion are rocking the orange cars; seriously, there’s lots of orange going on here. Sparkly metallic paints are all the rage, too, with blues that catch the light like gemstones. All that color is set off with lots of two-tone exterior color schemes. Mini and Ford both have retro-style white roofs on their cars, which really pop when set against a bold body color.
Two-tone isn’t reserved for just the exterior paint job. There are lots of cars here with two-tone seat upholstery, as well. Chevy, Toyota, Mercedes and even Volvo are getting into the two-tone act. And seat upholstery is going beyond the traditional neutral, muted patterns. At the auto show you can find automakers embracing swirls, checks and even houndstooth (in the Kia Soul) in their upholstery fabric.
What’s really fun to check out are all the cool car graphics. Scion has an entire wall of cars to display everything from racing stripes to flower graphics on their cars. Ford’s sporting a low-rider Flex that’s covered in urban-themed graffiti and painted rims. A BMW that’s modified by Yokohama Tires is lime green with a giant tire track graphic over the whole car. Jeep covered a four-door Wrangler with skateboards and outfitted the backseat with a full-size TV and video game console. Mercedes chopped the roof off a GLK to create the ultimate cruising-mobile. That thing has more bling than Mr. T, and, of course, it had two-tone seats.
There seem to be two schools of thought on car shapes: sleek and not sleek. I’ve noticed lots of boxy vehicles around the auto show floor, like the new Nissan Cube, Scion xB and Kia Soul. But there’s also a ton of giant wraparound rear windows in sleek, bullet-shaped cars like the Volvo C30, Audi TTS and Toyota Venza.
The 2008 L.A. auto show was billed by some to be a non-event in this harsh economic climate, but as far as this mama can see, the convention floor is jumpin’.
of course, considering the hottest peak cars like the Nissan Cube, Scion xB and Kia Soul, the retro styling car is on trend these days especially the newest version of chevy parts.