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2004 Los Angeles Auto Show
By: Drew Phillips
Photos by the author
January 09, 2004

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I'm just going to get it out right now: I was disappointed with the L.A. Auto Show. I'm sure there are fellow car enthusiasts who went to the show that share my feelings and there are some that probably don't, but the fact is that Detroit stole all of the new year's auto show excitement and left only scraps for Los Angeles. The average show-goer might not know the difference, but any knowledgeable car buff would realize that most of the concepts actually debuted one or two years ago at Detroit. With that said, the L.A. Auto Show really is an impressive show when looked at by itself.

While new model introductions by the Big Three were reserved for NAIAS, several small car companies took the opportunity to steal the spotlight just days earlier in California. With declining sales in the past several years, legendary sports car maker Lotus has decided that it needs the North American market and will finally bring the Elise to the United States. Instead of the Rover power plant, the U.S.-spec Elise will have the 1.8 liter Toyota Inline-4 in the Celica GT-S. Lotus has increased the horsepower to 190, so this British sports car should be very quick. As you might expect, Lotus has had absolutely no trouble pre-selling the car before it actually arrives here.

Another debut from a small car company came from Morgan with their Aero 8. Morgan proudly displayed the Aero 8 alongside the GT racing version, a bare aluminum chassis, and a Plus 8 model. The love-it or hate-it styling of the car must have provoked thousands of comments during the show, both positive and negative. Like it or not, at least 70 people liked the car enough to place their order during the show and spend over $90,000 to purchase the car.

Some other new cars to mention: although it's not exactly new, Bentley gave California its first official look at the Continental GT. Another first look for show-goers came from Porsche, who prominently displayed a beautiful black Carrera GT. This was an excellent improvement on last year when Porsche's main display was the Cayenne. Panoz officially unveiled its Esperante GT, a special edition built to homologate the racing version in the American Le Mans Series. The car has been around for over 6 months, but Panoz decided to officially introduce it at Los Angeles. Always a favorite at the show, Lamborghini brought two Gallardos along with a 40th anniversary Lamborghini Murcielago. Saleen had an especially large display this year including its new Focus N20. The upgrades on the car include an improved suspension and braking system, 17-inch aluminum wheels and tires, an aggressive body kit, a more sporting interior, and most importantly a 75-shot nitrous system. The base price starts at just under $25,000.

The Ferrari/Maserati display featured several new models. The Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, once introduced at NAIAS, made an appearance at L.A., joining Maserati's new Quattroporte on the stand. Each represents an important advancement in the company line-up. Maserati finally has a 4-door sedan to offer its customers, and the 612 S replaces an aging 456M GT. The 612 S looks just as fantastic as it does in the press pictures, and the Quattroporte much more so. The front of the car seemed awkward in photos, but quite elegant in person.

While most of the excitement came from the smaller car companies, there were a handful important debuts from the major manufacturers. Saab pulled the wraps off its 9-2X Aero, a car heavily based upon the Subaru WRX. The two cars feature the same turbocharged inline-4 producing 227 hp and 217 lb-ft torque along with the same full-time all wheel drive system. Even a large air scoop is placed prominently on the hood of the Aero model. Saab considers the 9-2X a "significant step in the biggest product development in Saab's history." Their efforts seem to be working: Saab is the fastest growing premium car brand in America from Europe.

Another big seller, the Mazda Miata, has been under the development care of Mazdaspeed, Mazda's performance division, and a modified version of the MX-5 made its public debut at the show. It was seen earlier by the press at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. Power and torque have been increased to 178 and 166 respectively mostly due to the turbocharger that forces air into the DOHC inline-4. The rest of the car also received many upgrades including an upgraded suspension, 17-inch Racing Hart aluminum wheels, a custom Mazdaspeed interior, and many other improvements. The only complaint I have is the intercooler lurking behind the grill. It makes the front view of the car look like a toddler that's just starting to have his teeth come in. Other than that, the $25,500 base price makes this a very attractive car.

Two big players at the Detroit Show also made a late appearance at the L.A. show. The new 2005 Mustang and 2005 C6 Corvette made their official debut on January 4th, then showed up the next day in L.A. on the show floor. The Corvette received much more attention out of the two. The new design seems to have successfully captured the essence of the Corvette, while the general consensus on the new Mustang is that it's somewhat awkward looking. To me, the aggressive look of the concept was much more appealing. On the positive side, I love the '66 Shelby windows for the rear seats. The upgraded 300-hp engine is also a welcome change.

An interesting part of the L.A. Auto Show this year was the "Performance Products and Limited Production Vehicles" display. Essentially, if you were to take a small sample of the SEMA show and put it into one room, this is what you end up with. It's all there: the overdose of chrome, the flashing neon lights, the oversized rims (I saw 25-inchers on a H2), and the gross excess of body kits. While some of the products positively caught my eye, most of it seemed targeted towards the Fast and Furious crowd.

Taking in the Detroit and L.A. Auto Shows in two days was an awesome experience, but it made me realize that the latter needs to step it up a notch if it wants to be continually be considered an important event on the auto show calendar. While it remains one of the largest shows in the world (an estimated 1 million people will attend the show), manufacturers literally ignored the show as a base to introduce new vehicles. Maybe a date change to a later time in the year would help things out, and then we wouldn't have all our auto show fun all at once. But like I said before, if you just ignore L.A. and ignore Detroit, it really is an awesome display of vehicles. I'll continue to go and enjoy the show no matter what happens.