San Diego International Auto Show

This is the only Auto Show that I have ever been to and I love it!

Why?
I get to sit in any and all car makes and models without having to talk to a salesperson.

I can test drive cars here

They have cute experiences for little ones

They have classic cars

Seriously, where else can I jump into a Porsche with my 7 year old nephew and let him pretend he is driving me somewhere?

Every year I go, I get an idea of what my next car will be and this year I'm VERY surprised that I enjoyed the Buicks and the Lincolns. I NEVER would even bother to try them out if I had to go to a dealership.


So all in all the car show is fun!
I even got to ride in a Jeep through some tough terrain. I was very impressed.

Oh and this year the price was only $12 but you can get coupons and discounts at various places.

NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE
What a disappointment the show was on Jan 29th 2023! Compared to shows we've attended in the past (Before Covid) this one was very scaled back and not worth the money. The ticket should have been more like $5, not $18!

MANY CAR MAKES NOT THERE
The Jeep track was no longer there (replaced by an EV course -- boring!)
Many car makers were missing: No Acura, Volvo, BMW, Mercedes, Mini, Mazda, Buick, Porsche, Jaguar, Infiniti, SMART Car -- just some of the ones I can think of.

CARS THAT WERE THERE
Cars that were there included Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, VW, Honda, Chevrolet, Subaru. Even then, not all of their models seemed to be featured. EV cars were being heavily promoted.

CAMPER VANS, MOBILITY AND EVs ON DISPLAY
There were other sections featuring 'mobility' cars for people with mobility issues, customizable camper vans, EV cars and a smaller than usual 'Specialty cars/Classic cars' area.

GOOD PLACE TO BUY A MATTRESS OR A MASSAGE CHAIR!
The show used to be on two floors and now barely fills one floor. They were even selling mattresses and massage chairs to fill in the space!!!

BRING YOUR SMART PHONE
You will definitely need your smart phone as they no longer give out brochures -- everything's on a QR code. One fancy info board at the Kia section where you had to wave your hand around 12" above the computer was so hard to use, it was useless.

LOOK AROUND FOR DISCOUNTS
We bought our tickets on-line and managed to save $2 on each ticket by looking around for a discount. We saved our tickets to our 'wallet' on our phones and showed them at the door.

HAND-STAMP FOR RE-ENTRY
We arrived 20 mins before opening and joined a long of line of people to get in. They will give you a hand-stamp if you want to leave and return.

A FEW HOURS AND WE WERE DONE
In the past, we've spent an entire day at the Auto Show, having left for lunch and come back in for more. This year we were finished in about 2.5 hours, and that included revisiting certain cars that we liked. (Admittedly we didn't test a car or go on the EV track). The people representing the cars seemed only mildly educated about them. Not many freebies...We did get a free Hyundai bag and a Kia duffel, other than that, you had to surrender information to enter an Amazon gift card drawing. No thanks.

RESTROOMS AND SNACKS
There are bathrooms and snack bars in the auto show, as well as outside in the lobby. They said no food was allowed, but I took in water and some trail mix.

WHERE TO PARK
I recommend parking at 'Park It On Market', a multi-story lot about a 6 min walk from the convention center. It was much less expensive than the $25 the Convention Center was charging. We at lunch at Rockin' Baha Lobster in the Gaslamp, a few minutes walk away.

PLEASE BRING BACK THE OLD AUTO SHOW!
We tend to go to the Auto Show when we're looking to buy a new car, but unless it improves back to its old standards, we will be hesitant to go in the future.

My wife and I went to the show with higher expectations than we got. There were some automobiles companies represented but not the ones we wanted to see. No BMW, Audi, Tesla, Ravens. Also Ram had a disappointing presence and we found out the dealer that was supposed to supply a specific vehicle did not deliver. I remember the day when the show was as large as the full first floor and overflow on the second floor. I hope the committee will take the show back to the level it was before. I gave it 2 stars because the cars we did look at were well presented and the personal were top notch.

Great event! They could have probably engaged more vendors. I feel like the SD Car Lots did not participate but those who did, thank you!

We enjoyed the Chevrolet, Ford, Lexus, Hyundai, and Kia displays. The Volvo, Mitsubishi, and Jeep car displays were cool too.

The highlights for us were the SDPD Recruiting, CHP Recruiting, and Jeep Obstacle Course Ride over various terrains.

They had a food court open (chicken strips, fries, burgers, sandwiches, etc.), Auntie Anne's Pretzels, and if you go outside of the event rooms there is a Convention Center Starbucks.

This show allowed us to have a close up, no car dealer haggling, experience with many vehicles that we wanted. Having no pressure to browse is golden.

Car Show Binge Watching would be a Better Thrill

This year is an overall dud. Interestingly, because many states are trying to move middle class and working people to purchase electric cars, it was an electric car marketing affair and the brands that were pushing this agenda were in that median income...Toyota Honda, Kia, Jeep. There were no high-end luxury car exhibits including the common ones such as BMW and Mercedes.

The food options still suck. Freebies were minimal and limited to a recycle bag. Do we need another one of these bags? The only exhibit worth a hoot was the Jeep experience. Otherwise pass this year even if the tickets are free.

The San Diego International Auto Show has become an annual tradition for myself and my husband. We always go on New Year's Weekend, and most often on New Year's Day. It has been fun to check out new cars on the market from all price ranges, sit in them and learn about them in a pressure-free environment. In the past, we have been able to test drive some cool cars, take part in the "Jeep Experience" (an off roading experience set up in the convention center) and check out many more cars. This year, the car show felt barely worth the price of admission. There were many fewer cars there. The classic car section was very small. They used to have a section of kit cars and a section of cars from TV shows, but I didn't see either. I was disappointed there were no Acuras ( I'm an Acura driver at the moment). Also, I usually enjoy looking at the fancy cars that I will never be able to afford. This year, there were three whole Ferraris with identical paint jobs.
There were no cars we were interested in test driving, and the Jeep Experience line was much too long to wait in.

It wasn't a total bust. We enjoyed looking at a few of the cars they had, and got to check out some new models. I enjoyed the time there, but with $20 for parking and $18 per person for admission, it doesn't feel worth it. We were done in a little over an hour, whereas in the past, we enjoyed spending several hours. I'm not ready to give up on this show, but don't have high hopes for next year.

I used to love this event years ago, but there is not much to see now and it is expensive. There were not many brands there and only a few concept cars. It took us about 30 minutes to walk through the whole thing. The highlight was the Automotive Museum display. This was not worth the $18 per ticket and $25 parking fees.

The auto show used to be great back before Covid I would come every day for the entire show just to explore, test drive and winning stuffs, back then the amount of prizes they gave us was just unimaginable from Amazon, Apple to Starbucks gift cards, which has been discontinued for a long while now, back then you can patiently wait in line just to test drive from Honda, Toyota, Kia and more just to get the feel of an new upcoming vehicles and claiming your prizes; now everything had changed, less vendors, everything shrunken down to nanotechnology, yep it just doesn't feel the same anymore, I think maybe they didn't have enough budgets anymore, or was it the consumers who were lacking of interest in buying new cars let alone attending and didn't get anything out of it, things just feel short you know, this year I attended one day and left without thinking about going back the next day just cuz I already looked at everything, yep

What a complete waste of time and $71.00! If wasn't for the low riders I would have left immediately. No concept cars and lots of brands not even there. Not even Cadillac showed up. I specifically wanted to see the 2024 Tacoma but the only one was some high end that was completely locked and not even in production. The girls knew nothing about the truck except "sorry it's not in production" which isn't even true. What a joke of an auto show this has become. I'll just go to LA next year.

Not worth the price! The cars are basic with no luxury makes. I wouldn't return if it was free.

Total rip-off. Frikkin $25 to park, bend over San Diego ! Then no interesting cars, just the same Ford Chevy etc.... Boring beyond belief. I cannot believe this event is even allowed it is so disappointing.