Taking a shine to car show

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

Hawai'i's auto show is equal parts driving and dreaming.

Who can resist stroking the luxury finish of a Lexus? It's David Coleman's job to wipe it down afterward. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

"It's like taking your wife to Tiffany's," said Norm Williams, a visitor from Edmonton, Alberta. "She knows she can't afford to buy, but she still likes to look."

You can't really buy a new Porsche or Cadillac at the First Hawaiian 2002 International Auto Show even if you can afford one. The show is billed as a nonsales event that leaves browsers free to comparison-shop without pressure, to dream without limits.

"Oh, man, that's a beautiful car," 27-year-old Dia Christopher said rhapsodically, moments after climbing from the front seat of a $79,015 blue Dodge Viper with double white racing stripes down the body.

Never mind that Christopher has been riding the city bus since his 1985 Honda Civic decided to quit on him once and for all a few months ago. Never mind that he doesn't even need a car to get back and forth to school these days.

"I'm just killing time," he said. "It's all just a dream."

Just a few feet away, Rosalie Melenka was eyeing a 580-horsepower, 12-cylinder, red Lamborghini Murcielago that she knows would "take half our retirement funds to buy."

In real life, she drives a safe and conservative Oldsmobile Ciera. But she has admired Lamborghini cars from afar for more than 30 years.

"It would be useless, of course," she said. "We're practical people."

For many, the show is a once-a-year chance to sit behind the wheel of a car they'll never be able to afford. Others let their toddlers climb all over the leather seats of a Cadillac Escalade EXT or play with the knobs that control the 11 stereo speakers inside a $63,000 Lexus SUV.

Dads prop their 6-year-olds behind the wheel of a Honda S 2000 sports coupe and snap their pictures with brand-new digital cameras, while salesmen in matching monogrammed company polo shirts watch nervously and wordlessly.

Others, of course, are there to comparison-shop without having to drive to dealers all over town.

"I'd never go into a BMW dealership, but here I can look at one, compare it to a Toyota and see right away if the extra expense would be worth it," said Carlton Prior, a Marine stationed in Kane'ohe, who "sort of, maybe, kind of" plans to buy a car in the next few months.

Generally, the practical, everyday cars go virtually ignored. A lowly Ford Escort draws almost no attention when it is put right next to the new retro-looking Thunderbird with its chrome-and-leather interior, '50s-style dashboard and Motor Trend car-of-the-year honors. Even the $40,000 Volvos look surprisingly old-fashioned and boxy when lined up near the solar-yellow Chevrolet SSR, a concept car/pickup.

What's the most popular question people have about luxury cars?

"Is there room for my golf clubs?" says Tim Palms, a sales consultant for Porsche of Honolulu, who was hovering near the Boxster model. He opens a trunk to show there's just enough room for one set of clubs, if you angle them in just right.

Felivaki Tatofi knows he's going to need more room than that. He came to the show Thursday, looking for a car with good gas mileage and room enough to handle his growing family.

Tatofi had done his research and expects to buy something like a new Toyota Matrix in the next few weeks, but at the car show he and his 5-year-old daughter, Sesilia, were lingering near a splashy Ferrari display while his wife, Leilani, was walking the floor in search of practicality.

"I may not have everything I want, but I've got everything I need," he says, leaning in a bit closer to the $215,000 Ferrari 550 Barchetta, and hugging his daughter a bit tighter.

Eve Leith said she came to the car show mostly to humor her husband, but she had a far-off, contented look on her face as she sat in the red-leather interior of a Honda S 2000 sports coupe.

"I guess I was thinking that the seat feels pretty nice," she said, emerging back into the real world, in which she drives a Ford Ranger pickup truck. Even so, if money wasn't an issue, she'd prefer the new Jaguar X-Type over the Honda, she said while looking around for her husband, who was already disappearing in the direction of the Mustangs.

The show cars all look perfect. Teams of young men roam the hall, armed with chamois cloths to wipe away fingerprints almost as soon as they appear.

"I just love the smell of car shows," said Williams, the Canadian visitor. "There's something about seeing all these brand-new cars together that creates a magic moment. You know they'll never be that nice again once they hit the road."

Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Correction: Oldsmobile used to make a model called Ciera. Incorrect information appeared in a previous version of this story.