We’ve got ignition at the 2008 Northeast Intl Auto Show in Providence.

A picture from inside the main floor in the GM section looking out at some of the auto show. (All image was taken by me and are under copyright protection.)

As a car enthusiast, one of the best things you can do is take in a car show or an auto show and this past weekend, I got the chance to taken the Northeast Intl Auto Show in Providence, RI. Normally, when it comes to taken in auto shows, I would take in the show in Boston in November, however this year that wasn’t possible, but the auto show in Providence was.

I’ve seen a lot of ways to advertise and bring in visitors to attend events before, but this one was new me, Motor Trend, who was one of the sponsors, gave away a one-year subscription to ever visitor who purchased a ticket to the auto show, why not, I’m in. We will see how long it will take to get here.

I would say the biggest hit at the auto show, hats off to Ford for bringing six concept/pre-production cars to the show, when we walked in, you couldn’t help notice the new Ford F-150 on a turn table display along with the Ford Interceptor and Ford Airstream with rope around it. The Interceptor looked good, nice for to become a police car, however I while the Airstream wasn’t really for 2008, I did like the interior, it looked like a future limo. In the front of the F-150 was the coming soon Ford Flex, nothing I haven’t seen before.

Continuing on in the Ford camp, brings us to pure American muscle with the new 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt in that dark green, personally, if I wanted a Bullitt mustang, I would want the 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback GT, but the 2008 version isn’t bad. However, what was sitting next to it was even better, a 2008 Shelby GT Mustang, blue with white strips, that’s the look.

On the Chrysler front, no Dodge RAM concept n display, however they did bring the Chrysler ME Four-Twelve Concept that will most likely never be built, although it might be just what Chrysler needs to start with to meet the new Café standards in 2020, yeah, I see that, try putting in a diesel engine and that would work. As for Jeep, all models on hand including the new 2008 Liberty, which isn’t bad, however since it was on a turntable, you couldn’t get into it, that part sucked.

Chevrolet, I love the Corvette and they had two on display that you could get into, a regular one and a Z06. And of course, they had on display the Chevrolet Nomad, something I have seen a couple years ago that is really nothing more than a Pontiac Solstice and the Saturn Sky. When I think about a Chevrolet Nomad, it’s a 1955-1957 two door station wagon and if you brought it into 2008, the styling looks good on the concept, but its not long enough, it’s a station period. Next.

Going outside of the main hall was one vehicle I wanted to see, the new 2008 Subaru Impreza Wagon that they call Outback. Not bad, if I were car shopping, believe it or not, that Subaru would be at the top of the list along with either a Jeep Patriot or Dodge Caliber.

However, staying with what I would buy, also on that list would be the new 2008 Scion xB, that gives a big and tall guy like me, lots of room behind the wheel, although I still prefer the styling on the older one and get me started on the xA turned ugly xD, please.

Finally, upstairs where most of the foreign-imports were and yes the Scion was included, however, if you wanted to see the Nissan GT-R, you had to settle for a poster, well at least they had a poster of it, no way when it came to the Chevy Camaro, nor the Dodge Challenger, not even a Dodge Caliber SRT-4, that was in Worcester, MA, oh well. The last vehicles that impressed me and I don’t know why was the Suzuki SXBox, which is a tuned out SX4 crossover with a huge plasma in the bad. Well, that’s it here, good show, just one thing, for $7 (with coupon) and $9 parking, do you think you could bring more including concepts and how about a Dodge Charger. More photos to come on a seperate page.

- Racedriven