The New York Auto Show. A Thousand Cool Cars. And a Complete Waste of Time.

New York, New York, April 21st, 2011.

As I sit in a dive bar here in New York City, I am desperately trying to count how many auto shows I've been to over the course of my 48 years.

Easily hundreds. Many hundreds. And they used to be cool. Way cool. And they used to be necessary. Way necessary. And now they are neither.

You see, when I was a kid, facebook meant getting hit in the head with your algebra text by the class bully.

Google was the funny face you made at your kid sister, and you tube meant you were the runt of the family litter and therefore were the one who got up to change the television dial.

Things were different.

We needed auto shows then because we couldn't see new cars in any other context. The shows provided the necessary space to show off all the new models. And the glitz, glamor and smoking hot girls on the turntables were a nice piece of added value.

But today as I stroll thought the 800 thousand square feet of floor space here to check out the latest and not-so-greatest, I see nothing new. It's all been leaked. And the smoking hot girls have been replaced by some dude named Steve who has a bad attitude and smells like onions.

Ooh---there's the new beetle! Opps..saw it on Oprah months ago.

Wow...is that the new Fiat Cabrio? Sure is...I recognize it from the YouTube spy video I downloaded last winter.

Yikes! Could that be the BMW 6 Series that is making its American debut? Sure is. Looks just like the one they showed last year overseas.

Yawn.

And yet over ONE MILLION people will plunk down their hard earned wampum to stroll through this convention center over the next few weeks. They'll ooh and ahh. They will pretend they know much more about these cars than they really do all in an effort to impress their wives, kids, and/or girlfriends, and they'll collectively pretend they haven't seen this all before.

And that they will arrive at the same conclusion I have:

Auto shows are increasingly irrelevant.

And that may be a good thing.

We live in a twittering, Facebook posting, You-tubing hyper tech world. It's intelligent, it's comprehensive, and immediate. And that  allows for all of us to get all the information we want and need about all of the new cars from the comfort of our Barco lounger.

So-I have an idea.

Let the automakers save the tens of millions they spend annually on these shows and use the money to lower the prices on the  cars that they build. They can then stay home.

And I can do my job and never travel farther than the backyard of my East Sacramento home.

I think it's a great idea and I'm sending a copy of this blog to all of the manufacturers.

I'll let you know what they say when I hear from them.  It'll be posted on my Facebook page.

Doug Brauner is the Owner/Operator of The Car Czar Auto Repair Shops. Free coupons for service and repair and store location as well as contact information is a click away at www.thecarczar.com.