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You’ll find all sorts of vehicles at the Houston Auto Show, but Jennifer Jass and her husband came to see the trucks.
“He has a Ford truck, but it’s old. He likes his ‘old school’ truck that he has. He’s ready for a new one.”
In the Chevy section, there’s a silver Corvette that’s hard to describe, but it looks like something out of a movie. Spokesman George Molina says it actually was in a movie.
“That’s a Corvette Stingray concept vehicle. It appeared in Transformer Revenge of the Fallen.”
There are plenty of hybrids on display at the show, but even with gas prices climbing, the electric cars aren’t getting any more attention than the other vehicles. Simms Thomas works for Toyota.
“You’ve got someone who wants a truck they’re asking about the Tundra. You got someone who needs an SUV, they’re asking about the Sequoia. You have someone who needs a mini van, Sienna. We cater to such a wide range population. I don’t have 9 out of 10 people coming looking at the Prius. It varies on our floor.”
People are asking about the hybrids, just not in bigger numbers than any other vehicle. Why? Well Douglass Gilmore with Ford says, because this is Texas.
“No, this is truck land. This is definitely truck land. There’s no denying that. Texas is definitely truck land. But what people are now starting to want more is fuel economy, but they don’t want to sacrifice either their big truck or big SUV because you know, maybe they’re pulling a big trailer, maybe they have a large family and need a lot of space to store things.”
Eduardo Duque is an engineer who just moved to the United States from Venezuela. He believes the conversion to electrical cars will happen but will take more time.
“I think for affordability people will start going, moving to electricity because in the future electricity is cheaper than gas. Gas will run out sometime in the future and electricity will come.”
As you walk the floor it’s hard to tell if any particular type of car is getting the most attention. You see people looking at sports cars, trucks and even the hybrids, you also see a lot of people taking pictures. So how many people actually buy a car remains to be seen.