Here's Some of the Weirdest Things Carbazz Overheard in Detroit this Year

“Apparently they're OK with the name confusion, I guess the marketing is that the Bolt is the Volt's brother. I'm not so sure about that, but they've got time to either teach people or change the name.” “Well, my nephew lives in Williamsburg, with all the young people. I think he'd love this.” “What was that about sex with your grandmother?”

"Do you want me to move all of that stuff to one of my other houses? It's already packed up.” “So, he had me all tied up, which was whatever, but then his hands started moving to my ass and I was like 'hey, what are you doing?'” - one booth girl to another one, seriously. “So, uhhhhh.... Do you like these wheels?” - a 60-year-old man talking to a 22-year-old model standing next to a Jaguar. “These couldn't possibly both be the same car” “Yeah, look at the badges, they both say XC90.”

 Eminem, all of the time, from all of the speakers. “How do they make carbon fiber that shape?” - asking about the rear wing on the Cadillac CTS-V. “Did you see that new Volt? That's what I'm excited about here.” Those quotes are all taken out of context, obviously, it's the nature of how they're written. But they make an excellent point all strung together: press days at big auto shows are a surreal experience. You naturally have a lot of media people, and although they're coming with different sorts of agendas, they are generally enthusiasts.

But then you also have a lot of the kinds of people who are just around whenever a multi-billion dollar industry does something big. Usually more of the second type. There is a lot of politics, a whole lot of buzzwords (there seemed to be a contest going on within Ford to see how many times they could use the word “innovation”), and a lot of really angry-looking people. And of course, Detroit has that one thing that the other big shows don't have, it was 7 degrees (Fahrenheit, of course) outside and windy as hell. The cars were cool though, and that's why we all keep going.