San Francisco Auto Show

Friday: (11/26) We headed toward San Francisco today. Lou and I to see the San Francisco Auto Show at Moscone Center and Dawn to visit some book stores. We started with breakfast in Redwood City at the Talk Of Broadway Cafe. I had the corned beef hash and eggs and Lou and Dawn shared a Greek omelet. After breakfast we continued North to Millbrea to catch the BART train to San Francisco. BART is the regional light rail system and their station go right downtown in San Francisco, unlike the Caltrain that has a station closer to our home but would have been a longer walk for Lou to the show. We try to save the knee for the good stuff. We met dawn for lunch at Goldie's Pizza on Powell Street. We took a walk around Union Square, visited Macy's and a couple of hotels to see the Christmas decorations. Lots of people out and about on Black Friday!

Lots of cars at the show but the show is about the size of last year's show but much smaller than of years past. Most of the cars we wouldn't have if they were given to us but we did find several of interest. We're going to have to replace the Volvo's soon and are looking for a comfortable, safe efficient, and cheap car. The cheap and efficient requirements eliminate 95 percent of the vehicles at the show. We want gas high mileage, especially in the city. We want a low teens price. Hybrids usually meet the first requirement but not the second. We liked the Hyundai Accent, the Kia Forte, the Ford Focus, and the Toyota Yaris. There is little if any difference in the first three vehicles. They could all come from the same factory as far as we could tell. Same fit for my 6'2" height, same ease of entry, same rear seat room. same three round instrument panels. Same prices. The Yaris is a bit smaller. On big difference to us is that the Kia has passed the crash tests and topped them with outstanding results. It also has excellent minimal emissions. Unfortunately, to get an automatic transmission and air conditioning the low teens aren't possible but they aren't too much higher. being just above $17,200 for all. They all have good mpg ratings with the Kia Forte at 26 city and 36 highway. Now we'll have to test drive these to check noise and ride. In the same arena is the new Nissan Leaf, an all electric. It's a little smaller and we couldn't try out our fit in the car because it was behind barricades but it looks nice. It has a 100 mile range. it would be an excellent candidate for our city, stay at home car. It is priced with the usual bonus that hybrids and electric cars have being around $32k but the person that showed the car mentioned some interesting rebates that bring it down into a possibility. Rebates from the feds and the state amount to around $15k so now we're talking a possibility at $17k? Of course it's only avalable by reservation since it's sold out before produced. I wonder why? We aren't in an urgent need of our new car yet but these looked good.

We caught the train toward home about 6:30. Dinner was leftover turkey and such.