![\"McLaren\"](\"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/f0e73d1c3867da6c0edd391f0326ec4558d9b5ea\/c=102-0-5046-3708&r=x404&c=534x401\/local\/-\/media\/DetroitNews\/2015\/04\/03\/B99258130Z.1_20150403200133_000_G5NFQ45R.1-0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
New York votes as blue as California but it isn\u2019t as green. New Yorkers like to think they are saving the polar bear \u2014 look, we have Prius cabs! \u2014 but when it comes to cars, they are as politically incorrect as we purple state, ute-addicted Midwesterners. California\u2019s status symbol is Tesla, New York\u2019s is Mercedes. As BMW North America President Ludwig Willisch said about electric vehicles: \u201c(New Yorkers) couldn\u2019t care less.\u201d<\/p>\n
These stereotypes play out on the U.S. auto show circuit.<\/p>\n
The Detroit Auto Show is the All-American, muscle car and truck-palooza. Los Angeles preens green. New York showcases luxury.<\/p>\n
We aren\u2019t the Motor City for nothing. Cars are Michigan religion. We put the world on wheels and worship men like Ford, Dodge and Shelby. Green is California\u2019s faith. Carbon is a sin and natives frown on gas-guzzlers like Puritans on Hester Prynne.<\/p>\n
New York? New York\u2019s creed is money.<\/p>\n
If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. If you can\u2019t, you commute from Jersey. New York is so expensive that, if I put an Escalade on blocks, I could rent it out for $8,000 a month as a penthouse apartment. One of my book editors at Penguin Random House \u2014 the world\u2019s largest publisher, with its headquarters on Broadway \u2014 lives on Manhattan\u2019s east side. Without children. She says only One Percenters can afford to raise kids in Manhattan. The middle class lives in north Jersey. Or Long Island. Space is simply too expensive.<\/p>\n
Just down the street from the Javits Center (the sprawling convention complex that hosts New York\u2019s show on Manhattan\u2019s west side), a new development is rising with condos for sale between $2 million and $21 million. Twenty-one million for a condo? You could buy all of northeast Detroit for $21 mil. The Big Apple is choked with million-dollar cribs. With $1,000-a-month parking underneath.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s no wonder that the Javits Center show floor caters to luxury. If you want to introduce a luxe sedan, sports car or SUV, New York is your bazaar. Walk onto Javits main floor and luxury chariots abound. There are Rolls Royces and Maseratis and Aston Martins. Acres of Astons. The classic Vanquish. The four-door Rapide. The track-pulverizing Vulcan. James Bond\u2019s jaw would drop.<\/p>\n
Surrounding the Aston corral is Porsche, Lamborghini, Koenigsegg, Bugatti, and McLaren. Heck, McLaren \u2014 which makes nothing under $185 grand \u2014 has its own stand. Last year it sold fewer than 500 cars in the U.S., probably to a block of $21 million condo owners. I wonder what you would do with a 1,200-horsepower, 268-mph Bugatti Veyron in Manhattan. In cross-town traffic it\u2019s not going to get you to LaGuardia any quicker than a Chevy Tahoe. And it won\u2019t have room for your luggage.<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t seen these cars on Cobo\u2019s floor in years. (They usually have an exclusive, off-site casino showing.) In New York the luxe divisions of mainstream companies \u2014 Lincoln, Cadillac, Lexus \u2014 split from their corporate parents to show off for the gold chain crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cFord? Never heard of it. The name\u2019s Lincoln Continental III, Esquire. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Trump.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
The mainstream brands still share the palatial main floor \u2014 like coach sharing the same plane with first class. Indeed, the Ford GT and Chevy Corvette Z06 would stomp most Astons. But pickups are relegated to the basement. The only people who drive pickups in Manhattan are condo construction crews.<\/p>\n