Looking Forward to the L.A. Auto Show

Many of the Cars.com staff are boarding planes and heading to Los Angeles for this year’s L.A. Auto Show. We’ll be reporting live over the next two days from the show floor and hope you check back here on the blog and on our Auto Show pages to stay up to date. Before we left, a few of the staff told us what they were most looking forward to: 

• The hype for the L.A auto show has grown as it has distanced itself from Detroit’s annual soirée in January, so it’ll be interesting to see whether or not it can live up to its billing. More importantly, the show will be the first opportunity to see the Jaguar XF and Nissan GT-R in the flesh. —Mike Hanley, reviewer

• While most of the green talk may be hype, I’m hoping the automakers deliver a lot of actual, production-ready, will-be-sold-at-a-dealer-near-you hybrid vehicles at this year’s show. L.A. is all about being green, after all. Pie-in-the-sky thinking is nice, but it’s time to ante up. —David Thomas, KickingTires editor

• L.A. is just as much about being quick as it is about being green. Hybrids and fuel cells are nice, but in an area home to some of the country’’s best driving roads — traffic notwithstanding — I’m looking forward to the faster stuff like the Nissan GT-R and BMW M3. —Kelsey Mays, reviewer

• I am looking forward to some practical designs for concept cars. While automakers are trying to wow the audience with cool and space-age concepts, I personally like my science fiction to be realistic and grounded in the ability to be produced. I want to see the sedan of the future, not just the 2020 probably-never-gonna-happen cargo van. —Ian Merritt, photographer

• I’m looking forward to two things: Palm trees and the Nissan GT-R. —Eric Rossi, multimedia producer