2019 First Hawaiian Auto Show

Is it a New Car or a Computer on Wheels?

The First Hawaiian International Auto Show was held once again this year at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu. This is the annual event where Hawaii residents and visitors can check out many of the latest model vehicles as well as classic cars all under one roof. It is a family-friendly show where the vehicles are the stars and the public gets to give them a tidy look over.

Most of  the major brands and the local dealers were there: Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mercedes Benz and others. After skipping last year’s show, I barely had enough time to scrape into the center within the confines of the free admission coupon day on Friday, March 29.

While the new cars are mostly impressive, I felt underwhelmed by the show. For the first time in recent memory none of the new vehicles were exciting to me. Perhaps it is because I can’t really afford them.

One thing that is quite dominant in today’s new vehicles… computers. It seems all of the vehicles have most of their functions controlled by onboard computers. Because of that I can only wonder how quickly these vehicles will go obsolete. Will computer software updates cease to support the new vehicle you buy today some 5 to 10 years down the road? Time will tell.

This possibility makes me appreciate holding on to my old ride.

Besides the new vehicles, there were plenty of classic cars on display. Those were fun to look at and photograph. I will cover them in the next blog entry later this week.

Video slideshow as shown on our Hawaii Files YouTube Channel (above). Below: Selected photos of some of the new cars on display at the auto show. A few more are on our Flickr stream.