I drove about 300 miles while covering the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show, driving a 2017 Mitsubishi Outlander 4-cylinder. All of those miles were covered zigzagging back and forth from downtown L.A. to Santa Monica, over to Hollywood, down to Beverly Hills and all points in between. It’s not that we’re tourists – I was born and raised in Los Angeles – we had to bounce all over the place.
Unlike other auto show years where a handful of press debuts happened off site, this year had more than ever before. That meant we had to cover as many as we could with a team of four. The 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show was hard enough on its own, but adding so many debuts in so many locations; it was a logistical nightmare.
Here’s an example: I went solo to the Ford EcoSport debut (which was happening at the same time as the “Blue Carpet” debut for “Moana” in the same place), meanwhile Roman Mica covered the Jaguar/Land Rover event, three other events were happening at the same time. We simply couldn’t cover them all.
Within 24 hours, team TFL covered the Land Rover, Jaguar, the Nissan Sentra Nismo, (the aforementioned) Ford Ford EcoSport debut , Mini Cooper Countryman, Honda 2017 Honda Civic SI, Mazda’s New Mazda CX-5 debut Debut and the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 debut. These are just the ones we made it to. Remember, these events were outside of the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show.
Each video made requires filming the vehicles, getting interviews, filming a TFL host, editing and uploading the footage too. Mix that with the logistical mess of driving everywhere and still having enough in the proverbial tank to cover a huge auto show – yep, it was a schlep.
Fortunately, we had an ideal ride that easily swallowed our gear, got great mileage (gas is EXPENSIVE in L.A.) and was innocuous enough to park just about anywhere without worry. The Mitsubishi Outlander SE had a 166 horsepower 4-cylinder engine with a continuously variable transmission (CVT). While not a hotrod, it accelerated smartly while providing excellent gas mileage. I averaged around 26 mpg combined, and that’s with AWD.
I pushed that poor thing hard and never let up for potholes and road imperfections. The suspension was never harsh and the highway ride was quite good. Overall, the Outlander was an ideal companion for our auto show needs.
We’re hoping that the North American International Auto Show (Detroit Auto Show) will require less foot work and a lot less driving.
