Greater Los Angeles Auto Show

Think of the 2002 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show as a chance to design your perfect car or truck. No, there won't be a booth where you can create your dream machine on a nifty computer- assisted-design program. But the show, opening Saturday, is a chance to let auto manufacturers know what you want, in a venue where they will be listening closely--and even paying consumer research firms to divine your automotive likes and dislikes.

In this sprawling, concrete-dipped metropolis besieged by gridlock and often plagued by smog, it figures that the largest civic gathering on Sunday probably was at the Los Angeles Auto Show. More than 100,000 people attended the final day of the annual event at the Los Angeles Convention Center, with many dreaming about their favorite models, whether or not they had any practical use.

Porsches don't share at the 2003 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show. They have their own room at the convention center. And they always draw a crowd. Near a shiny 2003 Boxster, a sign asks: "Remember what your first car meant to you?" In case you've forgotten, the answer is right there: "unbridled freedom." If a Porsche is your first car, either your daddy's rich, you hit the lottery or you are way older than 16. "I always wanted a Porsche.

Muscle and money was the message as the Greater L.A. Auto Show got underway last week. Big engines and price tags high and low -- but mostly high -- were the underlying themes of more than a dozen new cars and trucks unveiled in Southern California by the world's major automakers. The Los Angeles event is being followed by the even bigger North American International Auto Show in Detroit, where 60 production and concept vehicles are scheduled to be unveiled this week.

Highway 1 will preview the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, which is open to the public Jan. 2-10. Online coverage will start Dec. 1 at www.latimes.com/autoshow, including photos of the 1999 and 2000 models.

The Robb Report, a journal of upscale living, named the new Jaguar XJR sedan its 1998 car of the year during the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show. The car, cited for its "ultimate blend of luxury, performance and style," features a liquid crystal display message center that communicates in 12 languages, a maple and leather interior and a 21-valve V8 engine. The report focuses on consumer concerns of the well-to-do: The average reader has an annual income of $755,000 and net worth of $3.7 million.

The 96th Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, Saturday through Jan. 16 at the Convention Center downtown, will showcase scores of production and concept vehicles, including the 2000 Panoz Esperante, left. The Georgia builder's next-generation roadster has an aluminum body and a 320-horsepower Ford SVT V-8. Right: The Cadillac EldoRODo is a custom concept shown off by Keith Nattrass, a GM assistant brand manager.

Quizmaster Paul Dean is taking the month off but will return in a future issue with another set of autos-themed brainteasers. Last month's quiz, "OK, You Lead-Footed Car Buffs, Let's See You Race to the Mailbox," posed a bonus question: "At this year's Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, there were predictions of home runs for this truck. And when the Lincoln Blackwood sport-utility concept drove onto the dais, a real heavy hitter emerged. Who?" The answer: Mark McGwire, the St.

Art is where you find it. Young Hernan Mesa passes it while hauling water home in South-Central Los Angeles. Otherwise absorbed, Hetzel Geanne, left, and Clement Madelena ignore it in the first moments of their visit to the new Getty Center in Brentwood. And car buff Jack Hinkle finds it at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, where he finds sweeping lines and seductive textures in the newly redesigned Mazda Miata. Detail Work Some tasks can only be performed close up.

Manufacturers are expected to take the wraps off about two dozen production and concept cars at the 2001 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, Jan. 6-14. Among them is the Chevrolet Borrego concept, a car-truck blend that is the first design to come from General Motors' North Hollywood styling studio. The show, which returns to the downtown Convention Center, is open 11 a.m to 10:30 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays. Information: (213) 741-1151; http://www.

Porsches don't share at the 2003 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show. They have their own room at the convention center. And they always draw a crowd. Near a shiny 2003 Boxster, a sign asks: "Remember what your first car meant to you?" In case you've forgotten, the answer is right there: "unbridled freedom." If a Porsche is your first car, either your daddy's rich, you hit the lottery or you are way older than 16. "I always wanted a Porsche.

MOVIES Hoffman takes the next step Though stout of stature and ruddy of feature, Philip Seymour Hoffman is perhaps the coolest actor working today, appearing regularly as a standout supporting performer in films by such directors as Paul Thomas Anderson, Todd Solondz, Anthony Minghella, Cameron Crowe and Spike Lee. This week he steps into a leading role in the indie drama "Love Liza," playing a Web site designer dealing with the death of his young wife.

Think of the 2002 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show as a chance to design your perfect car or truck. No, there won't be a booth where you can create your dream machine on a nifty computer- assisted-design program. But the show, opening Saturday, is a chance to let auto manufacturers know what you want, in a venue where they will be listening closely--and even paying consumer research firms to divine your automotive likes and dislikes.

Miss Information's Guide to Auto Activities * Compiled by Joan Denver. Readers are advised to call ahead to verify events and times, which are subject to change. Send listings to Miss Information's Automotive Calendar of Events, 6475 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 375, Long Beach, CA 90803. To fax listings: (714) 761-3500. To subscribe: (714) 229-9100. Continuing Los Angeles.

An almost-sneak preview is what the brand-new ensemble, the New Hollywood String Quartet, gives Saturday night in Santa Barbara. With the same program it will offer at its official debut appearance (Tuesday in Zipper Hall at the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles), the new quartet--violinists Clayton Haslop and Rafael Rishik, violist David Walther and cellist Paul Cohen--plays Haydn's Quartet in D, Opus 76, No. 5, the first performance of Tania Gabrielle French's Quartet No.

The show presents more than 1,000 cars and trucks from all the major manufacturers, and more than two dozen production and concept vehicles making their world or North American debuts. Here's the where, when and what on the show, Jan. 6-14: Location: Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St. Dates and Hours: Weekdays, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Sundays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Miss Information's Guide to Auto Activities * Compiled by Joan Denver. Readers are advised to call ahead to verify events and times, which are subject to change. Send listings to Miss Information's Automotive Calendar of Events, 6475 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 375, Long Beach, CA 90803. To fax listings: (714) 761-3500. To subscribe: (714) 229-9100. Continuing Los Angeles.

Ben Wong can hardly wait. The Greater Los Angeles Auto Show opens its doors to the public Jan. 6, and nothing short of illness will keep Wong, a lifelong car buff, from being there. In fact, he'll beat the crowd as one of more than 60 vendors displaying their wares in a relatively new but increasingly popular part of the show--one that deals with all the bits and pieces people buy to improve on the cars and trucks they drive off the dealers' lots.

Manufacturers are expected to take the wraps off about two dozen production and concept cars at the 2001 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show, Jan. 6-14. Among them is the Chevrolet Borrego concept, a car-truck blend that is the first design to come from General Motors' North Hollywood styling studio. The show, which returns to the downtown Convention Center, is open 11 a.m to 10:30 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays. Information: (213) 741-1151; http://www.