After attending Easter Sunday church on the Upper East Side, I took the 6 train back to Grand Central and transferred to the 7 over to the Jacob Javits Center for the annual New York International Auto Show.
The show floor felt well-attended, which is saying something when the average transaction price for a new vehicle in the US is hovering around $49,000, according to Cox Automotive. That’s not stopping people from looking.
I only spent a couple of hours walking the floor. At 51, I’m recognizing that years of an extremely sedentary desk life are starting to catch up with me at events like this, where you’re on your feet the entire time. A convention that once felt effortless now requires planning around endurance.
Less Data Harvesting
In prior years, many booths were aggressively trying to capture visitor information through iPad kiosks and other digital touchpoints. This year, I only noticed it in three places. Ford had a QR code experience where you provided some demographic information before receiving a custom green-screen photo with a Bronco and a Sasquatch. Stellantis had iPad kiosks for a sweepstakes entry to win a vehicle valued at up to $100,000. And Genesis had some kiosk displays that didn’t appear to be functional at the time—one was stuck mid-transaction in another language.
Whether this represents a deliberate pullback or just fewer brands bothering with lead capture at a consumer show, it was a noticeable change from previous years.
The Maverick
I sat in Ford’s Maverick compact pickup for the first time. At 6'4", I barely fit. When I adjusted the driver’s seat to a comfortable position, there was no way I’d want to sit behind myself. It’s a well-regarded truck, and the driver’s seat works fine on its own—but try filling the cabin with taller occupants and you’ll run out of room fast.
The $100,000 Truck
Over in the Stellantis area, the 2027 Ram 1500 SRT TRX Bloodshot Night Edition was getting steady attention. The truck wears Diamond Black Crystal Pearl paint with Flame Red accents—a center hood stripe, red RAM script on the grille, bright red recovery hooks, and matching interior stitching. Under the show floor lighting, the red accents read distinctly orange. Under the hood sits a supercharged 6.2L HEMI Hellcat V8 making 777 horsepower.
The window sticker listed a starting MSRP of $99,995. That’s the base price for the new TRX going forward, not just the Bloodshot edition. To put that in perspective, there are still places in America where $100,000 buys you a house. The median home price in Detroit is around $82,000. In Youngstown, Ohio, it’s roughly $102,000. In Decatur, Illinois, it sits around $90,000. A hundred grand for a truck that most people who actually need a truck would never buy.
Curiously, the most popular vehicle in the Ram area among younger visitors wasn’t the 777-horsepower TRX. It was a plain white Promaster van with nothing in the back. Several kids were climbing in at a time, each taking turns stepping through the empty cargo area into the driver’s seat. There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere. Ram might want to bring more than one Promaster variant to future shows—even in New York City.
Kia’s Quiet Standout
The only other vehicle that genuinely caught my eye during my quick survey was a Kia Telluride in a matte finish. This particular one looked like it could go toe-to-toe with a Range Rover at roughly half the price. Kia has come a long way from the brand people used to dismiss.
The Real Star of the Show
The biggest draw I witnessed wasn’t a vehicle at all. In the Hyundai area, a group of Spot robots from Boston Dynamics were dancing in synchronized choreography. The crowd was so thick that I could only squeeze close enough for a few-second glimpse. Every single person nearby had their phone out. I’m sure it’s all over social media by now.
Hyundai can put on this kind of display because they own the company that builds these machines. In 2021, Hyundai Motor Group acquired an 80% controlling stake in Boston Dynamics at a $1.1 billion valuation. Boston Dynamics had previously passed through the hands of Google and then SoftBank before landing with Hyundai. The automaker has since positioned itself as a broader mobility company, and Spot is the most visible proof of that ambition. They put on a similar choreographed routine at CES earlier this year.
It says something about where the industry is headed that at a show full of six-figure trucks and premium SUVs, the biggest crowd formed around a pack of quadruped robots with no wheels, no seats, and no price on the sticker.
If You Haven’t Gone Yet
The 2026 New York International Auto Show runs through Sunday, April 12 at the Jacob Javits Center. Hours are 10 AM to 8 PM Monday through Thursday, 10 AM to 10 PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 AM to 7 PM on Sundays.