Parking at the Auto Show: $12

Admission for two (with discount coupon): $14

Lunch at the Auto Show (2 slices of pizza and a soda): $16

Finding out my wife really like the Lincoln MKX: $39,525 plus options

I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of the Auto Show. It’s just a giant new car showroom that charges me to get in. On the other hand, it is a great way to sit in every type of car you’re considering in one fell swoop. Sometime in the next year, we’re planning to replace my wife’s 2005 Toyota Highlander. It’s a great car, but it’s past 100k miles and it’s time to think about something newer.

We tried all the crossovers. My wife wants to sit a littler higher, but she doesn’t want a big beast. We went through a trio of Suburbans and a Toyota Sequoia back when we had to haul kids around. Now that they’re gone (grown up, not dumped) she still likes to be above the traffic, but she doesn’t want something with lousy gas mileage.

I kept trying to interest her in the Kias and Hyundais. I think they build great cars these days with killer warranties. The only one that interested her was the Hyundai Tucson. It used to be pretty lumpy looking. Since it’s been restyled, I think it looks pretty nice. She tried the Veracruz, but wasn’t impressed with its mileage.

We have a friend who bought a Ford Edge and likes it quite a lot, so my wife gave it a try. It was in the running until she sat in the Lincoln MKX. She went back three times as we tried other cars. She liked the looks (I can’t say I’m thrilled with the front end) and found the interior very comfortable. I’m not a big fan of dashboards with large video displays. I have a feeling ten years from now we’re going to have a generation of cars with large black panels that have long since stopped working and we don’t have the computer firmware updates to get them going again. The MKX (like the Edge and many other cars) has the big display, and I may just have to get used to it.

We’re not buying for at least another six months. We still have tests drives and plenty of research about crash tests and owners opinions before we commit. But right now it looks like I have a president in my future.