Buddies Derrick Dickens and Virgil McClendon make a pilgrimage to the Philadelphia Auto Show every year in an exercise that is part male bonding and part shopping trip.
This year, Dickens, of Lumberton, is looking to buy.
"I want a midsize SUV or larger," said Dickens, a senior manager at Peco Energy Co. "I need something to cart my two kids around, and I've got to have a place for the golf clubs."
Dickens, 47, and McClendon, 46, of Cherry Hill, walked the floor of the Convention Center Saturday, surrounded by 700 cars on one floor.
That was a first for the nine-day auto show, which opened Saturday and runs through Feb. 5. The Convention Center's recent expansion means 40 manufacturers can display cars in an exhibition space the length of three football fields.
Luxury cars no longer are separated from more moderately priced models. Visitors don't have to trek between floors -- unless they want to see the souped-up cars and trucks one floor below.
"It makes the cars all feel like they're equal," said Gregor Van Der Kam, 36, of Berwyn.
This year's show shines a spotlight on an industry that is "a bright spot in the economy," said Kevin Mazzucola, executive director of the Automobile Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia, which owns and produces the event. Consumers are more willing to spend. Credit is easier to obtain, and American cars -- and their competitors -- have stepped up their game, Mazzucola said.
About 250,000 people are expected to attend this year's show.
On Saturday, visitors could window-shop for 2012 cars starting at $10,900 for a Nissan Versa and going up to $477,000 for a Rolls-Royce Drop Head Coupe.
Matthew Levenick, 17, and his friend Tommy Brett, 16, first-time visitors to the auto show, circled the roped-off luxury car display with Levenick's mother, Kathy.
"It's like they're in a petting zoo," said Matthew Levenick, about the display of all-white cars including an Aston Martin and Lamborghini.
Sisters Robin Lear and Bobbie Huddleston have a serious car-buff pedigree, so on Saturday they were surrounded by the familiar.
The sisters' dad was a mechanic who gave them restored '60s-era Mustangs for their 16th birthdays. Sundays after church were spent going from dealership to dealership -- the family's idea of fun.
"Most of the cars we always drive have not been American cars," Said Robin Lear, 55, of Dover, but we are more impressed than ever with the American cars."
Lear and her husband, Dan, 57, who are also motorcyclists, are looking to replace their 2002 Nissan Xterra. Sister Bobbie Huddleston, 58, and her husband, John, 58, visiting from North Carolina, were astounded at the size of the show.
"The biggest we've been to is in Myrtle Beach, and that's more [motorcycles] than cars," Bobbie Huddleston said.
At the new indoor test drive display -- another first for the auto show -- Donna and Glenn Williams, of Camden, were disappointed.
The couple were given a test ride, not a test drive. They were driven around a course in a Prius V by a Toyota representative.
"It would have been nice if you could drive it," Glenn Williams said. Visitors are allowed to test-drive cars outside the Convention Center.
Next door, at the Ford exhibit, Robin and Peter Karp, of Langhorne, circled a 2012 Taurus in phase one of their car-buying research. The Taurus' new styling caught their eye.
"We hadn't looked at the Taurus before, because we thought of it as a grandpa car," said Robin Karp, 63, a teacher. "But guess what? We're grandma and grandpa."
