Jacksonville International Car & Truck Show

Nice venue. No pressure to look and be hounded to buy something all in one place. A few makes missing. No Kia and Mazda off the top of my head. Nice touch to have the Mustang club out front. All and all nice browse. Thank you Chevy Truck Legends for the free tickets.

My husband and I haven't been to one of these in many, many years - mainly because the ticket prices are just too high to browse. Luckily, this year, I won tickets and we were there in a flash.Yes, it's a trade show for dealerships to sell you a brand new car/truck/suv/etc. But, on the day we went (Saturday), the local Corvette Club was there with many vintage 'Vettes, there was a display of vintage military vehicles, a local motorcycle club had a couple of antique motorcycles, etc.To be honest, the most fun was to be able to check out high end automobiles that we would never be able to get close to in real life. You could sit in, look under the hood, and kick the tires of many vehicles.It was fun to "shop" without the pressure of salespeople. There were many there, to answer questions, but that was it. So, if you have the cash next year, go for it. If you don't, there are a lot of places offering coupons on ticket prices and contests with free tickets. LOL

This event hits Jacksonville every year for a 3 day weekend the first part of February and it really is a lot of fun! I remember my husband practically had to drag me the first year I went because cars aren't really my thing, but I'm so glad he did. Now, I look forward to going every year.We were just at the 2014 event yesterday (it was a Saturday). We arrived when the show opened at 10am and left around 3:30pm. The show was open last night until 9pm, so there's a very good reason we went so early... by the time we left, the place was packed and you could barely move around without bumping into someone. Also, the line to buy tickets was out the door and down the sidewalk for at least 50 yards. I hate to even think of how long those poor people had to wait to buy tickets. Tip: Buy your tickets in advance and go early!This year, the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Fiat people had a booth set-up outside to test drive cars and trucks. The first thing hubby noticed when we got there was the bright orange fully loaded Dodge Challenger (with a hemi engine) with a "Drive Me Today" magnet on the door. Yea, there was no way he wasn't going to drive that! LOL See photo here: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/jacksonville-international-car-and-truck-show-jacksonville?select=ryaBzIVKoItatwiX-YMTdg#ryaBzIVKoItatwiX-YMTdg I've been hearing great thing about these Fiats, so I decided I wanted to test drive one of those. I'm so glad I did. I totally fell in love with the car! Granted, we have another year and a half before we pay off our Toyota and won't be in the market for a new car until then, but when we get ready to buy, the Fiat 500L is now at the very top of my list! See photo here: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/jacksonville-international-car-and-truck-show-jacksonville?select=ryaBzIVKoItatwiX-YMTdg#ba5UWMdhRk44j9wvHRXCPwThis year we each got a free Jeep t-shirt and we got numerous reusable bags for groceries from Jeep, Toyota, Ford, and BMW. I always like to have those on hand; hubby and I try to be as green as possible.Inside the show, you will find every car and truck you can imagine to have a look at. They encourage you to hop in and have a look at everything. For me, it's pretty cool to sit inside a bunch of cars such as BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Maserati, and even Lotus. It's not like I'm ever going to walk on one of those particular car lots because unless we hit the lotto, those cars will forever be out of our price range. Outside, the members of the Jacksonville Corvette Club had their vintage Corvettes to gaze upon. I've seen the club their every year with their cars. For the kiddos, they even had some of those bouncy things set-up. If you've never been, I recommend this show. It really is a lot of fun!

Okay, so this one gets five stars from me, because well... I'm a guy and what guy doesn't love cars! And boy there were cars everywhere, as far as the eye could see. One of my absolute favorites was the Dodge Viper (boy was it cool). They had a variety of cars that you could test drive (as long as you pass the Breathalyzer). So, if cars are your thing you should definitely plan to attend in the future.

This was my second year attending the car show. When you first walk in, they have a driving experience for one of the car brands being shown. You have to sign up, be 21 years or older, and do a breathalyzer test. Then you can walk into the convention center where all of the new cars are being shown. You are allowed to sit in the cars, and sometimes you can turn the car on to see the digital screens light up. Kids are allowed in, and it seems that they enjoy getting in the cars as well. The cars salesmen are great about answering questions and giving the sales pitch on the car's features. The only thing I missed was seeing the exotic cars that were there a couple of years ago, like Maserati and Lotus. I think for those cars you would have to go to the Concours d'Elegance. Plus, it is a bit frightening to see kids climbing in and around the cars without taking into consideration that these aren't things to play in.