Feb. 12--"Hey, Sweetie, for Valentine's Day, let's go to the auto show."
Unless your significant other is seriously shopping for a set of wheels, or perhaps that new car smell drives him or her to the heights of ecstasy, that suggestion will likely be met with a look of befuddlement. Or wild-eyed anger. Maybe a flying shoe.
The 107th edition of the Chicago Auto Show opens on Feb. 14, a day usually reserved for romance. So if you want to be first to see nearly 1,000 new vehicles, the roses and chocolates may have to take a back seat.
That doesn't necessarily mean conflict. The show, running at McCormick Place through Feb. 22, can be just the thing to get you closer to the love of your life, and we're not talking about a Volkswagen Jetta.
If a new car is in your plans and your companion is amenable, a Valentine's date at the auto show can make sense.
But if you just want to attend so you can gawk at shiny things, to lust after your dream car ("Hey, look! This is what I'd be driving if I was still single!"), then you're going to need some sort of strategy to get your partner on board. And yes, there are ways.
"It's all ultimately going to come down to negotiation," says Ina Beller of the Relationship Counseling Center in Chicago. She has been in private practice for 16 years, counseling couples, individuals and groups.
As a counselor, she approaches the question in a level-headed and informed manner -- she drives a 1998 Ford Escort, after all -- opting for reason and calm discussion over shouting and foot-stomping.
"I think you always have to have give and take," she says. "If there's somebody for whom the auto industry is their whole life, they might wait for (opening day) all year."
That car lover might strike a harder bargain than someone who is only slightly interested, Beller says.
"Then there's how much the other person wants to do something else."
She, too, saw an opportunity for compromise, perhaps hitting the show in the afternoon. Our suggestion: A nice lunch somewhere, a few cocktails, an Uber ride to McCormick Place, and you've made a memorable and possibly romantic day of it.
"It doesn't sound like someone needs to spend 12 hours there the first day," Beller says.
Back in the day when the Plymouth Valiant ruled the roost, the entire do-we-attend-on-Valentine's-Day discussion would have boiled down to male versus female. But times have changed, and the gender gap at the show has narrowed.
"We've been after the female demographic because 85 percent of purchases are either made by or influenced by women," says Dave Sloan, the president of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association and general manager of the show. "We've got to get them to the show. So we've been trying to do everything we can to attract them."
The efforts seem to be working. Last year, the show's researchers said female attendance was slightly ahead of male, Sloan says, though he adds a personal asterisk.
"I question that," he says. "But the numbers are climbing. ... I'd be comfortable saying it's approaching 50 percent."
Of course, even women who are auto buffs may prefer something a little less mechanical on Valentine's Day. Sloan has an idea: Attend First Look for Charity, the formal preview held the night before the official opening.
"There's a red carpet. You get your photo taken on a red carpet. And it's a night of great food," he says of the $250 per ticket event, expected to raise $2.5 million for 18 charities. "We've taken it from searching high and low for something to eat to abundant hors d'oeuvres all across the show floor."
That sounds slippery. But fun.
"It's really a nice night."
The clincher, though, may be what has become a show tradition.
"Cadillac gives away pink slippers at First Look," Sloan says. "By the end of the night all the women have ditched their heels and are wearing them."
A perfect start to Valentine's Day.
For more information on First Look, go to chicagoautoshow.com/first-look-for-charity.
bhageman@tribune.com
