Greater Milwaukee Auto Show wraps up after nine-day run

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — The 2014 Greater Milwaukee Auto Show wrapped up on Sunday, March 2nd -- after its nine-day run. For those nine days, hundreds of the latest cars, trucks, crossovers, hybrids, SUVs and more were on display at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee.

The Auto Show offers a fun, interactive environment where folks are able to hop behind the wheel of the latest models on the show floor.

"We like to check all the different models out of the different car dealerships and see what's out there. You can go in them and sit in them without the hassle, you know, like when you actually go to a dealership. I kinda like it," Annette Walker said.

Some of the highlights of the 2014 Greater Milwaukee Auto Show included:

500 vehicles were on display at the Wisconsin Center during these nine days, many featuring the latest in vehicle technology.

"Literally, you could run your office out of a car now -- or a truck. Smaller cars and smaller crossover vehicles that don't have a full truck frame, but have all of the capabilities of those vehicles -- they get great gas mileage. Those have been around for a long time, but they're the largest segment of the market, by far right now," Jim Tolkan with the Auto Dealers Association of Mega Milwaukee said.

John Pentler is a general manager at Uptown Ford. He says the nine-day Auto Show helps dealers put people in a position to better determine what to drive.

"They come in a little bit more open-minded, more to gather information than to buy the car, but as they get that information, it pushes them through the buying cycle and, you know, that's where we get involved as dealers, to help them pick out the vehicle that is actually going to be the best fit for them," Pentler said.

Auto dealerships throughout the area say the next couple of weeks could be busy as buyers try to cash in on purchasing incentives made available to those who come to the show.