Traffic was abysmal at this year’s Monterey Car Week. Blame it on the 20,000 captive car enthusiasts who descended upon this picturesque peninsula on the California coast 120 miles south of San Francisco to flaunt, ogle, and nerd out over the world’s most expensive cars. The week culminated in a splashy Sunday afternoon cascade of confetti as a prewar 1937 Alfa Romeo 8C won the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance best of show, edging out the crowd favorite, a cream-colored 1937 Cadillac.

The sheer size of the audience that visits Monterey Car Week is a reminder that the love for the gasoline-powered, four-wheeled motor car isn’t dead, and there are many well-to-do benefactors intent on preserving its legacy. The official Concours held at the Pebble Beach Lodge, dates back to 1950, when only two dozen cars were shown off. Pebble is steeped in tradition, and the winning cars need to be restored to period-correct perfection.

What carmakers unveiled during Monterey Car Week had little to do with furthering the legacy of the traditional internal combustion engine. Instead, they teased future concepts that are largely centered on electric powertrains and a growing desire to be perceived as advanced in an industry that’s in transition. It was a testing ground for how their next moves are seen by staunch critics, discerning enthusiasts, and core customers.  

Of course, there were plenty of historical automotive activities throughout the week: sister shows at the Quail, the Concorso Italiano, and the more pedestrian Concours d’Lemons catered to cars of less fanciful pedigree. With the exception of the Lemons show, the uncomfortable air of old money and a bull stock market loomed. Auctions drew an estimated $368 million, according to Hagerty, the classic car insurer and financier.

Two obscenely high sales made news on the blocks: $48.4 million for a Ferrari 250 GTO at RM Sotheby’s and a $22 million record-breaking American car sale at the Gooding Auctions of a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Roadster. In recent years, automakers have tapped into this engaged crowd and made it a hub for new super car sales. And as the car business shifts, so does the type of new vehicles shown across town, an indication of what’s to come.

Marek Reichman, Aston Martin’s design chief, says that he feels there’s room for a balance between present and past. The car enthusiasts tend to be knowledgeable about automotive history and curious about innovation. “We sit close to Silicon Valley. It’s a week that’s all about cars from the earliest days, but it’s also a week that’s about cars for 2025,” he says.

Many luxury car companies brought their senior executives to Monterey for interviews and meetings with dealers. In past years, it seemed that brands merely wanted to show face at Pebble. Now, they’re making some of their biggest announcements at the tail end of summer, ahead of traditional auto season. It’s a sign that interest in the staid convention center shows in Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York may be waning. The Detroit Auto Show will move from frigid January to June in future years, which may stave off further decline in automaker participation. We’ve reported that CES has become a news-driven auto show, but, in many ways, so is Pebble Beach.

Aston Martin transformed a Carmel-by-the-Sea performing arts center into a chic club to show off its cars. The event was open to the public, but it took some personal connections to get up close with the future. Both the Lagonda Vision Concept electric car and Volante Vision Concept, an Aston Martin vertical takeoff and landing concept, were shown on a lit stage. In small groups, executives escorted their best customers and members of the media for an up-close glance. “It’s a learning place for us as a company, and it’s also a place we can actually show how far we are pushing the brand as well,” Reichman says. The setting of Pebble Beach gives his design prospectus unique context. “This is a place where you see things that were successful in the past and things that failed in the past. There’s such a knowledge base here over the week.”

Concept car extravaganzas were held all over town. Infiniti showed off the Prototype 10 at the Quail, an ancillary show of exotic cars held on a Carmel-by-the-Sea property, where sunshine, champagne, and oysters are plentiful. Mercedes-Benz held a grand party at a private home to unveil its new electric concept, the 738-horsepower Silver Arrow EV, a tip of the hat to the 1937 W125 racecar, complete with a touchscreen for video game-like racing. Audi debuted its vicious PB18 trackside, a car that emphasizes the electric power the driver has behind the wheel.

These concepts were transported to the main show at the Pebble Beach Lodge on Sunday morning. The lawn the cars were shown on is located just outside the entrance to the ultimate classic car show, as if the presence of these cars suggested what’s to come. All day on Sunday, a band of people walked around the velvet ropes to get a closer look at the one-off concepts. One product specialist took special care to explain exactly how the engine performance would work on the Genesis Essentia to clusters of curious passersby. The wicked designs were enough to pique the interest of enthusiasts of all ages to stop and gawk.  

But even at Pebble Beach, executives I talked to were unsure if the concepts would become something more than a futuristic display.

“It’s hard to say,” Infiniti design director Karim Habib says. “My feeling is that we haven’t reached the tipping point, but the tipping point will come.” He cited Tesla’s influence and his parent company Nissan for creating the Leaf as a mass product. “We know we can do it, and we can do a compelling product. Does the market want it? I would say, personally, it’s just a matter of time. It’s really fun to drive these cars.”

But other people weren’t convinced that the world is ready for the electric car to take over. I met Gregory Erker and his wife as they checked out the Mercedes-Benz concept car. Erker described himself as car lover but not a collector. The couple said they drove down from San Francisco to check out the classics and watch the people whose Pebble Beach costumes are often as interesting as the rare cars.

“I think electric cars seem like the next wave of the future,” Erker says. “I don’t know how the infrastructure is all going to work out with electric cars, so right now, I’m not quite enamored with them. But maybe someday, when they become more popular and easy to juice up.”

Pebble Beach may be the perfect place to imagine a utopian, electric future. The cars are gorgeous, and the amount of capital the ultra rich throw around like Monopoly money is unbelievable. “Beauty is one thing, but it seems like the more beautiful it is, the pricier it is,” Erker says. “I think, for most people, it’s gorgeous and more power to you if you are able to own and maintain them. They are great to look at, but the question is: how practical are they for most people?”

One trend that automakers avoided at Pebble Beach was hyping up their autonomous driving strategies. This segment of enthusiasts is not ready to give up the keys. And so in this bucolic setting, the self-driving revolution seems far off.

But, still, we know it’s coming.

Perhaps one day, Pebble Beach will be one of the only places left where classic cars use gasoline and are driven by people. After all, before the car took over, the horse and buggy dominated. Horses may not drive on public roads much these days, but there are still plenty of people who like to gather for the purpose of admiration and remember the way we were. If the car goes the way of the horse, prices for rare collector cars at Pebble Beach may continue to rise.

Photography by Tamara Warren for The Verge

It’s not a rational or responsible desire to dream of expensive looking sports cars. But still, the 20th century image of a curvaceous four-wheeled form continues to foster a culture of envy. The high price tag attached to these cars that made them a symbol of aspiration, greed, and everything in between, has endured, as the performance numbers and prices on supercar reach astronomical seven-figure levels. What has been lacking in the rare European supercar category are cars powered by electric powertrains. But the days of the rude gasoline-inhaling performance car may be dwindling.

Pininfarina is the newest Italiana brand to attach itself to the fast-growing list of luxury EV makers, but among the cult of Ferrari enthusiasts, Pininfarina is already a big deal. On Thursday, Automobil Pininfarina, a spinoff of the 90-year-old design house, unveiled teaser images of the PFO, its planned first-ever production car, a 250 mph battery powered hyper car.

In an interview with The Verge, Automobili Pininfarina CEO Michael Perschke says the PFO will have a range of 300 miles on a single charge. “As a super sports car brand, no one has embarked fully on an EV strategy.” He estimates that it will take 10 to 15 minutes to charge the battery up to 80 percent. The performance numbers are dizzying — it will fly from 0 to 60 miles per hour in under two seconds.

Those images of the PFO show a curvaceous, sculptural exterior two-seater carbon fiber form encased in sweeping glass. A single ribbon of light cascades from the headlights across the front end. It’s message is clear — it’s an object of beauty that screams speed. Translation: it’s a truly Italian sports car. It’s the latest smoke signal that the electric future is nigh, pairing screensaver-worthy cars with a Tesla-blazing powertrain, and perhaps eventually spelling the end for gasoline. In January, Ferrari revealed plans to make an electric supercar. These announcements follow on the heels of the reveals of the Porsche Mission E concept and the BMW i8 roadster, and McLaren’s intentions to spend $2.1 billion on electrification.

For a couple hundred potential well-to-do customers that can’t resist this latest sub $2 million dollar proposition, the PFO will be unveiled as a concept car at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show and be delivered in the second half of 2020. The company will start taking orders later this summer when it shows a prototype to select groups at Monterey Car Week where some of the world’s most expensive cars are auctioned, flaunted, and fawned over.

Pininfarina is in its element at Pebble Beach. The prize-winning 1936 Lancia Astura Cabriolet, once owned by Eric Clapton, won top honors at the Pebble Beach Concours D’elegance in 2016. The iconic Turin, Italy based coach builder is responsible for the aesthetic of the world’s most collected cars including the Ferrari Testarossa, as seen in the SEGA game Outrun. Pininfarina namesake and founder Battista Farina was nicknamed Pinin, local dialect for a short guy, the lead designer told me. Farina found a kindred stubborn spirit in the engineer Enzo Ferrari when they first met in 1930. The Pininfarina house also built custom cars for Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Cadillac and has a list of over 1000 cars in its books. More recently, its design arm has been hinting at alternative powertrains. It showed the Nido EV concept in 2010 and the H2 Speed concept, a hydrogen powered raced car in 2016. Its list of star clients includes Jackie Kennedy and the Sultan of Brunei.

The value in that star-studded legacy inspired its current ownership, the Indian-based Mahindra Group, to double down on its historic pedigree and move the name badge of Pininfarina from the side of the car to the front hood of an electric supercar by founding the official Automobiliti brand. Mahindra is one of the driving forces on the Formula E circuit, which holds its New York race this weekend, and is well versed in EV production. The venture was first announced in April. This week, Automobili Pininfarina says that Formula One and Formula E racer Nick Heidfeld will join the as development driver next year as part of its growing leadership team.

But this classic brand isn’t approaching technology as an afterthought. It hopes to strike a note with potential customers in Silicon Valley. “We assume that we appeal to customers like a Larry Ellison or Marc Benioff, who also have an affinity to sustainability and see technology as an advancement to get to the next level,” Perschke says.

Part of its business plan is to seek out partnerships with tech companies to own the hardware inside of the vehicle. “We will not have large department. We’d rather talk to others like Apple, Google, and Salesforce who are into technology, and integrate them rather than do our own systems. OEMs are still defending infotainment architecture. I’m happy to full integrate an iPhone. But do you need to sell infotainment system at a surplus of another $5000?” he says.

The design arm of Pininfarina counts Volvo as one of its past clients, an automaker using a more contemporary approach to its in-car technology. “If you try to be a software company as a car company, per definition, you will always be second,” Pershcke says. “You’re gaining a lot of accessibility and speed in open source systems.The apps are what clients are really interested in.” It’s a very different approach than a car with a similar price tag and mind-numbing performance, the Bugatti Chiron.

But in order to persuade customers to splurge on a two seater performance car, it has to live up to its exclusive reputation, rooted in awe-inspiring form. Pininfarina has credence as the ultimate art car. The Pininfarina-designed Cisitalia 202 was the first car included in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.

Design Director Luca Borgogno says that building beauty is paramount instead of sticking to the design adage of form following function. “We want to make a car that is not overdesigned. We want something that is super clean and impossibly simple.” As it is primed to grow, the 10 person design team is borrowing members from Pininfarina SpA, the company’s traditional design house. That branch of the company recently showed another high end transportation project: the Princess R35 Performance Sports Yacht.

Pininfarina plans to incorporate sustainability into its design appeal, modeling itself after Stella McCartney’s approach to materials in her high-end fashion brand. That vision includes materials that have been ethically sourced, natural woods, and paints without chemical ingredients. “The constraints are there, what is good is we live in the moment we can work a lot between human and machine. We want to make a big statement as well,” says Borgogno.

To build its cars, Perschke says it will share a factory with a few EV companies, suppliers, and assembly partners. Other vehicles are planned to follow the PFO, and the company will investigate hydrogen-powered vehicles, as referenced in the H2 concept. It’s also working on plans to repurpose its batteries. “For future cars we want a second life strategy,” Perschke says. “In 2023 to 2025 we will be perceived as a sustainable luxury brand.”

To make it to the next car, first, the over-the-top PFO needs to capture the hearts of discerning customers. If they are successful, it may be a sign the culture associated with unapologetic gas guzzling engines is dwindling, an impact that could ripple into more affordable spaces as battery technology and lightweight materials become more affordable. But at this level, the ridiculous price tag is part of what makes the car so appealing to the high-rolling car collectors.

The station wagon is the vinyl record of the car industry. Rare, purist, and extremely cool when you find one, which means they are primed for a comeback.

So then it’s not shocking that the Buick Regal TourX I test drove stopped folks in New York traffic. It’s still an anomaly on public streets; GM told me only a few hundred have shipped. The first question everyone asked was, “What is it?” Turns out the Buick emblem on the hood, originally created in 1908 and among the oldest in the auto industry, doesn’t resonate the same way, as say, the three-pointed star. And very few people remember back to when the original Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon first hit the streets in 1947.

So for contemporary purposes, the Buick wagon is brand new to America and the northeast corridor where I live, where the most popular wagon, the Subaru Outback, is a common sight parked on the street. Other wagonesque offerings include the Volkswagen Golf Alltrack, the Audi A4 Allroad, the Volvo V60 and V90 Cross Country, and the Mercedes-Benz E63 wagon. It’s a relatively short list.

In Europe, where station wagons and vinyl never went out of style, the Regal is rebadged as the Opel Insignia Country Tourer. Buick co-developed this vehicle with Opel before GM sold off its European brand. The European reverence for the wagon is one reason American journalists like to cover the Geneva Motor Show. If you ask most automotive journalists about some of their favorite rides, inevitably a station wagon will make the top ten.

But in America, the TourX is a paradox between the past and future. Here station wagons have faded to near obscurity, thanks to the rise of the SUV. But obscurity may work in the brand’s favor. The opening lines of the Don DeLillo classic novel White Noise about the impact of technology on civilization captured the station wagon’s cultural identity in the ‘80s. “The station wagons arrived at noon, a long shining line that coursed through the west campus. In single file they eased around the orange I-beam sculpture and moved toward the dormitories.” It was the ride dorky parents schlepped their kids around town in, which became a bad joke. In other words, the station wagon was the original minivan.

That image, three decades later, has changed. “Customers don’t have a perception of what wagons were,” says Doug Osterhoff, marketing manager for Buick Cars, when I asked him about why they decided to build a wagon. “They didn’t live through woodsided wagons, and they are very cool, in the now. The whole perception is different.” In fact, Buick, long-known as an old timer’s car, is looking to the Regal TourX to add a bit of swagger.

But why are wagons cool? Why do car journalists fawn? For one, a station wagon performs more like a car, and Buick succeeded in building a wagon that’s fun to drive. The turbo engine on the TourX lends itself toward its authoritative power. It produces 250 horsepower and 295 pound feet of torque. “It has car-like driving dynamics,” Osterhoff says. “There are things about SUVs that [customers] don’t like. They prefer to be down, not up.” It’s ready for snowy climates and is equipped with standard all-wheel drive, a system used in other Buick vehicles like the Lacrosse.

Unlike the station wagons of yesteryear (shout out to my friend who drives a 1996 Chevy Caprice wagon with a powerful Corvette engine,) it doesn’t feel like a long, dangerous saloon, but actually has nimble handling. “The hardest part is getting the right proportions,” Bob Boniface, design director for Buick Exteriors, told me. “People can’t articulate what makes it athletic.”

The other plus factor for wagon customers is that they are roomier than cars, one reason the crossover segment is booming. “The utility of the cubic space storage is more than the big crossovers,” Osterhoff says. “They feel safer and more in control in their cars. They have a need for utility. People that own wagons, they don’t need a garage mate for their day-to-day ride. They keep their stuff in the back of the car.” (Unless you street-park like all those Outback drivers do in New York City.)

Creating more space was part of the design directive for Buick. It has the same wheelbase as its sedan counterpart, the Regal Sportback, but adds 3.4 inches in length, hence what accounts for that extra space for grocery-getting. Buick goes all-in on the TourX’s elongated elegant form. It’s over a foot longer than the Volvo V60 Cross Country, and is the longest in its class.

GM’s grasp of the European market through the Opel brand influenced design know-how. “In Europe they are more pragmatic and focused on efficiency,” Boniface says.

The Regal TourX calls itself luxury, but it’s not a fancy-pants wagon. Some of the interior materials feel plasticy. So while Mercedes-Benz gives the E63 Wagon variant high-touch piano gloss and multiple screens, Regal TourX is more knobs and buttons of the old-school ilk. Some of the accoutrements a tech-minded passenger would desire — wireless charging, rear park assist, adaptive cruise control, and the cavernous sliding moonroof — add on to the $35,070 base price. The car I tested retails for $41,765.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t pause to focus on Buick’s obsession with quiet as a key part of its appeal. Last year I visited GM’s Noise and Vibration Lab in Milford, Michigan. It’s the auto industry equivalent to Skywalker Sound. Buick uses parachute material, among other nifty tricks to make the cabin of its vehicle sound like silence. In other words, there’s no room in a Buick for white noise.

While I’ve always had a hankering for wagons and record players, it’s still a surprise when they come back into style as if they were new. Who knows, perhaps one day dial-up modems and flip phones will make a comeback, too.

Photography by Tamara Warren / The Verge