We drove down to the New England International Auto Show in Boston last week. Of course, how else would you go to an auto show except to drive? The Convention Center was crowded, the exhibition floor was busy, and we had a good time looking at the possibles and the never-going-to-happen models on display.

It’s hard not to be dazzled by some of the upscale cars with prices well beyond our pocketbooks (that would be most everything above $30,000). Take the McLaren, for instance: a gull-winged powerhouse that dashes from 0-60 in 3.1 seconds. It has an interior that is … well, actually I have no idea what the interior looks like; the McLaren rep had no interest in allowing us to peep in. Apparently he could separate the lookers from the buyers at a glance. Similarly for the Lamborghinis on display; they looked great, but then most of us weren’t allowed to get too close to them, and certainly not near enough to peer inside. Nothing like having your status as a poor relation confirmed in such a public place.

We did like the 2014 Corvette Sting Ray, powerful and very handsome. Still above a retiree’s paycheck, but really kind of affordable nonetheless. We were surprised to see that Porsche has come up with a $100,000 hybrid, although we can’t for the life of us imagine why. I mean, really, if you can afford a Porsche why would you care how much the gas for it costs? And of all the cars we were allowed to climb in, the BMW and Lexus models smelled the best — rich, deep leather, almost overwhelming and very satisfying.

Among the affordable autos at the show, we liked the Subaru Forester and Outback SUVs, surprisingly roomy, well designed and featuring that all-wheel drive so good that the Subaru has become the unofficial state car of Vermont and New Hampshire winters. We liked the Chevy Silverado, big and muscular and looking like a real rival to the Ford F-150. We’re partial to the Ford truck because we own one, but we were disappointed Ford chose not to show off the trucks. We had heard about their all-aluminum 2015 F-150, but it wasn’t on display; instead we got a bare-bones 2014 150 and a more appealing if really huge 250. Don’t know why Ford blew off its best-selling vehicle.

As I said, it was fun to see so many autos in one spot. We would have stayed longer if there had been places at the center to eat lunch. But since nothing but pretzels and prepared sandwiches were available, we headed off to a nearby restaurant. One big meal and several drinks later, we decided against returning to the show. The prospect of one more hot toddy on a very cold day was just too appealing. And besides, we think our truck is still better than most of what we saw at the show. Unless, of course, the Lamborghini guy has a real instinct for an insanely charitable act. I left him my number just in case.