The best nights happen when you’re least expecting them. Such was the case when I was in NYC recently. A friend asked me to join him at the NY Auto Week Mercedes-Benz and smart USA party. Between the new cars showed, delicious food and interesting guests, it was a fantastic time. Here are photo highlights from the event.

The night started with a preview of the new smart USA with a spirited presentation from CEO Annette Winkler. I absolutely love meeting dynamic female executives and Winkler made quite an impression between her speech and driving in and doing a 360-degree turn to demonstrate the car’s impressive turning radius.

I also got to get behind the wheel of the new smart car later in the evening!

We also got to see two of the new Mercedes-Benz SUVs coming out!

All in all the event was a great time and it was a delight to step into a different world and see how they announce and showcase new vehicle announcements.