Just got back from the 2004 NAIAS..here are some of my thoughts..
1) Of the nearly hundreds of cars we sat in (seemed like that many!) only 2 of them REALLY felt as comfortable as the Mark. That is to say that I felt "at home" in them, and they were comfy and the controls, ergos, etc fell readily at hand (your results may vary!)...The Maxima and the Lexus GS. Most of the other cars, while nice have HARD leather seats..even after they have been sat in. To be honest, I was shocked at the Maximan. It is REALLY nice. Nicer than I remember. If it was RWD, I'd be buying one tomorrow..I liked it that much. Nothing at the show we sat in is as quiet as the Lexus. To put it into perspective, Trish, with her cochlear implant has bionic hearing. She hears everything, and everything is amplified. When we closed all the doors on the Lexus, she said "Holy (insert filthy profanity here) this is the quietest car here!!" I agreed.
2) Those Maybachs are BIG!!! And quite nice. Interior is unreal.
3)The Honda Element has TONS of room in it for its smallish looking size. Unreal rear legroom. Seat fold every which way. Cool.
4) Was NOT impressed with one of my favs, the new Subaru Legacy. Was nice. Nice 250HP. But didn't do it for me. Was expecting more.
5) The Subie concept roadster is VERY nice though. Looks "italian". Heard the guy who penned it ws stolen from Fiat. Hopefully it will be more reliable than Fiat.
6)GM is completely stupid. The steering wheel in the new Corvette is nearly identical to the Malibu. WHAT ARE THEY THINKIN!!! DOn't believe me? GO look for yourself!
7) Lincoln is still adrift. Showed a Mark X 2 seater. Fancy T-Bird.
8)Was VERY interesting to see the marketing of the Scion badges. Had a YOUNG kid (20's) sloppily dressed, ball cap askew doing the speeches and introductions of their models. And he was really pushing the Internet buying. Was refreshing to see them using young people to push their models..their target demographic. BIG3 could learn something here...
9)New Volvo S40 was nice..but small. With 215HP, that little car will scoot.
10) The busiest booth, by far, was Ford. Absolutely swamped with people...but mostly in the car section. The 500 looks quite nice, except for the awful, awful grilled. That car would be a winner in my book if it had a V8. 6 speed Automatic tranny will be awesome I think. But it needs a new grille, V8...oh...and it comes with AWD in the higher end model. Neat.
11) VERY VERY VERY disappointed with the new Dodge Magnum. The concept last year was awesome. This car is ho-hum. Interior is nice, but still..well..just OK. Oddly, they had supplemental lighting INSIDE the car with a 2-3 foot long fluorescent tube light plugged in. I'm assuming this means the car is VERY dark on the inside. The windows are mere slits compared to other cars. The 300C, suprisingly looks pretty good. The grille will have to grow on me though. Cars won't be as fast as I think. On Dodge's own website, it said "0-60 in about 7 seconds". Hopefully they are sandbagging.
If you want my thoughts on any other cars, let me know. We saw so many......
1) Of the nearly hundreds of cars we sat in (seemed like that many!) only 2 of them REALLY felt as comfortable as the Mark. That is to say that I felt "at home" in them, and they were comfy and the controls, ergos, etc fell readily at hand (your results may vary!)...The Maxima and the Lexus GS. Most of the other cars, while nice have HARD leather seats..even after they have been sat in. To be honest, I was shocked at the Maximan. It is REALLY nice. Nicer than I remember. If it was RWD, I'd be buying one tomorrow..I liked it that much. Nothing at the show we sat in is as quiet as the Lexus. To put it into perspective, Trish, with her cochlear implant has bionic hearing. She hears everything, and everything is amplified. When we closed all the doors on the Lexus, she said "Holy (insert filthy profanity here) this is the quietest car here!!" I agreed.
2) Those Maybachs are BIG!!! And quite nice. Interior is unreal.
3)The Honda Element has TONS of room in it for its smallish looking size. Unreal rear legroom. Seat fold every which way. Cool.
4) Was NOT impressed with one of my favs, the new Subaru Legacy. Was nice. Nice 250HP. But didn't do it for me. Was expecting more.
5) The Subie concept roadster is VERY nice though. Looks "italian". Heard the guy who penned it ws stolen from Fiat. Hopefully it will be more reliable than Fiat.
6)GM is completely stupid. The steering wheel in the new Corvette is nearly identical to the Malibu. WHAT ARE THEY THINKIN!!! DOn't believe me? GO look for yourself!
7) Lincoln is still adrift. Showed a Mark X 2 seater. Fancy T-Bird.
8)Was VERY interesting to see the marketing of the Scion badges. Had a YOUNG kid (20's) sloppily dressed, ball cap askew doing the speeches and introductions of their models. And he was really pushing the Internet buying. Was refreshing to see them using young people to push their models..their target demographic. BIG3 could learn something here...
9)New Volvo S40 was nice..but small. With 215HP, that little car will scoot.
10) The busiest booth, by far, was Ford. Absolutely swamped with people...but mostly in the car section. The 500 looks quite nice, except for the awful, awful grilled. That car would be a winner in my book if it had a V8. 6 speed Automatic tranny will be awesome I think. But it needs a new grille, V8...oh...and it comes with AWD in the higher end model. Neat.
11) VERY VERY VERY disappointed with the new Dodge Magnum. The concept last year was awesome. This car is ho-hum. Interior is nice, but still..well..just OK. Oddly, they had supplemental lighting INSIDE the car with a 2-3 foot long fluorescent tube light plugged in. I'm assuming this means the car is VERY dark on the inside. The windows are mere slits compared to other cars. The 300C, suprisingly looks pretty good. The grille will have to grow on me though. Cars won't be as fast as I think. On Dodge's own website, it said "0-60 in about 7 seconds". Hopefully they are sandbagging.
If you want my thoughts on any other cars, let me know. We saw so many......
VW was nice..but still scratching my head over the price. Didn't spend tons of time in Volvos..but if I recall, the most $$$ Volvo we were in had EVRY conceivable option ever know to man..or so it seemed....Am not totally wowed by the exteriror styling, however..