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I attended the NYIAS on 3/26 (opening day) as well. Pete's summary is spot-on.
Saab had a pretty decent spot in GM's quadrant - near the middle of the convention floor, near Maserati, Maybach and Ferrari.
The 9-2 was, by far, the most popular Saab on display. It looked really good. The crashed 9-3 was pretty cool too.
The SportCombi looked good, but as I found out, GM kept most pre-production cars off-limits. It is a station wagon, and for me it is hard to get excited about that.
And Pete was right - the crowds were completely disrespecting the cars. Jaguars fared worst - I saw a door handle ripped off! Which made me wonder "Are Jaguars really that flimsy?" The Saab butterfly cupholders were working when I was there, but it was only a matter of time before they broke too (In practice, I've never used mine for fear of breaking it.)
Based on crowd sizes alone, the most popular models were the Ford Cobra (the biggest crowd by far, hands down), Cadillac XLR-V, Pontiac G6 (convertible) and Pontiac Solstice. The Saturn Aura was being ignored.
BMW and Mercedes had big crowds consistently - Audi's area was a snoozer. The VW area had good crowds (but that was only because they were giving away toys - and had a long line for that), but the VW cars were kind of boring. Volvo was squeezed in the middle of Ford's area and its cars looked good, but they got lost in the shuffle.
Cadillac had the best looking (sexiest) models. No contest/hands down - GM hired the hottiest of the hotties to adorn its Caddies. Smart move. Ford's models were attactive too, but the Cadillac babes were outstanding.
I sat in a Mustang - absolutely hated the interior. Seats are way too low, and the all black plastic screamed "cheap". But people are buying them like crazy, so I guess I'm in the minority on that one.
The Japanese luxury brand displays were really lackluster. I wandered around the Infiniti, Lexus and Acura areas, and didn't see anything that looked remotely interesting. Infinitis and Lexus cars looked like distant relatives - too deja vu. The Acuras (and the Hondas) were dull with a capital D. The designs look so dated.
My two cents.
posted by 12.26.1...
, Sun, 27 Mar 2005 11:52:46
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