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Re: A few quick points on NIAIS 2003
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Posted by Randy Thatcher [Email] (#22) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Randy Thatcher) on Sun, 12 Jan 2003 00:16:23 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: A few quick points on NIAIS 2003, Dinger, Sat, 11 Jan 2003 21:36:59
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It was a good show this year... I just got back from Detroit.

VW: Display looked inspired by Macintosh. The Beetle ragtop is very cool, and I predict it will sell like hotcakes. Neat colors, neat look with the top up or down. Bummer the back seat is useless and the trunk is tiny. I like the Passat, too.

Porsche was great, except for the SUV.

BMW was overcrowded. I still don't see the appeal, either. The 3 series seems small, the new Z is just as ugly in person. I'm not a 7 series fan, either. 3 series ragop has a pretty useless back seat.

Mini looked cute. The booth was probably the busiest there. It's a damn small car, but it's a cutie. I'd like to drive one, but I can't imagine owning one. I'm proud of my wife, she started pointing out paint defects on a Mini. I'm the guy who works in paint shops, not her. She worked final assembly shops before she got out of the auto mfg rat race.

Scion was smaller than I thought, but a neat little car. I thought it would be a big SUV, but it's not. They gave me a music sampler CD.

Toyota looked pretty good. I really like the Matrix. It was neat to see a flare-side Tundra. I've only seen 'em in the weld shop in the plant.

Lexus LS430 has awesome paint, great rear seat massagers. I finally saw the RX330, the car I'm working on for launch this year.

Hummer is totally obnoxious.

All the Caddy's seemed obnoxious, too. The interiors didn't really impress me. They offer a car for $56k... Give me the upscale lexus for the kind of scratch. Or a Jag.

Lambo and Ferrari were sexy, as expected. Maserati was nice drool material as well.

SAAB booth was much bigger than last year. They're really pushing the 9-3SS. The vector is nice: great seats, 6 speed, snazzy interior. The 9-3SE convertible had the nice carbon fiber dash, stick, and what look like viggen seats. They had a 9-5 Aero wagon with a snowboard on top, and 3 snowboard dudes spent more than 15 minutes trading seats and hogging the car. They had probably 10 or so different "matchbox" style cars in the floor displays, but they didn't know where I could get some.

Volvo has the best seats and very nice interiors. Unless the powertrains have improved since I last drove one, they're bound to bore me. But damn nice fit and finish. Oh, the hot swedish babes working the booth was a nice touch, like last year.

Jag looked nice, but they had all the XJ6's and XJR's locked up. I don't want to sit in a Jaguar Taurus or Jag Contour/Mondeo... The XJ* is still top of my sexy cars list. It's great in the metallic British Racing Green.

Aston-Martin looked gorgeous, but the display was a stark museum looking thing.

Caddy's Sixteen concept was the star of the show.

Maybach was pretty nice, too. Nice 2-tone paint, nice designer goodies came with the car. I wish the doors were open, though. It was cool to finally see it as it was "top secret" when I was in the Benzo plant in Sindelfingen. The car is quite a bit longer than I expected, and I knew it was an overweight, oversized hunk of steel.

Neon 2.4 Turbo in Yellow is promising. I want to test drive one. I used to own a neon coupe, and it was a pretty fun car to drive. I hope it doesn't suffer from getting to the power at high RPMs like the WRX. We like our torque down low.

Pontiac GTO was big letdown. Even in yellow... I had seen pictures, but it just doesn't look as good in the flesh. The Pontiac Vibe is great little car, but it's really just a Matrix with a little pontiac body cladding. It even has the VVTi engine.

Audi A4 is SMALL. Ragtop looked pretty good, but I still like my SAAB better.

Mercedes had all the cars locked up this year. What a drag as I wanted to sit in the C-Class and check it out.

New maxima is a weird one. Maybe it'll grow on me. 350Z seems to be the car to get.

G35 coupe was built up too much. It wasn't "all that" when I saw it up close.

Mazdas looked OK. RX8 is a ride to lust after. The 6 is OK, but seemed very japanese inside.


Randy
1990 SPG
1994 C900TC Commemorative Edition
2000 9-3


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