Had a great day at the auto show with Top Gun. Just a great guy to take the show in with. Varied tastes, with a genuinely open mind about cars, and a real passion for them. A great time!
My thoughts on what I saw, in no particular order....
VW - Loved them. Not a car I would be embarrassed to own. The GTI as always was a gem. The Passat CC was gorgeous and just seemed of incredibly high quality. The Jetta was no where near as poor quality in the interior as the comments on the interweb made me believe. Not an interior styling icon, but for the class of car, it works just fine.
Audi - Just about loved everything there. Every car seemed well designed and of good quality. Paint finish and interior materials were great. Loved the new wheel design. Great to see there is a mid-engine sports car that I can feel comfortable in. The R8 is a gem. Would contentedly drive anything in their lineup.
Mazda - The RX8 looked great as always. The Miata looked nice, but price tag of this loaded example put it on the wrong side of $40K, which just seemed silly. Still can't get over the silly grin on the front of the Mazda line.
Ford - Maybe I was getting tired (last stop before leaving) but I just was not that excited by what I saw. The new Focus was a disappointment because I couldn't fit. Fit in the the Elantra and the Cruze just fine, so I wish Ford would have kept tall guys in mind when the designed it. Particularly sad since I was very comfortable in the old one. The $60K+ Edge and the $50K+ Taurus limited (no Ecoboost) seemed really silly. Is anyone really gonna spend that much more over the 300C or Charger for a Taurus?
The Mustang was a gem as always. Such a sweet car.
Lexus - LOVED the LFA. What an incredible car. Pics just don't do it justice. Looks engineered, not just styled. One of those few, rare cars that you just have to keep doing laps around to take in all of the details. In pictures, it had that GTR type blandness. In the flesh, nothing like it. I have gone from really not caring for it to completely envying the lucky few who will own one. One of the truly few great exotics. The LS was the epitome of the Luxury car again. Everything just reeks of quality and careful assembly. There is a reason Lexus is doing as well as it is. This car shows all of it. Tried an IS again, and still didn't fit. The new baby Lexus (numbers escape me now) did not compare well to the Audi A3 that was beside it.
Kia - Really left me with no impression. Annoying that the cars were locked. While better looking than it's Hyundai siblings, I found the Optima, which I liked in pictures, to look kind of disjointed in the flesh.
Hyundai - Other than the Genesis sedan, nothing in the Hyundai area pushed my buttons. I really dislike the fluidic Sculpture design, so it didn't look good on any of them to me. YMMV. Hyundai seems to me to be the worlds best producer of economy cars. While I cannot fault any of their vehicles from an engineering perspective, it just seemed a little too obvious to me where the dollars were taken out (really bad paint finish on many examples there, lots of hard plastics on the inside, etc) to make up for the engineering dollars they invested. A reasonable trade off to many, but not one that I would be willing to make. Again, YMMV.
Toyota - Just walked through.
Infiniti - The entire Infinity lineup just seems to have gotten old all of a sudden. Even the M, which I have always been fond of, didn't look good at the show. Might have just been the colour. Not a bad car anywhere, but no longer any that I would put near the top of my shopping list.
GM - Lots of different feelings there. LOVED the Regal GS. What a stunning looking car. Just seemed to be of great quality, inside and out. Was good to have a look at many of the Regals, and they all impressed. Just seemed well screwed together and made of good materials. Roomy and comfortable. The Verano seemed like a nice design, except for the stupid chrome eyebrows over the tailights. The Malibu is looking it's age. Still a nice car, but there are better options out there. The Impala - it was there. CTS-V wagon was incredible. Gotta love the guy who put that into production. As Top Gun noted, where else would you get a 550 hp car with a manual transmission and a roof rack. Corvettes were great. Still find the seats to be comfortable. Still not bothered by the interior design of the Camaro. A lot of car for the money. The new Chevy Sonic seems like a gem. If they really put that 1.4 turbo in with the very sweet shifting 6 speed, it will be a fabulous pocket rocket. Hated the stage show. Gotta saw, that GM likely had the most knowledgable and least annoying product experts at the show. They really knew the cars.
Chrysler - Still disappointed by the exterior of the 300C, but the interior is wonderful. So nice to be in a car that doesn't look like pretty well everything else out there. The Charger was the gem tho. Likely the best bang for the buck at the show - period. Looked great inside and out. So much car for the money. The 200 was a pleasant surprise. Nice interior and really good paint finish. Most powerful car in it's class, if it really drives as nicely as the tests say, Chrysler could do well with this one. The Challenger I still love. Just can't get over that car. Jeep line up was much improved. Chrysler just needs a good small car to be back in the game again. Very much the company to watch.
Fiat - Loved the 500. With gas prices going up, I can see Chrysler selling a TON of these. Right car at the right time.
Subaru - Nothing I fit in.
Jaguar _ had a good look at both the XF and XJ. XF is just a bit small for me, but it just seemed incredibly special. The kind of car that reminds you every day way you spent all of that money on it. Really makes every drive an event.
BMW - Arrogant as always. Only thing I really like in the lineup are the 1 and 3 series. 5 series was my fav sedan for so many years, and just have no use for the new one. 7 seems really pointless - Quattroporte anyone?
All I can think of now.
Thanks for a great day, Top Gun!
