NY International Auto Show 2009

April 13th, 2009 omo

So I was at the auto show with mia otou-san in our now-annual tradition each April.

This year the picking was slim. I think the two of us made it out an hour earlier than we normally would have. We capped off the day at lunch @ Lazzara’s. Got one of their daily pizza (half, it was fresh tomatoes, moz, and chicken breasts) and the calamari hero.

But yes, the cars. We actually took some pictures so hopefully those will be coming. Other than that, the picking was slim, as said. The car of the show, IMO, is the Hyundai Genesis. This year it’s more pimp than last year. But what impressed me the most was the price line for the coupe. The 310 horsepower version only lines up to be about 25000? That’s nuts. The exterior looks good and the well-furnished and sufficiently designed interior puts it ahead of other cars of its class.

What are of its class? Say the Acura TL. The TL Tech is actually better furnished, but its MSRP is closer to 40k. Performance wise it might be even better. The SH-AWD is definitely one of the better buys of its class, but that’s approaching the price of an Audi.

On the other hand it’s a sad day for Infiniti. Couple years ago it rocked the house, but now the G37 only has its stylish exterior and fun-to-drive engine to speak for itself. The M45 was significantly disappointing compared to other cars of its class.

Like the Lexus GS and ES lines. I’d take a Lexus ES over a M45, as sad as it may be. We did witness the ISF again and the new ISC, which is a convertable with a hard top. I doubt any VolksWagen types would fall for it though, even if it is quite stylish (chick car?). Yawn at the LX series.

The VW CC is as nice as they come, too bad it’s closer to 30k and at that price I’d rather splurge on a Genesis coupe.  At the show there was a Hyundai Equus which might be making its way to the US? I don’t know. But what is definitely coming over is the new Golf and GTI. The GTI is a fine car if that’s your thing. Nothing beats it, probably, with exception to the BMW 1 series.

The BMW 128 and the 135 are very nice cars. The 2-door version especially. It’s like a smaller and more hardcore GTI. The convertible version is notably bigger, but obviously forego the trunk. Other than the semi-exotic M6 that’s pretty much all I got out of BMW this year. Z4? Yawn. No other car exemplify the excitement of midddle age crisis better IMO.

Audi…is Audi. Probably the best interior in my opinion out of the German 3 for sports driving.

Mercedes S550 is still the best interior at that price range, if luxury is your thing. Between this and the Lexus LS series, it’s a close call that costs $10k apart.

Oh, also the Acura ZDX (LOL) and the BMW X6M (LOL). Just want to mention them. Also, Fisker. And expensive Jaugar cars are really nice. Pretty mucch breezed through Caddy and Crysler. No new stuff there.

In everyman-land, there’s not much going on for our Ford guys but that’s because we skipped it. At least the car section. The new Camaro, on the other hand… hawt stuff. Also dig the retro theme, only if they could make it less ugly in the inside. Volt prototype is prototype-ish.

Toyota doesn’t have much new stuff out there…same Prius, same weird-crossover Venza, etc. Honda is more or less the same with the newly launched Insight that is just like a Prius, but sportier. The new Element is boxier than ever and less ugly, at least.

Sat in the Altima 2-door again, next to the Accord 2-door…hard call. Accord’s interior is better, now, but you pay more and the Altima might run a tad faster. I should try my butt in a 300c but that didn’t look any different than before. Actually most exhibits looked the same. Smart, Mini, Volvo, Saab, Saturn, just to name a few.

Nissan SE-R is not an everyman car but it looked slightly better than I remembered it to be. The new Mazdaspeed 3 is like the old one from the outside. Lan Evo is just disappointing, and the WRX is as you’d expect it, totally spartan and all.

As far as trucks go, for full-size, Dodge wins, hands down. F-150 comes next, and GMC tightly behind that. Forget the Tundra or Titan.

But yeah, a lot of them are just the 2009 models that were available last year.

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Itasha

August 31st, 2008 omo

Itasha is a Japanese slang for anime/game/manga character-decaled real cars. The word originally is a slang for Italian imported cars, but now it’s a pun for “ita” meaning “ouch” as opposed to Italy.

Here’s an itasha I ran into on my way home a few days ago:

I don’t think this counts.

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New York International Auto Show 2008

April 1st, 2008 omo

The NYIAS site is here.

Let’s see–being an annual tradition my dad and I share, we hit up the show this year only for half a day. I left work early and met up with him midtown, and had lunch.

The show itself is pretty much the same as usual. Scion had their display outside proper with the monopoly XM/Sirius thing outside giving away free tote bags. Speaking of freebies, lots of free bags this year, but little else otherwise.

One other housekeeping item is that my phone died after an hour into the show so I have only a few pics. Will post them later I guess.

This year was a little less exciting partly because of time limitation we had, but also there just aren’t that many new cars that we wanted to see. We ended up skipping the lower level of the exhibit (sorry Subaru, VW, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, etc.) because we had to catch an early train back. Alas.

I think the cars we were most interested in seeing before the show was the new Honda Pilot, the reincarnated Skylark (Nissan SE-R), the new M3, and Bumblebee. Bumblebee as in the prototype Camaro used in the Transformers film. LOL @ GM.

But what’s interesting about GM/Chevy this year was the ZR1 ‘vette. Sure, it’s got a 100k price tag, but over 600HP! And a corvette! I have a soft spot for them I guess. Got to sit in the Z06, which is impressive enough by itself I suppose.

(Chevy was as good as a starting point as any I suppose.) Next to the Chevy display was Ford. Which is next to their related brands like Saab and Mazda. And next to Toyota. Strategically (IMO) Ford lined up 4 mustangs facing the Toyota display. LOL. Mazda was same-o since the only interesting thing they showed off was yet another race car prototype. Ford showed off its various Mustangs, but also the new F-150. Which, I have to say, was really pimp.

Jaguar XK is nice looking but way over priced for 300 horses. XKS is more like it. The new XF is good though.

Worthy a couple sentences, next to Saab was Smart. Who is selling the Smart car this year. Supposedly dad’s dealership group carries it but there’s already a 7 month wait list. Nuts to that–go buy yourself a Fit or something.

Right, Toyota. This year the Toyota was underwhelming. The only thing interesting was the unveiled sedan crossover (so…yet another SUV?) that fits into the gap left behind when the Highlander got upsized, and NOT like the Rav4. So the Venza, as it was called, was basically a compact-like Rav4. It’s not too impressive but not too shabby either I suppose.

Lexus was a little more interesting. New LS hybrid was pimp, but so was the new GS hybrid. What was gawking and memorable was the IS F. Because it’s basically a 400+ BHP direct injection V8 5L powerplant crammed into a IS chassis. With Lexus’s own brand(?) of direct shift mechanism (with EIGHT gears!). It is quite the impressive little beast. I even got to sit in it. And as with Lexus, the styling is very ninja (but for Lexus it’s “out there” as is). Ming would approve. If you are curious about this…monster, read up here.

So right, Nissan. Nissan always put out a good show, and this year it wowed with the new Altima and Maxima. The coupe Altima is probably the pimpist 2-door Accord-class car I’ve sat in; it borrowed a tad from the 350 but it fully civilian. Compared with the 2-door Accord this year, the Altima beats the Accord in the interior finesse category of thing, although I probably can’t say that in performance. 260 giddy-ups should be sufficient for the average buyer of this car, though. At any rate, the Nissan exhibit focused more on the new Maxima, which there wasn’t one to sit in–interior experience matters much more for that car.

Infinity this year had little new to offer besides the new FX, or EX as it was branded. LOL Nissan Rogue? The M45 and M35 came down in price, but their interiors pale when compared to the G37 next to them. I don’t think I need to say much about the G37. The 4-door G series retain the G35 tag, so we didn’t even try that.

Oh right, the SE-R. I think it’s pretty ugly! Of all the 100k$ class sports cars, it’s easily the ugliest one. Redeeming feature would be its signature tail lights. I like those from the original and this one carries that badge as well. The SE-R just has too many lines. They could take the cue from the G37.

Porche had a new Boxster spyder on display. I made a comment about it looking just like any ol’ Boxster S, except this one costs twice as much. It even has the same words on the back. It’s always fun to stand next to the Cayman and admire it. Mmm.

Which is kind of interesting; in contrast, BMW, Audi and Mercedes had their $$$ cars for sitting. Sat in the $106k CLS… feels like sitting in a E series to me. Not to say it wasn’t good–the interior of those thing rocks, but I just can’t tell the difference from the inside without looking at the specifics. The new M3 is nice; the line for that was long so I sat in the newer M3 convertible. Good stuff.

Audi showed off mostly their new S5, S6, R5 and R6 cars. Very nice but, again, they’re too ninja with highly refined interior. Not a bad thing, but it’s a little too indistinctive.

Hyundai this year remains the ghetto pimp king of car brands. We didn’t get a close look at their knockoff Mercedes, but we got a good look at the new sports compact that’ll replace the Tiburon, Genesis. Nice little car, and probably a notch better in terms of performance.

Honda. Right, this year they were showing the prototype Pilot, which had my dad’s main attention. It’s much more formidable looking, very squarish. Still prototype but odds are the production model next year will follow suit. What else was new? I still like how the 4-door Accord looks. And laughed at the Fit.

Acura had the new TSX out at the auto show. Looks like a TSX… MDX and RDX are the same. RL and TL are still pimp. It needs a sports car.

Saw the special edition John Cooper Mini. Neat looking but still too marginalized to be seriously considered.

I think that is mostly it for the mass-production houses. Oh right, on the way out we tagged Scion and examined the xD. When your car is named after an emoticon, you just can’t take it seriously.

Did see the new Lamborghini Gallardo. White is a good color for it.

Sadly we had to beat a hasty retreat. Doubly so when my phone died. Boo.

Was fun. Will go next year!

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