2012 Auto Show

[SunnY S]

Busy place.

Why did Fiat feel the need to bring 800 colours of the same model car to the show? Pretty pathetic for a company producing one model. The company reeeks of desperation, and the slow selling figures are the only reason why, I conclude.

GM clearly still has its head in the 60s and the horsepower war. In this day of environmental concerns and spiralling gas prices, thepromo sticker on the Camaro trumpets...... "16 more horsepower than the Mustang! a whopping 50 more horsepower than the Challenger!" Who the hell cares? Pony cars are an emotional choice. And $100,000+ for a Corvette..... a friggin Chevy product?? Puh-leeeeeeze

Ford.... Very unimpressed with the Ford Focus, it looks good on paper, but in person, its seems like another sub par effort. And $25,000+taxes for the Focus on display??? Whoa.

Chrysler... more Mopar crapola. Next....

Volkswagen.... common theme among all the models there..... how do you like your vanilla?

Hyundai... I can see why the Elantra is highly regarded in many eyes. Its seems to offer a decent package at a good price. Much more attractive than the Focus. Still leery of Hyundai quality though.

BMW... Their cars all look the same. I had trouble telling the difference between the 3 and 5 series. Crazy price tags too. this is a company that is standing still.

Mercedes Benz.... A- a- amazing. Nuff said.

Why did Mitsubishi bother attending? People still buy these?

Lincoln, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover.... see line above this one.

Honda, the NSX concept is striking.

Toyota... good value for good overall cars. The price tags werent shocking, considering what you get.

Nissan/Infiniti... saw a few ppl crashed out in the sitting areas. Was it from the nap inducing design of the cars, or the displays?

Porsche.... how come you guys skipped the show?

Exotic car display....Plenty of eye candy here. the Ferrari FF, what the hell is that?? Bentley GT is a sweet ride. Aston Martin One-77 is a waste and won't turn any more heads than their lesser models at a fraction of the price. Oh, and exotic car of the whole place which made me drool? The new Lamborghini. Stunningly beautiful in real life.



2 big take aways from this years show.....

1) Major car re designs seem to be on the decline. Now we are seeing evolutions for "all new" models. The new 3 series, the Honda Accord prototype model, the Honda Civic, and the Chrysler 300, for example. There are few differences between the new models as opposed to the past.

Remember when car makers used to design next gen car models with a clean sheet of paper?


2) media outlets have been trumpeting that the american automakers are closing the gap on the japanese. Not sure about this. I remain unimpressed with the American efforts, particularly in small cars. Design and build quality are severely lacking. Their price tags are stratospheric.

See you in 2013.

[sonnythebull]

Busy place.

Why did Fiat feel the need to bring 800 colours of the same model car to the show? Pretty pathetic for a company producing one model. The company reeeks of desperation, and the slow selling figures are the only reason why, I conclude.

GM clearly still has its head in the 60s and the horsepower war. In this day of environmental concerns and spiralling gas prices, thepromo sticker on the Camaro trumpets...... "16 more horsepower than the Mustang! a whopping 50 more horsepower than the Challenger!" Who the hell cares? Pony cars are a personal choice. People will buy what their heart wants. And $100,000 + for a Corvette..... a friggin Chevy product?? Puh-leeeeeeze

Ford.... Very unimpressed with the Ford Focus, it looks good on paper, but in person, its seems like another sub par effort. And $25,000 for the Focus on display??? Whoa.

Chrysler... more Mopar crapola.

Volkswagen.... common theme among all the models there..... how you like your vanilla?

Hyundai... I can see why the Elantra is highly regarded in many eyes. Its seems to offer a decent package at a good price. Much more attractive than the Focus. Still leery of Hyundai quality though.

BMW... Their cars all look the same. I had trouble telling the difference between the 3 and 5 series. Crazy price tags too. this is a company that is standing still.

Mercedes Benz.... A- a- amazing. Nuff said.

Why did Mitsubishi bother attending? People still buy these?

Lincoln.... see above.

Honda, the NSX concept is striking.

Toyota... good value for good overall cars. The price tags werent shocking, considering what you get.

Nissan/Infinii... saw a few ppl crashed out in the sitting areas. Was it from the nap inducing design of the cars, or the displays?

Porsche.... how come you guys skipped the show?

Exotic car display....Plenty of eye candy here. the Ferrari FF, what the hell is that?? Bentley GT is a sweet ride. Aston Martin One-77 is a waste and won't turn any more heads than their lesser models at a fraction of the price. Oh, and exotic car of the whole place which made me drool? The new Lamborghini. Stunningly beautiful in real life.



My conclusion..... media outlets have been trumpeting that the american automakers are closing the gap on the japanese. Not sure about this. I remain unimpressed with the American efforts, particularly in small cars. Design and build quality are severely lacking. Their price tags are stratospheric.

See you in 2013.

What do you drive

[tricky]

Why would you go back in 2013 if you just laid pipe into 99% of the show?

I wasn't too impressed either, but then again I'm not in the market to buy a car. I always like seeing Subaru and Volkswagen, they usually have some nice models, and didn't disappoint me this year. A friend who I was with absolutely loves the One-77, and I thought it was gorgeous. You might be the minority there.

[ZX600]

What do you drive

He rides a GSXR 750, anything after that seems unimpressive

[SunnY S]

Why would you go back in 2013 if you just laid pipe into 99% of the show?

I wasn't too impressed either, but then again I'm not in the market to buy a car. I always like seeing Subaru and Volkswagen, they usually have some nice models, and didn't disappoint me this year. A friend who I was with absolutely loves the One-77, and I thought it was gorgeous. You might be the minority there.

Why go back in 2013? Because this is what auto enthusiasts do.

Its not that the One-77 isn't nice. Just that for the $1.5-$2mil price tag of it, you would turn just as many heads with the lesser Aston models and still have tonnes of cash left over for a shiny new Lamborghini.

What do you drive?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VV9NOBYDC4

[Brian P]

I've never paid a whole lot of attention to anything I can't afford.

Like the Ford Focus but I'd wait for the 1.6 Ecoboost
Like the new 5 door hatch version of the Hyundai Elantra but have they fixed ride/handling, and I'm waiting for the 1.6 GDI Turbo out of the Veloster Turbo in that car
Dodge Dart interesting but no way do I want to buy that in its first year
Like the new BMW 320i/328i with the new 4-cyl turbo direct-injection and Valvetronic engine
What I'm most likely to buy is the next VW Golf TDI, but that's not coming out until next year.

[fastar1]

I've never paid a whole lot of attention to anything I can't afford.

Like the Ford Focus but I'd wait for the 1.6 Ecoboost
Like the new 5 door hatch version of the Hyundai Elantra but have they fixed ride/handling, and I'm waiting for the 1.6 GDI Turbo out of the Veloster Turbo in that car
Dodge Dart interesting but no way do I want to buy that in its first year
Like the new BMW 320i/328i with the new 4-cyl turbo direct-injection and Valvetronic engine
What I'm most likely to buy is the next VW Golf TDI, but that's not coming out until next year.

You're no petrol head!

Anyways I'll be doing the show on Tuesday. The Auto Show always ends up being my first vacation day of the year.

[Fingolfin]

man sunny, you're one hard man to please

I'm going on wednesday or thursday, will let everyone know how it is

[OpenGambit]

pish. I like the range rovers.

[D23]

I'm pretty much in agreement with everything the OP posted.

Also bang on with BMW vs. MB.

I used to always say they were pretty much in the same range every year one way or another but the MB were so boring to look at and BMW had beautiful cars.

Now, MB seems to get better (looking) every year while BMW goes to the boring end of the scale.

Just my opinion. I don't think MB are amazing looking other than the high end offerings, but they seem to be trading places with BMW.

M performance is always the benchmark but who notices it now?

And I liked the FF

But then again I liked the 2000ish M coupes and not many others did so as they say, taste is subjective.

AWD four seat Ferrari with a V12 that does 335 KPH.... I would if I could....

[crankcall]

I liked how Audi only brought white cars, excellent contrast to the Fiat circus of cars lined up like jellybeans.
The Focus could be a great commuter level car, they need to get out from under people previous conceptions of the car. Unrelated but i rented a Fusion last week, it drove very well.

My next car will be a VW TDI wagon, or Audi diesel if they sharpen it up, the A3 wagon isn't doing it for me.

GM just makes too many models and variations of the same thing.

Pickups get more huge every year, how giant does a truck need to get, box is still 4x8, actually 4x6 is more common.

The Triumph display is outstanding, Triumph TR3 italia may be the prettiest thing at the show.

[Scuba Steve]

Why does every car have the same dash? All these new cars look exactly the same inside with very few exceptions the outsides are boring as well hard to tell what brand they are with out the badges. That being said I think a new CTS may be in my future RWD decent power under 40K whats not to like?

[SunnY S]

Why does every car have the same dash? All these new cars look exactly the same inside with very few exceptions the outsides are boring as well hard to tell what brand they are with out the badges. That being said I think a new CTS may be in my future RWD decent power under 40K whats not to like?

On its own, its a decent choice, however looking at the cars it competes with in its segment- 3 series, A4, MB C class, <------- those are some compelling choices.

.

[Scuba Steve]

For me it is a much better bang for the buck and I think it is better looking than any of the above choices.

[fastar1]

CTS-V Wagon for the win!

Plus it's made in the You Ess Aye.

[Scuba Steve]

While a V would be sweet its not going to happen this time one V8 in the driveway at a time, its nice to have a V6 and it fuel economy for longer trips.

[SunnY S]

That being said I think a new CTS may be in my future RWD decent power under 40K whats not to like?

Food for thought..... the CTS is the only CAR in Cadillacs line up.

The competitors have been making fine sedans for years and years. There is something to be said about heritage, and experience in building fine CARS.

That would ring bells in my head as to where this GM divisions priorities really lay.

[Brian P]

Food for thought..... the CTS is the only CAR in Cadillacs line up.

Hang in there for the new Cadillac ATS. Rear drive, choice of three engines, initial reports are very promising.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/01/08/2...es-to-take-on/

[Gary]

I've never paid a whole lot of attention to anything I can't afford.

Dodge Dart interesting but no way do I want to buy that in its first year.

Old wive's tale.
Cars are in 'pre-production' for a long time, some up to 10yrs.
Prototypes come first, then refinements, then sale to the public.
You can look at it 2 ways Brian. 1) there's either no such thing as "first year", or 2) every year is "first year".
If a car suffers from above average recall issues, they are tended to (with changes). That basically makes cars "first year" cars every year. Then, they change the body style every 4 -5 yrs.

I hope you're not in the "don't buy a car built on Monday" camp too!! (there's no such thing)

[SunnY S]

Hang in there for the new Cadillac ATS. Rear drive, choice of three engines, initial reports are very promising.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/01/08/2...es-to-take-on/

Yeah, read about this one.

With the "base" engine coming from the generic family sedan Malibu, a carry over engine from the CTS, and a clean sheet design from an automaker not known for great sedans? Any decent GM sedans that do exist, have European heritage, the new ATS appears to be an in house effort. Not very confidence inspiring.

However, kudos to GM for not taking a Cobalt and dressing it up with Cadillac badges like they did with the Cavalier based Cimmaron. And it can't be any worse than the atrocious Cadillac Catera, "the Caddy the zigs!" haha..

You go GM, you GO!