|
Originally Posted by TaHoE
GMInside Opinion: GMI @ NYIAS, Part One: GM Should Loose the Attitude, Girlfriend.
By: TaHoE
April 4th, 2007
Well after spending a nice healthy bit of time (as well as a nice bit of money to get into the city), at the New York International Autoshow I must say I have come away, unimpressed. Perhaps it's my desire for nicer things in life, but I thought I would be more blown away by products shown, not just at GM but throughout the automotive realm. I was expecting the Tundra to have an excellent interior, but I was let down. I was expecting the Land Rover LR3's wood to look real, but it was far from it. I was expecting the new H2 Alpha's dash to feature high-quality materials, but I got nothing beyond Tahoe-grade plastics. I was expecting the all new LS's interior to be substantially better than it's $30,000 IS brother, but it definitely wasn't. The night was full of let downs, but let me tell you how I really feel.
Toyota Motor Corp:
Quite possibly the runner up to the most boring display at NYIAS (second to only Cadillac). The "People's Faces" running all along the walls reminds me of the "I love what you do for me Toyota" campaign of the '90s. Hey Toyota, in the immortal words of the Eagles, "GET OVER IT". Enough with that stuff already, can't you at least TRY to be interesting, just TRY! I did see Toyota's latest attempt at being interesting :Cough: L-Finesse Light :Cough: , the Jaw-Dropping (ly boring) Toyota Rav-4...urrgh, sorry Highlander. The Highlander, and actually most of Toyota went highly ignored. I must say, the FT-HS blew me out of the water. It looks pretty boring in pictures, but it is very nice and well executed.
Lexus had a nice "Lexus Lounge" highlighting all the benefits of owning a Lexus (Hey Cadillac...sorry where is your lounge?). They showcased their Hybrid technology (of course), and I sat in an LS as, an IS. The IS blew me away at the level of technology it possessed, however getting all the functions through the screen really gets annoying. The IS F was also there, and well, enough said about that. I was really shocked at how the LS and IS have an almost identical interior, ditto the materials. I would have expected something slightly upgraded, at least design wise because they are very boring (but well made) interiors.
Nissan:
Probably one of the more interesting displays (possibly only due to the Sushi in their section), however the cars also failed to impress me. The Rouge is amazingly boring, yet unattractive all at the same time, and I really am not sure how they did that. The Altima coupe looked like a mirror image of the G6, interior and everything.
Infiniti:
G37 was there and had a lot of press around it so I didn't even bother to look, but from what I saw it was a decent attempt to upgrade the coupe. I will take a better look at it for my second visit. The EX looked rather intersting actually, I am quite fond of the lines it has.
Honda:
In typical Honda fashion their display was short sweet and to the point. The Civic continues to fail to impress me. The materials are terrible, they look terrible and the design of the car is terrible. Besides the engine, what benefit does this car really have? Their Acura division had is RDX on display, which was pretty nice, but utterly shocking to sit in. How can anyone manage a cabin so bizarre looking? The RL was shocking as well since the price is still nearly $50,000 of for a FWD/AWD V6 powered car, with fake wood and "metallic" trim.
GM:
Chevrolet's press conference for the new Trio of concepts, was pretty interesting. A bunch of people started dancing with the cars, but the press failed to really take a hold of it. They did enjoy throwing color coded balls at the stage to vote for which one was their favorite, but besdies that it was pretty flat and poorly presented. The media bum rushed the stage and were there for hours with the little trio, so I wasn't able to get very good pictures, I will try some tomorrow. The Camaro convertible right next to them looked absolutely amazing, so much so that I am convinced that it is the exact Camaro I would have purchased.
GMC had a pretty boring section as well, and they (as usual) went mostly ignored, but people were climbing all over the new Acadia, and they seemed to enjoy them greatly. I am thinking that the Lambdas may eventually take over for the 900s volume-wise.
Pontiac had no G6 coupe to sit in, which I was utterly shocked at. the G8 was sitting on a turn table and looks even More impressive in person. It's true what they say, it doesn't photograph well at all. It really is quite an amazing looking car. I hope all future Pontiacs look just as nice.
Buick had a very nice display including an Enclave cut out, but the products were absolutely terrible looking, I must say. Everything looks dated (just like their customer base) and I really can't see how the Enclave can turn things around. Especially since it was sitting on a turn table. Why? It should be on the floor. Heck there should be 5 of them on the floor so that everyone can sit in them.
Hummer had a "Rescue" H3 on display, which was super-cheesy, but I guess does the job. The H3 Alpha's interior receives no major modifications beyond badging, ditto the exterior. The H2's 6.2L V8 / 6-Speed Auto combo is welcomed, but I would have really loved to see a Duramax in there. It's possible, I have seen the conversions, so why not do it! The H2's new interior looks nice, and has a similar feel to the H3, but the H3 costs around $40K whereas the H2 is $60K. There needs to be better materials and this and the Escalade. The analog clock in the H2 I will still lambast as being the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. It's nice, but definitely doesn't fit with Hummer's image. Hummer has such amazing potential, and GM really fails to capitalize on it well.
Cadillac's display was drop, dead, boring. The new CTS was all off to the corner sobbing it's eyes out, it went mostly ignored. The overall look was so yawn-inducing, that I felt I was at Toyota. Where is the imagery? The display of your products represents your brand. Is your brand boring? Outclassed? Because that is what Cadillac's display said. The 08 CTS does look fabulous, but it should be in the middle in a pinnacle of light, not in the back corner. The truck section (SRX, Escalades) looked like the parking lot of a dealership, hardly "show worthy".
Ford did a much better job of isolating themselves, as they did last year as well. All the Ford brands were under one large drop-ceiling section and it works well for them. The Flex, really isn't all that interesting in person, it photographs better than it looks. The ShelbyKR Mustang, I must admit, looks amazing. Kudos Ford, Kudos. But I will take away that Kudos for Lincoln and Mercury, someone has got to do something there, it lacks inspiration. Aston Martin was kind of all to itself, as to be expected. The Land Rover's had a nice lounge area as well, but I preferred to sit in the LR3 which shocked me at the lack of interior space and functionality. The wood looks amazingly fake as well.
Chrysler bored me. The Charger SRT-8 was nice though.
Overall:
It seems GM still has some work to do, but they are getting better. Toyota's attempts at having a personality is just failing miserably. Honda is green BTW if you didn't notice. Nissan is boring and ugly. Ditto Lexus. I must speak about the show as a whole however. I must say, I am rather pissed that the "Press" cannot sit in all the cars (minus concepts, platformed vehicles). I saw one guy getting into one of three VUEs on display (which were sittin in a small kind of fenced in area, so I proceded to do the same. Then some guy from GM comes and does the whole curled finger get over here thing to me and says that we can't sit in roped off vehicles, that the vehicles were roped off for a reason (all in a malicious sarcastic tone). I never got this verbal usage anywhere else. GM get your act together. I dunno if it's the rotting-flesh scented deodorant that I put on to attract the carnivores you call executives, or perhaps it's the fact that I am young and dashingly handsome, and they look like they are ready to either collapse from cardiac arrest or maybe fall asleep because they are so bored by what they do. Get some young interesting, excited people out there GM. To the rest of the show. Let the press sit in vehicles. That's why we are "PRESS". Sheesh...
Part Two Coming Soon
|