Chris_Doane

LOL...no. Well....I cant speak for Fly.

.......run for your life!

Real photos will be out in an hour.

Oh gosh...yea...that's not sexy.

Yeesh, everyone calm down. That isn't it.

Of course the powertrains were upgraded. You'll notice I was commenting on the exterior in my original post. While the new powertrain is great, that doesn't get me a more visually appealing car. Also, I think calling the interior "new" is a pretty big reach. 500: Taurus: Freestyle: Taurus X: Montego: Sable: I'm not sure why you think a GM W body car should influence the way I feel about a Ford designed car. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heh, Ven I think you're way off and I don't even like the cars. I think you're making a lot of incorrect assumptions, but I'm too tired to reply to them at the moment.

Well, first of all, where are you getting that number?

The number I reference is the correct number for total sales in 2006. I have no idea how many were sold to businesses or what parts of the country they were sold in. http://www.toyota.com/about/news/corporate...03-1-sales.html

*May not be republished without consent. Not that anyone would really want to.* © 2007 Chris Doane Where can you freeze your ass off, see a new 362hp Pontiac sedan and have Jim Belushi flash his man boobs at you? The obvious answer would be the Chicago Auto Show. However what happens in Chicago doesn’t stay in Chicago, so let’s cut to the chase. Ford’s naming strategy A few days before the show, it was already leaking out that the Ford 500 would be renamed the Taurus. Tuesday night in the media hotel lobby I started hearing there might be more name changes in the works. Sure enough, Wednesday morning, Mark Fields confirmed our worst fears. Adding insult to injury, the Freestyle would change to Taurus X and the Montego would change to Sable. Ford says the main reason for the switch was that everyone in the entire world loves and misses the Taurus nameplate. OK, Im exaggerating a little. Ford also told us it would take many more years to make the Ford 500 and Mercury Montego a name people recognized. That is undoubtedly true, however, I’m not sure dusting off this old badge is right idea. You have to stop and ask why people know the name Taurus. Often the answer to that question involved the word “rental.” We all know the current stance the Detroit OEM’s have on rental fleet sales. It’s an offense worse than double-dipping a chip. As for the Taurus X...well...it seems like a bad joke really. Sure I understand that the “X” is supposed to signal that its a crossover vehicle, but, just say the name a few times. Taurus X. Taurus X. Taurus X. What a terrible name for a car. Certainly a much worse name than Freestyle. The running joke throughout the day was that the adult film trim edition of this car would be named (say it with me) Taurus XXX. As for Sable, we were also told many customers remember this name and long for its return. That might be true, but honestly, Im just not sure I believe it. I can easily imagine any number of people sending letters to an automaker about a product decision they are unhappy with. It happens everyday. However I don’t think the mailman comes into Mark Fields office everyday and says “I’ve got 500 more ‘bring back the Sable’ letters for you. Should I put them over there with the other 25,000?” Given the public statements by Alan Mulally over the past few months about his love for the Taurus nameplate, I think we just witnessed the new CEO’s first power play. Comments at the show from inside sources seemed to hint that was indeed the case. Instead of making the case himself, he sent Mark Fields to do the dirty work with the embarrassing announcement coming during the breakfast press conference. Luckily Mark said his lines quick enough that no one had a chance to choke on their danish. Overall, the feeling I got from people I talked to, or from conversations I overheard, was that this was a sad move on Ford’s part. “Desperate” was a word I heard more than a few times and it wasn’t followed by “housewives.” There was also talk of grasping at straws. In the end I don’t honestly think this will help Ford’s balance sheet. I hope I’m wrong. Toyota Highlander The current Highlander model is certainly one of the most plain looking CUV/SUV’s out there. A few years ago when I was car shopping, I gave it chance mostly because of the MPG number on the window sticker. Then of course, I looked at the rest of it...and left. At first glance the new Highlander appears to be nothing more than a larger Rav4. That was the comment I heard a million times floating through McCormick Place. A closer look at the profile and rear starts to reveal a Korean feel to it as well. So it’s bigger, more powerful and safer than the last Highlander. I would expect nothing less. It is definitely better looking than the 2007 model as well, but, still not a great design. However the time-honored line of “it looks better in person” does apply here. The bright spot of the car for me is in the interior. It is a classy looking, nice place to be. The center stow seat in the 2nd row is a pretty nice idea too. If the former design was vanilla, the new design is vanilla with a little chocolate sauce. What they should’ve aimed for, design wise, was Mackinaw Island Fudge. Saturn Astra/Vue Redline/Vue Greenline The Astra is a car that will make people forget about their old Ion with dent resistant panels. The exterior design is so much more appealing than the old Ion. We should all send thank you notes to Opel. In the same breath, however, we might want to give them a rude glare for the interior. With GM interiors getting so much better lately, this one leaves me scratching my head a little. I’m sure they wanted to bring it over with as little investment as possible, but, surely we all know by now that cheaper isn’t always better. Before seeing the RL edition of the Vue in person, I thought is was really horrible. The press photos were very unflattering. After seeing it in person, it’s only mildly horrible now. I still think the entire front end is gaudy. That massive intake just doesn’t work for me at all Not much to say on the GL model. It’s great they are doing it to get a piece of the hybrid pie. A funny side note, though. Autoblog happened to be walking by the Saturn display when the hood was up on this car. It doesn’t have the GL powertrain in it, just the GL badges. The 3.6L V6 is there instead. Oops, bet they didn’t want that getting out. Ford Freest....*sigh* Taurus X Dumbest name ever. Terrible move on Ford’s part. Moving past that, the the standard Ford “refresh” of a new grill and new lights has been applied to this tall wagon. Honestly the changes don’t really do much for me. I don’t dislike the changes, but it doesn’t change the car overall for me. I don’t look at the car and think “hey that’s new!” Ford has now given this grill and lights “refresh” to the car formerly known as 500, the Mon-sable and the FreeX. In all three cases they really do nothing for me on changing my overall opinion of the car. With such modest changes on these cars, I start to wonder why they even bother. Are people who didn’t buy the car last time going to see those new headlights, drop their latest issue of Entrainment Weekly, jump off the toilet and run to the Ford dealer? Don’t bet your Charmin on it. The Dodge Dakota and 4500/5500 HD Rams The Dakota is yet another vehicle that looks better in person. Not huge news here though design wise. A new front end and some fenders. I think its a more attractive, “truckier” look for the smaller pickup. Plus it gets more power. Something that Tim Allen taught us is always good. Im not really sure where the inspiration came from for the 500 watt speaker box option. That’s about the last thing I think of when I think about Dakota. The big 4500/5500 heavy duty level Ram trucks were...well....big and stuff. The 5500 had a flat bed wrecker platform on it and the 4500 had a small dump truck platform. The 4500 had a few hundred bags of chips in the back and dumped them onto the floor as part of our lunch. Uh, yea. Thanks. Anyhow, I’m sure the people who actually need these trucks will like them. Look for an edition with a Sterling sourced motor to be announced in a few weeks. Pontiac G8 We have a winnah! G8 gets best in show. Though to be honest, its only competition came from the Scions or the Highlander. Having seen the press photos 10 days before the show, the Aussie Pontiac was everything I expected it to be. Which is a good thing. As you all know by now, not a hell of a lot will change for the production model. The wheels, brakes and paint color were non-production. The show car also rode half an inch lower than production. They also say the Pontiac logo on the front of the car was a concept of a modernized Pontiac badge to see how the public took it. Assuming it doesn’t end up being overpriced, I can easily see the G8 being a sales success. With this car initially being built down under, I could imagine a situation where the supply will not meet the demand for this car. There also seems to be some confusion on the annual production volume at start up. Most people have had it at around 35-45k units a year. However one rumor of 80,000 units/year started popping up on the show floor. Scion xB and xD Well let me pull out that trusty auto show line one more time. They look better in person. That is, the show cars do. That would be the cars that have the cool looking, customized body kits and the cars that DON’T have those awful looking wheel covers. Scion will also tell you that a good number of their customers would order their cars with these extra body kits and better looking wheels. Not surprisingly, that would be where a good chunk of profit comes from. Scion is just a totally different animal and I can appreciate it. I think they know their market better than any other brand and I think these cars will be a huge success for them. For the most part, the xB and xD are sort of like...well....pizza with pineapple as a topping. You either like it or cringe at the thought of having it. I can’t ever see myself owning one of these cars, but I can see how these cars appeal to people. The design of these two cars take the ideas of being youthful, hip and modern 10 steps farther than any other OEM is willing to go and they make it very affordable. Scion is after a pretty specific crowd with a very small car lineup and that’s fine. Statistically, you probably aren’t one of them, but there were 173,034 people that fit the bill last year. A few quicker bits... COLD!! My god the weather we had in Chicago made the weather we got for NAIAS feel like Miami. Nothing like a -17 wind chill to get you in the mood to be objective about new cars. Not to mention just getting to Chicago from Michigan was an ordeal. Hordes of people wrecking on the black-ice covered highways in the south-western part of the state as well as the Indiana and Illinois sections. Unfortunately a few of our colleagues even got caught in a wreck on the way over from Michigan. They were all OK, but apparently the same can not be said for their rental. Jim Belushi Jim puts on a hell of a show, that can’t be denied. Whether we needed to see his man boobs, however, is questionable. He along with the Sacred Hearts Band, were the main act at the Cars, Stars and Bars event on Wednesday night. It was a lot of fun, but damn its annoying when the music is so loud that you have to yell into the persons ear from 2 inches away for them to hear you. I hope I didn’t accidentally spit on Mike Spinelli’s (Jalopnik ed.) ear. At some point the brother of the original blues brother sang some song about fat guys and them needing love too or some $h! like that. So not only did he pull 2 more fat dudes out of the crowd to dance with him on stage, but he gave us all a nice look at his upper body. I was so hoping his shirt would stay tucked in. Jim also had at least a dozen ladies half his age up there on stage with him at one point or another. I guess fame is funny that way. One young woman in particular even executed a dance move that...shall we say....had her face about 2 or 3 inches away from Mr. Belushi’s belt buckle. The Chicago House of Blues Man if you thought your local Applebees had cool $h! on the walls, then check this place out. The whole design of the place was really cool. Plus the Cars, Stars and Bars event they had here was maybe the highlight of the 2 days. Who the hell cares about cars, that was a great show! Minus, of course, the boobage mentioned above. Nissan, BWM, VW and Kia All of these guys had what most people were referring to as “who cares” events. Yes the interiors of the Armada, Pathfinder and Titan are much improved. Sure its cool to have a 7 series with a blown motor. The VW R32 was no surprise but the GTI cup car was kind of cool. The Rondo SX concept was, I dunno, there. Such an oddly styled car. At least they had cupcakes at the press conference. The Dodge Test Track. They don’t let you drive and that sucks, I know. The course takes you through an ice patch to demonstrate the traction control, a bumpy part to show you the Hemi SRT cars can actually handle a speed bump without crunching your undercarriage and a section where they bombard you with noise to show off the sound proofing. That’s all fine and good, but not terribly exciting. There is, however, one other section I haven’t mentioned yet. A small portion of the track will get your attention very quickly. I don't think it was more than 25-30 yards long. In that space, you go 0 to 30 and back down again. I know there is no way that’s going to sound impressive just reading it, but it’s crazy fun. The acceleration pins you back hard. I’d never been in one of the Hemi SRTs and it is just an insanely powerful launch. After you get in motion all you can do is think “holy $h! that wall is coming up fast!” They even have this yellow thing on the wall and the end of the strip that kind of looks like a target. That was a nice touch I thought. Thank you Lord Brembo. Wrappin’ Up This was the first time I’d attended the Chicago Auto show and one thing becomes obvious quickly. McCormick Place makes Cobo Hall look like a smelly, high school basketball gym. The North American International Auto Show should be in a venue like McCormick. While the venue was great, the show itself was pretty quiet. The biggest story was the G8, followed by the Highlander and the Scions. Past that, the news value of what the OEM’s showed us was minimal. So, my Chicago Auto Show experience in six words. G8. Jim Belushi’s chesticles. Hemi Power. Catch ya’ next year windy city. *May not be republished without consent. Not that anyone would really want to.* © 2007 Chris Doane

Well actually the whole conversation went:

That would've been impossible since the ratings just came out and the magazine was locked in and heading to the press at least 2 weeks ago.

Boy that Sport model is not looking good at all. The Laramie is....well....better, but still awkward looking.

It does.

Dont wait up for that. It would literally take an amendment to the constitution for Schwarzenegger to even run.

:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: Yes the prize for him is 3000 Oxy Contin tablets

Ugh, why cant Bam and all those idiots just die a horrible death already and get it over with.

But in all fairness, you do have the gayest sig known to man. So your taste is questionable.

Yea but Al is actually a smart guy.

What are you kidding? We're talking about the state that elected Jesse Ventura as their govenor.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FRA...-01-31-23-24-20

Heh yea having seen the 08 Liberty interior in person....thats pretty much it. The dash is somewhat different though.

Chevy Citation sleeper car.

When Super Duty Engineers Attack?

Wow....thats one bushy happy trail. Its not even a trail anymore...more like a forrest. Perhaps the "Forbidden Forrest" ?