Impressions at the Auto Show

I know I am a couple weeks late in posting this but I finally found a block of time to review the 2012 St. Louis Auto Show.

Impressed
Ford
I will go ahead and start with Ford, since there is a little bias here, but also I think they really came out swinging.
The two of theirs I was most impressed with were the 2013 Fusion and the 2013 Escape. The Fusion, which has been, in my opinion, the vehicle that has caused Ford to break away from the slump that all the US auto makers ran into a few years ago and seat themselves at the #2 spot for auto makers worldwide, according to Consumer Reports. The new model gets a massive face-lift for 2013 and fits itself perfectly in with the sharp looks of Ford's entire line.
The 2013 Ford Escape was the other car that really struck me from Ford. The Escape is Ford's inexpensive small SUV, and has always look that part very well. It has been a pretty basic square body style, with nothing flashy about it. For 2013 that all changes. It no longer looks like the low end of Ford's range, and it has thrown that cheap square look out the window. Very very impressed with the people at Ford for this one.

The other two 2013 vehicles that Ford brought to the show were the Mustang GT and the Taurus SHO. Of course the Mustang made me drool, as it would any fan of the car. With its new blacked out tail lights, and the slight changes up front that make it look just that much more aggressive, what isn't there to drool over. What surprised my dad and I, however, was that we caught ourselves drooling just as much over the Taurus SHO. For those of you that don't know, the SHO is the performance model for the Taurus. In the past, it was basically the 4 door sedan with a Mustang V-8 slammed into it. For the new model, the car is completely its own entity. Boasting a twin turbo V-6 on an AWD system, this car will move as well as it looks.

Volkswagen

The main thing that impressed me with VW goes along with the previous post I made about diesel cars in the US. VW is making 3 of their models available with diesel engines here in the US. Those models are the Jetta, Passat, and the Golf.

The other thing I really liked with VW was the new Beetle, primarily the use of the classic looking rims. I am a sucker for older cars and really applaud companies when they implement the past into their new vehicles.
Buick

Growing up, Buick was one of those companies that seemed to only be able to sell you a car if you were over the age of 65. Over the last few years they have redesigned their cars for a younger audience, and all of that effort, which has been able to keep them alive in a struggling GM, has culminated into their new sports sedan, the Regal GS. Pulling an amazing 270 horsepower out of a turbo-charged 2.0L 4 cylinder, in the words of my dad to the Buick presenter "This is not the Buick my parents drove."

Unimpressed
Chevrolet Volt

The most unimpressive car at the show for me was the Chevrolet Volt. There has been a lot of hype put onto this car, with it being fully electric and all, but when I finally got a chance to experience it in person, I really felt it was awful. First and foremost is the price. They had two models on the floor, the cheapest of which came to $40,000. Now I understand there are a lot of incentives, like tax breaks and even a government bonus, for buying one, but even after all that, the Chevrolet rep said it would still be around $30-$32 thousand. The second was the interior. Due to the way to power train is set up along the car, the middle of the back seat is taken up, making it have room for 4 people. Also, when I sat in the back seat, I'm 6'1", with my dad, at 5'10", seated comfortably in the drivers seat, I felt incredibly cramped. While electric cars may be a step in the right direction, this, in my opinion, is not the right way to do it.

Cadillac CTS-V
My complaint with the CTS-V is not with the looks, or the power, or would it keep me from buying one if I had the money laying around, but its with how uncomfortable the driver seat was. The CTS-V, to keep with the theme of being a sports sedan, has racing bucket seats for the driver and passenger, the kind that have sides that slightly wrap around you for extra support when you are doing what the 550 horsepower supercharged V-8 was built to do. The only problem is, they are a little snug for me, and I'm pretty skinny. My dad sat down and instantly got right back out already complaining about the seats without me having said anything about them. While I completely understand they are going for a sports car feel, it is also still a Cadillac and needs to be as comfortable as you would expect with a luxury car maker.

Well that is all I was planning on sharing with the auto show. If you saw anything else in the slide show I had posted before and want to know more about it let me know.

2012 St. Louis Auto Show

Diesel cars in America, or the lack there of.

The entire goal of car manufacturers over the last decade has been trying to make cars that are much more fuel efficient. Everything from alternative methods like electric cars, or hybrids, to simply putting their nose to the grindstone and making standard gasoline engines even better. All of the car manufacturers have done a great job improving fuel economy, a perfect example being the 315hp Ford Mustang V-6 capable of 31mpg.

Electric Chevy Volt

Hybrid Toyota Prius (45mpg)

Ford Mustang V-6 (31mpg)

But after watching an episode of Top Gear (Series 12, Episode 4), where the presenters pick diesel cars for a economic race across Europe and used a VW Bluemotion Golf capable of 80mpg and a twin turbo V-8 diesel Jaguar sedan with a range of 1200 miles per tank, I have been researching to try and figure out why the diesel market has not taken off here in the US yet. After sifting through countless articles that seemed to present more of an opinion rather than a real answer, I came across this article from Popular Mechanics. While you may read the article for yourselves, its not that long and I encourage you to do so, I will go ahead and sum it up here. 

The first reason the article gives for the lack of diesel in the US is the difference in gas prices between the US and Europe. The taxes that are placed on the two different types of gas in the different areas lead to regular gas being cheaper here in the US by about 10 cents per gallon, while diesel in Europe runs, on average, an entire dollar cheaper then regular gasoline. 

The second reason listed by the article is the fact that making a diesel engine cost more in parts and labor, and therefore will make the car more expensive to buy. According to an example given in the article, it would take an average of 4 years for a standard diesel car to start saving you money. Another factor that plays into the price of the engines are the environmental regulations that are in place concerning vehicle emissions. The emission laws in the US are much more strict than the laws in Europe, meaning that less time and money need to be spent on making sure the diesel engines, which are typically much more pollutant than their regular gas counterparts, are clean enough to make regulations. 

While there are no plans to bring the insanely efficient cars featured in Top Gear to the US, there are a few diesel vehicle available, like the VW Jetta TDI and the Audi A3 TDI.

VW Jetta TDI (50+ mpg)

Audi A3 TDI (45mpg)

 I would love to see more of these vehicles here in the US, but the major companies that sell their vehicles here are putting much more effort into the hybrid and electric paths and will continue to do so.

I head to the St. Louis Auto Show tomorrow and am sure to take all kinds of pictures and gather info on the new cars for the year so check back in a couple days and Ill have a post about it I'm sure.

There's just something about the lights. - R35

Throughout it's history, the Skyline has always had it's double-circle tail lights.

Ill take the underdog any day.

I have always been a muscle car guy and always will be. The simple designs, the size, having enough torque to keep you pinned against your seat, and most of all the noise. When I was younger, people would find out I was into cars and their first question would always be which one was my dream car. Most kids at that age would take one look at the expensive and exotic cars such as a Ferrari or Porsche and want nothing else. Me? I would tell them that the coolest cars I have ever seen are the Shelby Mustangs, with the chief among them being the 1968 GT500KR. Sure it cant go 0-60 in less than 4 seconds or take hairpin turns at 100mph, but it is  still my favorite and will continue to be. While I know I will probably never be able to get my hands on one, I've seen them sell for an average of $250,000 at auctions, it will always be something I will pursue.

The Most Interesting Car in the World

For whatever reason, the Nissan Skyline is my favorite car ever, from the 70s version with it's hood-mounted mirrors to today's exceptionally powerful GT-R. I can't say why, but I know that one day I will own at least one of them. Perhaps even a white R34. In any case, this blog will be about more than just cars.  We aren't sure which way we will take it yet, but I'm sure it will be an interesting ride.

Two posts in and we've already got a bad pun. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Explaining the Title

The title isn't some way of saying one of us is ripped and the other is from a foreign country, or any other way you may translate those two words, it simply stems from our two respective dream cars and the countries they come from.

2002 Nissan Skyline (R34)

1968 Ford Mustang GT500KR