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.