Cars.com’s Suburban Dad, Patrick Olsen, takes a look at the 2010 Land Rover LR4 in this video review from the 2009 New York auto show. Does the LR4 step in for the LR3 in a fitting fashion? Olsen has mixed feelings due to a very involved third-row setup, but perhaps the LR4 will impress him in other ways. Watch the video to make up your own mind.
If you’re attending the 2009 New York International Auto Show this week, make sure to track down the $50 gift cards Ford and GM are handing out to attendees. They’re not free though; to redeem the $50 gift card, you must first test-drive a new Ford or GM vehicle at a dealership. Only then can you go spend the plastic version of Ulysses S. Grant.
Ford’s gift card can be spent anywhere, while GM’s is good only for food via restaurants.com.
If you weren’t interested in the brands before, it’s unlikely $50 will sway you, especially if you have to spend it at a few select restaurants.
Let us know what you think. Would a $50 gift card get you into a showroom for a test drive?
While the 2010 GMC Terrain may be a rebadged Chevy Equinox, Cars.com reviewer Kelsey Mays notes that may not be such a bad thing. After all, he likes the Equinox. The question then becomes, is there anything else about the Terrain worth looking at? Follow Mays on his tour of the Terrain at the 2009 New York auto show.
Americans have proved they’re willing to give microcars a chance with the Smart ForTwo. That’s left Toyota considering the introduction of the Scion iQ. Cars.com reviewer Joe Wiesenfelder checks out the iQ in this video from the 2009 New York auto show, where he finds that the littlest Scion could have some advantages over the ForTwo, if Toyota decides to let it compete.
One of the more intriguing models to debut at the 2009 New York auto show was the Acura ZDX. Part hatchback, part crossover and part sporty car, the five-seat ZDX hits dealerships in fall 2009. Acura says it's designed for the growing Baby Boomer population, which is projected to stand at around 80 million in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The ZDX features important crossover attributes like a high seating position in a distinctively styled package, said John Watts, Acura senior manager of product planning. Whereas the automaker's seven-seat MDX crossover is geared for families, Watts said the ZDX is aimed at empty-nesters.
Cars.com reviewer Joe Wiesenfelder uses his time at the 2009 New York auto show to take a look at the 2010 Volkswagen Golf and GTI. Learn about all the styling changes to both the Golf and GTI, from its complex new headlights to its subtle interior styling cues. Also, learn the only three phrases Wiesenfelder knows in German.
Is there anything more useless than misplaced populist rage?
Take this year’s New York auto show, where product presenters are spending increasing chunks of time fielding questions like, “How come you’ve got to nearly go bankrupt before you come up with a car like this?”
This is what one Chrysler presenter heard in regard to the all-electric Dodge Circuit, according to The New York Times.
The presenters are almost always women hired through marketing firms or talent agencies, who are chosen for their youth, attractiveness and ability to memorize a script about a particular vehicle. They’re rarely ever a direct employee of the automaker. Still, the auto show seems to have convinced some people that they are speaking to Rick Wagoner or Bob Nardelli, as GM and Chrysler presenters get hit with flak for the automakers’ perceived mistakes.
Blaming Chrysler presenter Kerri Moss — a laid-off school teacher trying to earn money on the auto show circuit to pay her bills — for the government-funded bailout makes about as much sense as blaming American automakers for the Iraq war (which, according to the article, was one heckler’s beef).
Could it be that this is a New York phenomenon? If they want to yell at undeserving millionaires for being terrible at their jobs, can’t they just go to a Knicks game?
Glamour Dims as Hecklers Hit the Auto Show (The New York Times)
With all eyes on ailing GM and Chrysler, their main debuts at the New York International Auto Show may have offered some hints about their futures. Chrysler president Jim Press spoke in New York of “the new Chrysler,” but amid the politicized tangle of shotgun mergers and bankruptcy speculation, both Chrysler and GM chose to unveil more SUVs. Both companies have long been criticized for their truck-heavy lineups, something that left them in the bottom tier of major automakers in Cars.com’s True Mileage Index. Are models like the Jeep Grand Cherokee and GMC Terrain going to help either company get moving in the right direction?
There were plenty of concept and production cars to sort through at last week’s New York auto show. Kelsey Mays and Joe Wiesenfelder weigh in on what did and didn’t impress them under the bright show lights.
KM: Loser
The BMW X6 moves quickly and handles well, but that doesn’t make it a particularly attractive choice — not when buyers are looking for value and practicality more than ever. The ZDX strikes me as a model headed down the same path. It’s relatively cramped inside, with limited cargo capabilities, for a price upward of $50,000. BMW sold — wait for it — 299 X6s in March. Methinks the market for these is small, and shrinking.
JW: Loser
"Bad Timing, Episode I." Now is a bad time in history to be introducing any new model, as new-car sales are at a decades-long low, automakers are strapped for cash, first generations are seldom profitable, and a product's success demands prodigious marketing — i.e., money. For its size, the ZDX prototype (scheduled for sale this fall) isn't especially practical, and I suspect practicality will remain the watchword even once the auto market rebounds. Acura has gotten perilously close to the deep end in terms of styling; this model doesn't move closer to the edge, but it doesn't step back much, either.
At the 2009 New York International Auto Show, Ford provided a couple of European-spec Fiesta subcompacts for the media to drive, and I took one out for a spin on the streets of Manhattan. Of all the foreign-spec cars I've driven as teasers of upcoming American products, this one was probably the closest to what we'll actually get here in the States, which makes it all the more maddening that the 2011 Ford Fiesta is still about a year away.
I drove a five-speed manual with a 1.6-liter four-cylinder, which is basically what we'll get in the U.S., along with a four-speed automatic. Even with the four adults we had in the car, there was enough low-rpm power to take off repeatedly in a patch of stop-and-go gridlock. It's certainly powerful enough for driving on the flatlands, but I'd have to drive a loaded Fiesta on hills to know what it's really made of.
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