New York Auto Show - Part 1

I attended the NYIAC on Friday, Match 29 - first time in a long time that I've been to an Auto Show, and the first time to NY in decades, literally! I had forgotten how much fun it was, and also how it's a sensory overload. You really need to have a plan of attack. Ours was kind of random, following a circuitous path through the displays, which meant by the time we got to some manufacturers, like Jaguar and Volvo, where there were cars that I really wanted to see, I felt I was kind of burned out..... So, for example, I sat in the new Jaguar XF sedan, but probably couldn't appreciate it as much as I wanted to. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Overall impressions:

1) The domestic manufacturers have a long way to go to catch up to the imports. I have to say that the domestics tend to have flashier displays - more turntables, flashing lights, models - while the imports tend to have just the cars and fewer frills. The 'door thunk-factor' of the imports is still way higher than the domestics (I was particularly disappointed with the Pontiac G8 door sound) overall, and the interiors of even the lower-priced imports are still higher-quality than more expensive domestics.

2) Chrysler products are pretty crappy. The interiors of the brand-new models like the Dodge Journey and the new minivans are really lousy - hard, cheap plastics abound and the doors are very tinny-sounding. Seats aren't any good, either. The Journey especially was disappointing, as it has a nice overall design that is ruined by cheapness in execution. I liked the forward-canted shifter and center stack, but they felt cheap. The switchgear is also low-rent.

3) Honda styling has gotten really bizarre. The Ridgeline, Pilot front-end and entire Accord are very strange-looking, and even the Civic's interior - especially the bi-level dashboard - is terrible. And now it's spreading to Acura, which had some of the nicest-looking Japanese cars previously. The 'shield' grilles are really ugly, and they have a new car that is a thinly-disguised Accord (that is make (hard to believe it) even uglier by the addition of a really bad shield grille)... I thought it said 'RL' on the trunklid but I must have been wrong, as the 2009 RL is a slightly revamped version of the current RL, not an Accord.

4) The new Challenger and Camaro are REALLY sharp. The Camaro was the concept car, but the had 3 Challengers there - 2 Hemis and a V6 version as well. It's a great looking car, even in V6 trim.

5) There were quite a few concept cars there, and I get if you lined them all up with no labeling, no one - perhaps not even the designers - could tell which one was from what company. They are all so similar, with wide-opening doors with no B pillar, bizarre captains chairs that rotate, DVD screens all over the place and floating center consoles that go all the way to the rear of the car. Oh, and ultra-practical 26-inch wheels and tires. Very disappointing, although I did like the Lincoln one.

I'll post some pictures later. But here is me in the Vette....

Casting About

I was casting about, only half-seriously, for a smaller car for my wife. She was leaving her current job, with a 20-mile daily commute, potentially for a job with an 80-mile daily commute... My Audi gets 21 mpg around town and would probably get 25 mpg in her potential new commute (mostly highway but about 10 blocks of in-city travel). The van gets 17 around town and 20 on the highway, but with the lease mileage limitation, she wouldn't have been driving that every day. With gas at just under $3 per gallon (and $3.25 for the premium the Audi requires), neither alternative was particularly compelling. So, I did some looking on-line. What I found kind of surprised me.

There aren't a lot of 'normal' sized cars out there that get high mileage any more. By 'normal' sized, I am talking about Honda Civic-sized as the minimum. Most of them seem to be in the 20 - 22 in-town/29 - 31 highway mpg ranges, which doesn't seem like much to me. I guess I was thinking with all of the advances in engine and transmission technology, lighter-weight materials and computer controls, mpg would be better. But the weights have really gone up as well. All that safety equipment - impact beams in the doors, airbags all around and in the roof and seats, ABS, stability control, brakeforce distribution, etc.

Even though it is REALLY small, I like the smart fortwo a LOT, although it's mileage is not as phenomenal as you'd think, given it's size (VERY small). Looking forward to seeing one at the New York Car Show next week. Go check it our yourself here -
http://www.smartusa.com/
And yeah, they use small letters, no caps, for the names......

The other car I like a lot is the Honda Fit - again, smaller than a 'normal' car but very utilitarian inside and kind of neat looking. Supposedly has decent performance, too. But Kathleen would probably want the automatic version, which would be boring.

Anyway, looks like it's kind of a moot point, since Kathleen has taken a job where her mileage will be reimbursed, so looks like no changes in the immediate future. Too bad, I really like the BMW 1-Series!

Fun Car Websites

Here are some of my favorites, bookmarked over the years....

Animated Engines -

http://www.keveney.com/Engines.html

I could sit and watch the oscillating steam engine all day.

Automotive Forums -

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/index.php

Forums for almost every car built! Many are very active. Great resource if you're looking to buy a particular car, to get some insight on what owners think and have problems with.

Garage Journal -

http://www.garagejournal.com/

If you're into working on cars, you're probably also always looking for info on how to better organize your garage. Or just want to see dream garages!

IMDB -

http://www.imcdb.org/index.php

Every car in every movie ever made! I love this site.

The Truth About Cars -

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/

This site reminds me of what Car and Driver magazine used to be - great car reviews, written irreverently.

Qashqai Car Games -

http://www.qashqaicargames.com/

Spoof site to publicize a Nissan home-market car called the Qashqai. Pretty funny.

Car Show schedule -

http://www.carshownews.com/

Place to check on where and when car shows are scheduled.

In-Cylinder Video -

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5815350492893860613

Not really a site, but a video of what happens during the internal-cumbustion process. Thrilling stuff!

Autoextremist -

http://www.autoextremist.com/

More rants/raves about cars.

Dan

Auto Musings Part 1

I really like the new BMW 1-Series coupe. I went onto the BMW website and built one - drank blue, with a tan interior, Sport Package and a couple of options - gah, $35k?! That's almost the price point for a 3-Series! And the 1-Series is heavy, too... Too bad they could not make one with cloth seats and a little less content... maybe you could get one with cloth, a sunroof, Sport Package (which they really should call the ti Package) and maybe an upgraded sound system for like $28k. Oh, and weighing 500 pounds less.

I realized today that I can look at a new Accord and not throw up! I guess I am getting used to it. Still think they could have had a couple of people responsible for the styling, versus a committee for the front, a committee for the rear and a committee for the chunky middle, but they seem to be selling okay. So what do I know. Except that I'm not crazy about it.

I DO like the new Cadillac CTS - have seen a couple of them, and think it's great-looking. I'd like to see one in black, bet it would look very wicked with 19" chrome wheels. And the new Malibu looks sharp, as does the Pontiac G8 sedan. I think GM is making a bit of a styling comeback, which is good. Hard to believe this is the same company that spewed out the Aztek and previous-generation Malibu!

Origins of my MGB Passion

A recent conversation with my 12-year-old son (who in the last year, has discovered that cars, mainly Corvettes, Mustangs and various exotics, exist) got me thinking about the origins of my love for MGB's in particular, and British cars in general. I can faintly recall being driven around in the back (sitting sideways - would we do this nowadays?!) of an MGB Tourer - medium blue in color - owned by a friend's father. This was around the late 1960's or early 1970's, so I would have been anywhere from 8 to 11 years old. I have long ago lost touch with the friend but the memory remains....

In the late 1970's, as I was attending college in Boston, I decided that I would hitchhike from Boston to my parents home in southern New York State. I obviously did not tell my parents how I was getting home from school...! Going home, I was lucky enough to get a ride in a truck almost the entire way. Heading back to school, I was not so lucky. I got a ride from Route 684 to the middle of Hartford (and I DO mean the middle - I was literally dropped at the side of Route 84 just past where Route 91 intersects, a horrible spot with no room for a car to pull over!) and had to wait quite a while until an ancient, creaking Chevy wagon pulled over in the middle of the right-hand lane to pick me up. He was going to the Massachusetts border and had plenty of cold beer - both in his system and in the cooler beside me. He dropped me off at the last exit in Connecticut... where I proceeded to wait several hours for a ride... I started thinking that a sleeping bag would probably be a good thing to have, when a Butterscotch MGB pulled over and offered me a ride to Boston.... Top down, of course! This ride I remember like it was yesterday, 25 years or so later... My father had owned a string of large American convertibles, and owned one at the time, so the 'wind-in-the-hair' feeling was not new - but the lowness, the communication with the road, the agility - these were all new to me. And of course, the sound of the exhaust was incredible!

It wasn't until almost 10 years later, when my wife and I were living in Albany, New York, that I got seriously interesting in buying an MG. We had attended shows over the years, both in the Boston area and Albany, and started looking through the want ads. This was 1988, before the Internet, and I had no idea what to look for. I still have all of my notes on the various cars we looked for. I saw an ad in the paper for a 1976 MGB that 'needed a little work to complete' (we've ALL seen those before, eh?!). It was an overcast day when we went to look at the car. It had recently had bodywork done to it so the Brooklands Green paint was interspersed with many spots of gray primer. All of the exterior body trim was off the car. The Monza-type exhaust had a hole (or several) in the muffler. The car had radial tires mounted on the front and bias-ply snow tires mounted on the rear. (There goes the 'never driven in snow claim!) And the top was up - amplifying every little creak and groan. The good news was the engine had recently been rebuilt. We took the car for a test drive - and after we switched so my wife could drive, I was trying to think of how to get out of this when she turned to me and said 'I think we should buy it!'... So we did!

Making a long story longer, we had the bodywork finished, had it painted and drove it for a year and a half, whereby I proceeded to get hit from behind and pushed into a pick-up truck. Four years (and three homes later) we again had the bodywork repaired and have driven it ever since. It's been incredibly reliable and requires little maintenance. I drive it less than 1,000 miles a year but always try to do at least one 100+ mile trip a year. The rust worm is starting to do some damage, so it looks like more bodywork may be in the future... But that will have to wait, as in August of 2000, I purchased a 1965 MGB Tourer project car that is slowly being taken apart prior to restoration! I plan to return it to original factory condition. That will probably be a whole other story......

How Not to Sell a Used Car

About a year ago, I began up a 4-month odyssey – buying a first car for my then-17 year old son. We started with some parameters – he wanted a sedan with an automatic transmission and room for his guitar in the trunk. My wife and I wanted a safe, mid-sized car with airbags, ABS and other safety features. So, we were on the same page as my son and I thought the car-buying process would be a piece of cake. It was. It was the car-FINDING process that was a bear!

So I will set forth a few guidelines for those of you that are considering selling your car, based on my recent experiences. Many of these sound like common sense – but believe me, common sense seems to be lacking in many people who have the ‘best car in the world’ to sell!

1) Actually clean the car! An exterior wash is great,

and also maybe shampoo the carpets and seats,

or at least wipe up any stains that could remind a

potential buyer of a fluid from the human body.

2) Clean the trash out of the car. For example, if

you have to move piles of coffee-stained papers

(that end up being the receipts for work done on the

car) from the front seat so that one can actually sit in

it, then you probably should have invested in a box of

Hefty industrial-size bags. Oh, and don’t leave the garbage

bag on the back seat where the empty Doritios bags and

Coke cans ferment. Which brings us to the next guideline….

3) Remove any really bag smelling interior deodorizers. I mean,

the little pine tree hanging from the rearview mirror is okay,

but anything pink or yellow really should not be used in a car

interior. Especially a GUY’S car interior.

4) Be available for people to actually look at your car! Nothing like

making an appointment to look at a car only to ge an e-mail an

hour before (if you even see it) canceling the appointment but

advising that you can view the car ‘anytime before 9:00 am

Monday or after 5:00 pm Thursday’….. The corollary to this is…..

5) When you advertise the car as being in East Buttcheek, it should

actually BE in East Butt cheek and not in Middle Botswana, which is

20 miles away from East Buttcheek!

6) If, for some reason, you re-advertise the car a few days after the

initial ad, the purchase price should generally be consistent or lower.

NOT higher. And it should not continue to increase every time you

advertise the car!

Postscript: The car lasted all of 3 months before my son wrecked it during a Nor’easter….. Fortunately, he was fine. But we had to go buy another used car……

British Car Sounds

Note: This article was originally published in the May/June 2006 edition of the MGB Driver, the magazine of the North American MGB Register. djd

This afternoon, I picked out a nice spot along a fence on Rifle Ford Rd watching the cars leaving the British Car Day at Smokey Glen Farm in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The day was perfect - low 70’s for temperature, puffy clouds overhead, little humidity. The spot I chose was about 6 feet above the road level, at the top of a small rise, about 1/4 mile from where the cars exiting the show turn onto the road. Most of the cars seemed to shift into 4^th gear just where I was, so I had the opportunity to hear the cars winding out in second and third as the came up the incline. Wow! The sounds combined with the smell of Castrol were intoxicating....

I’ve recently been trying to get to shows early or stay late, to see the cars on the move.... This is really the point of them, right?? There were a number of trailers in the parking lot, and some of the cars that came up the hill turned left into the parking lot, to be loaded on their trailers, I suppose. But there were plenty of expensive-looking E-Types burbling their way up the hill and past the entrance to the ‘trailer park’...

The sounds - while there are slight variances due to exhaust systems, you can definitely pick out the unique characteristics of each car. It’s kind of like buying a house - you must look past the decorations and furniture to figure out the house’s essential character. It’s the same with our British Cars - once you get past differences in carbueration, engine tuning and exhaust, an MGB always has the underlying refined burble to it (although at times they can sound flatulent, like the GM V6 or the ‘fart cans’ the kids put on their sport-compacts these days). And even though they all sound a little different, I bet I can pick out the ‘British’ sound if I were blindfolded and listening to a stream of cars roll by…. There is something unique aboout the British sports car sound. My neighbor has an Alfa Romeo Spider, and it doesn’t sound British in the least.

As a contrast, several examples of expensive modern cars also rolled by - the Porsche 911 sounded very whirry, all fan noise and rattle, while the newer Jaguars kind of whished by - although the XJ sedans still had that undercurrent of low burble - just buried under all of the ancillaries, I suspect..... The Corvettes rumbled by, but again, compared to the V8 in the Daimler SP250 ‘Dart’ - no comparison. Again, I suspect ancillaries and too much muffling in the Corvette! The new MINI immediately following two ‘old’ Mini’s was an interesting juxtaposition of sounds - what a difference! Whereas the ‘old’ Minis emitted a high-pitched rasp, the new MINI made absolutely no sound - nothing made it stand out at all. Very disappointing. They got a freer-flowing exhaust on the very extensive option list??

Just as there is a difference in ‘reputation’ between the MG and the Triumph, there is a marked difference in sound. As you’re probably aware, the MGB is considered ‘refined’ whereas the Triumph is considered ‘racy’ - the connotation seems to be that the MGB is slower but well built and roomier, while the Triumph is faster but lighter and leaves parts in its wake! (I don’t truly know or care, I love ‘em both). From a sound perspective, the MGB tends to have a lower, more refined rumble, to my ear, while the Triumph engine note is one of slightly more excitement and ‘rasping’, a ‘hurry up, let’s get going’ type of demeanor - Tally-ho! The MGB seems to be saying, ‘whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here’. More of a stiff-upper-lip....

I always liked British 6-cylinder engines, typified by the Big Healey and the TR-6. They have a sound all their own – stately, refined, yet with that throaty rumble that indicates they are just loafing along but they’ll be there when you need ‘em…. The BMW 6-cylinder in my cousin’s 535i makes a similar sound but seems more in control – more efficient, cool, not quite as fun-loving, perhaps. And no gear whine in the Bimmer, either…..

Here is my little summary of the cars I heard –

Triumph TR6 - throaty ripping - Look out, here I come!

MGB - refined burble

Daimler SP250 ‘Dart’ - serious V8 burble but not American-V8-sounding

Austin Healey - 6-cylinder – throaty, low-pitched rumble

Jaguar - twin-cam 6 cylinder - low, expensive-sounding burble - a little louder when installed in an E-Type but still noticeable in late-model sedans

Aston Martin DB5 - smooth, refined rumble

MG T - rorty - whatever that means – but it describes the sound perfectly!

Mini (old) - high-pitched rasp

MINI (new) - hushed....

Triumph GT6 - smooth rasping

Sunbeam Tiger - American V8 rumble

Triumph TR3 - excited ripping

Any British car, parked – drip, drip, drip….