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Comments
Well put....
These are perhaps the same people who criticize a car's performance or handling or comfort without even seeing (let alone driving) the car.
I don't know if anyone else agrees with this sentiment, but I really dislike driving with a steering wheel that has a mix of materials -- in particular, leather and wood. It looks okay, for the most part, but when it actually comes to driving, the difference in texture between one section and the next can really get distracting. I suppose that when I'm making a turn, I like to feel one steady texture all the way around.... no surprises.
Don't know if I made my point very clear.... but anyone know what I'm saying?
The new A6's interior looks cluttered, like they were going for a mini-A8 look, but didn't have the room. The problem is that the climate controls, vents and nav screen are all bunched together and don't look like anything. It pure function, but no form imo. That flat, plain plastic behind the screen also looks very, very plain to me. The old A6 does look better to me.
M
I know what you mean, and I totally agree. it's the thing I like the least about the interior of my Lexus LS. It seems like pure style over function.
I would have thought most Lexus owners would fall in love with such a steering wheel.
M
It's a good thing for MB that most of its customer base probably doesn't read the magazine comparos.
I haven't read a MB sedan rave in quite a long time.
Does anybody recall a MB sedan coming in at least second in any comparo over the last 5 years?
Yet I wouldn't hesitate for even one second if someone offered me a test drive in an E or an S.
Well the E did win a C&D comparo back in 2003 and it did finish higher than the new 5-Series and A6 in the last C&D comparo. Raves? See the new S-Class or any the E-Class when it first appeared. Magazines are looking for the best when it comes to sport, something Mercedes isn't really trying to do with a car like the E-Class or until recently the C-Class. Magazine comparos aren't going to make or break sales for any brand because the 5-Series, going by the magzines isn't the benchmark it once was, yet it has never been more popular. Come on now, please to imply that Mercedes buyers don't read magazines comparos any less than Lexus, Audi, Jaguar or BMW buyers do - as the reason why Mercedes is still able to sell cars...is a little far fetched. If that was the case, only BMW and now Infiniti would be able to sell anything, because Lexus, Audi, Acura, and poor old Jaguar aren't winning anything either. Its all BMW and Infiniti. These comparos have very little to with who buys what. All of these brands have scored a win here and there with either this class or the full size class (well except Jaguar).
M
I would argue that for a lot of folks their opinion of the interior can be hugely influenced by the color scheme (what Audi used to call atmospheres).
My 2003 allroad had the beige brown cricket leather with a beige dash.
My 2005 A6 has amaretto leather and the dash is black.
I look at this combination as being warm and inviting, comfortable like a fine high-back leather chair in a banker's club.
I probably would be depressed and gloomy if the interior (like so many BMW's) would be black, black, black. All grey, too, would probably look good for a nano second then be cold, sterile and too uber modern for me.
My wife's BMW with its teracotta interior and huge glass sunroof is, likewise, inviting.
It doesnt appear that they've really succeeded at that. C&D tested the C350 "sport" with the MT in the November issue, and did not have a lot of nice things to say about it. They implied that if it had been in their big entry-lux sport comparo, it would've placed 4th or 5th. The last line is what really killed it though, "We were hoping for the poor man's C55, but what we got is the poor man's Benz".
The actual quote was: "We were awaiting a poor man's C55, and we got what appears to be a poor man's Benz"
You took out the word "appears", big difference LG. I took that as meaning they got what looks like a C230, but isn't. Or in short its more capable than it looks.
A pleasing manual-transmission Benz that doesn't look as special as it should.
Doesn't sound all bad to me, hardly a penalty box. Some of the editors on the side had some good things to say also. It wasn't all bad by any stretch.
C350 Sport
M
According to today's Wall Street Journal Honda already has developed a rear-wheel-drive prototype and is weighing the possibility of launching it as the next-generation Acura RL .
With TL torque steer I hope Honda will consider at least a AWD version . A RWD TL would be very interesting.
Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I just dont find anything particularly luxurious or elegant about a big LCD screen. I'd rather not have to see it if I'm not using it. It would definitely be nice if the LS had something like the SC.
What do reports about the next gen-RL appearing so soon after the major RL redesign mean? :confuse: The second-gen RL has only been out one year
"In related news, the story also said that Honda is considering developing a series of rear-wheel-drive cars and may launch one as the next-generation Acura RL in the U.S." I say, its about time. A SH-AWD car developed from a FE\RWD platform with proper weight distribution could have superb handling.
What color is your exterior? I find the amaretto very attactive, but I'm leaning towards "Atlas Gray" for the exterior color, and am not sure how a brown interior goes with a gray exterior. My alternative would be the platinum interior to go with the Gray, but I fear it would look a bit sterile. Keep in mind this from a guy who wears white shirts to work because he has no "color sense" :-)
Thanks.
Not that Pontiac/Chevy belongs on this board, but has anyone driven the Grand Prix GXP or Impala SS with the 300+ hp 5.3L engine with FWD? I'd imagine the torque steer would be unbearable.....
Wale...is that to mean Honda folk "Aren't holding their cards close enough to their vests?"
Shucks we'll just have to tune them in to how we in the West play poker!!
I have seen the car with Black/Amaretto, Silver/Amaretto and my color.
I think it would probably look OK with the Oyster Grey or whatever they call it. I have had the gray interiors and black interiors and ecru interiors and find the more colorful interiors (including Amaretto) to be my preference. Grey, or gray, looks good, don't get me wrong -- it is just somewhat sterile and black is confining.
The red in the TT's was pretty nice as is the Camel in the A8's -- the Amaretto (why does it cost $1000?) is my current fave. It would look good with silver or black or oyster OR Atlas Grey (but that is what Audi has already chosen, or so it seems.)
I think it would look striking, FWIW. :shades:
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Didn't Chrysler test the ME 4-12 there?
Based on the article below, Honda has decided not to pursue a V8:
As reported by Detroit News Sept. 14, 2005:
Honda Motor Co. has decided not to build an eight-cylinder engine because high fuel prices are pushing buyers to more efficient motors. The company will focus instead on expanding diesel and gasoline-electric engine output.
"It's not the time to make a V-8," Honda Chief Executive Takeo Fukui said. "We need to focus on diesels and hybrids first."
Refer to the bottom paragraph of this link:
http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0509/14/C04-314096.htm
I guess the diesel price premium will go down or become a discount to gasolin in the future when refinery capacity recovers?
Even at a 5% premium, diesel cars deliver sufficiently better fuel mileage to more than make up the difference. I just got back from England, where I drove a rented diesel Citroen minivan (oh boy) over 1200 miles in ten days & averaged a little under 39.5 mpg, going 75-80 on the motorways for well over half of that (at $6.72/U.S. gal, BTW).
LPS cars IN THE US have typically NOT been diesels (and yes there are some noteworthy exceptions, but I am meaning to keep my remarks "general" or typical -- that is, the spirit of what I will be posting is accurate.)
I was lucky enough to attend Audi's winter wonderland driving school in Seefeld, Austria over the course of four different years (always in January). My most recent visit was in 2002 when I was treated to a "top o' the line" Audi A4 quattro sport 2.5T to drive for three days along with 39 other English speaking folks.
Background#1:
On hand were versions of the A4 with gasoline engines and the one noted with a diesel. Only the Audi S4 was more powerful than the 2.5T diesel powered car. Of course the reason was the torque that diesels produce -- and turbo diesels coupled with 6 speed manuals seem especially quick. Much quicker than even the top o' the line A4 V6 (even though the V6 did have a few more ponies than the diesel, the torque and when it was available was far more potent than any A4 gasoline fuel-based car save the S4.)
Background#2:
A Saturday TV show on Spike TV (part of the Spike TV "PowerBloc") sometimes features technology, accessories and other things that are automotive related -- one recent Saturday, the host of the show got on the Internet and ordered a "bio diesel" manufacturing kit, set it up, went to Burger King and got some number of gallons of spent vegetable cooking oil, dumped the cooking oil into the contraption and some time later, ta da, 20 gallons of pure bio-diesel (at a cost of ~ $.70 per gallon for the home brew.)
The host then dumped this 20 gallons of bio-d into a Dodge with a big-honking-diesel engine and took it to the track and onto the street for a "real world" test.
Long story short: the bio-diesel was "imperceptibly" different than petro-diesel. Performance and mileage were "the same" with BugerKing Diesel and with the stuff on sale at the local filling station.
The point?
The basic ingredients of bio-diesel can be grown (corn, soybeans, etc.) and re-grown and re-grown and they are, therefore, "renewable." There is, in theory at least, an unlimited supply of bio-diesel for the making. And, the vehicles equipped with an engine such as the Audi 2.5T diesel are performers in every positive sense of the word and, by extrapolation, would be great in LPS cars.
Hybrids, at this point, are a good concept but the economics -- yet -- don't make sense. Moreover, the ecological impact makes little sense -- at this juncture.
Now, for those who would poo-poo the idea (when is the last time you saw "poo-poo" in print?) of diesel, fine. No problem.
According to the Rand Corporation's August 2005 study on "known petroleum resources in the United states," we have "proven" oil reserves in Colorado and Wyoming that at 2005 consumption levels that could satisfy (sustain) all (100%) of our current consumption for 100 years without ANY imports period.
Or, put another way, the oil that is NOW known in this geography is triple the proven reserves of our suppliers in the middle east. Triple, three times as much -- in fact the Rand Study proclaims that fully 25% of our petroleum consumption for 400 years can be satisfied by the "known" oil in these states mentioned above.
Moreover, the economic impact would be hundreds of thousands of "new" jobs that would be created to extract this primordial goop and these states, noted above, are IN FAVOR of building the requisite plants to extract and distill this "known and proven" raw goop into useable, consumable, burn-able fuel.
Note: it will take about 20 - 30 years to ramp up to that level of "extraction and refinement." But, in the mean time we have other sources of "fuel" including the bio-diesel mentioned above.
LPS cars would be THE BEST place to put these "high zoot" diesel powerplants -- followed by the inevitable trickle down into the "lesser" vehicles in the line of these manufacturers. (Want proof? Lexus is putting the hybrids, the high buck hybrids out in their top o' the line cars first -- more's the pity if you ask me, what a waste of engineering talent -- why not "high zoot" diesel LS400's? Of course the answer is well argued but is at this point illogical.)
Just thought I might stir up some dialog here, folks.
Drive it like you live.
Turbo diesels for me -- would I, if I but could. :confuse:
Always remember: Progeny (or is that ontogeny?) recapitulates phylogeny. :shades:
I belive that would be ontogeny that more closely aligns with phylogeny but they all relate to the result of a creative effort. except that maybe ontogeny and phylogeny are more closely associated with embryonic development. :shades:
M
"The rather pricey SLR project can't be beaten so easily by a mere American car, particularly a Chrysler; so prepare to wait a while for ME-412s while Mercedes looks over its blueprints and gets the SLR to go faster. Dieter reportedly got beaten up pretty badly over this, and it may even have been one of the reasons why Wolfgang Bernhard was "de-selected" from the Mercedes-head job. Nothing screams "healthy corporation" like turf wars, right?"
"Eckhard Cordes is leaving, along with Juergen Schrempp; Dieter Zetsche is replacing them. Newspapers report that the ME-412 is one of a number of projects “under active consideration.” In short, it may well be produced after all...along with the Viper-based, Hemi-powered FirePower."
I've lived in Grand Junction, CO, and Edmonton, AB, so have a basic understanding of oil shale and oil sands. Both, as you pointed out, are available in huge quantities. . .at a price. Besides which, there are a lot of capped natural gas wells around Farmington (NM).
The Arabs aren't in nearly the driver's seat that many think they are. Even they know it -- they're not happy when the prices get too high, and prices are at levels now to renew the interest in Rifle, Vernal & Rangely (oil shale), as well as Ft. McMurray (oil sands). The smart money has already run up many of the relevant stocks, but there's still room to grow.
The system is about to work, and it'll stun the doomsday set. The biodiesel thing could also be a good thing, but I've not yet heard what the break-even is for the truly made-from-scratch stuff -- too many people are waxing poetic about the essentially garbage price for which they can acquire used cooking oil. Time will tell.
All that said, diesels in luxury vehicles are a very good thing. Torque rules, & even though I listen to right-wing radio, I appreciate 40 mpg.
You may add as well that Diesel engines endure much more mileage. This adds up to the resale value of a Diesel car— LPS indeed included—at least here in Europe.
José
M