How To Make Friends At The New York International Auto Show

"Andrew T. Maness" (theroadlessdriven)
04/03/2015 at 11:30 • Filed to: NYIAS, McLaren, Honda Civic Concept, Chevy Malibu, Nissan Maxima, New York, Auto Show, Subaru STI, Subaru 22b, Rally Car, New Car, Andrew maness, The Road Less Driven

Auto shows might seem like all fun and games to most of you but for me it’s quite the opposite. I have to run around to all these different manufacturers, take pictures of their cars, get in and out of them, tell their product managers how much I really dig the new look of ____ interior. It’s exhausting having the same conversation over and over again for an entire day, I’d rather help Sisyphus push a boulder up a hill for the rest of my life than listen to another product specialist tell me how excited about the new _____ ‘s dynamics.

There are of course exceptions to be made and I was fortunate enough to meet some really great people during the show, even a few that I suspect might actually have a deep rooted love of cars. Sometimes I forget that the automotive industry is an industry just like any other and it’s actually pretty rare for people who would qualify as Jalops to work in it. Those of us who live and breathe all things automotive are far too busy bitching about something on the internet or dumping money we don’t have into a project vehicle to do something silly like work in automotive. Such work is best left to those with a love of Keynote, square toed shoes and pleats.

Overall I thought the show was pretty cool, not a whole lot different than Los Angeles in terms of what was on display, other than some freakin awesome New York fashion of course. The people watching was superior to my hometown show but I dug the vibe here way more. Less pretentious I think is how I would sum it up, less douchey too.

Of all the vehicles that debuted at the show I was most impressed by the CT6. For those of you that think they didn’t go far enough with the styling I must urge you to resit any further urge to pass judgement until you have seen it in person. The lines on this car require special attention and I believe they deserve it, really a wonderfully designed car. The interior is just phenomenal too, open pore wood, high quality materials everywhere and space, so much space.

Also worth noting that the midsize sedan segment is an pretty interesting battleground right now, if you’re still interested in midsize sedans, which for some reason many Americans are. Shooting brakes, wagons and hatchbacks look much better and are they’re more practical, why can’t we love them more?!

The new Maxima has a nice steering wheel, the interior in general is very good but the exterior is just a mess. Nissan didn’t need to jump on the big grille bandwagon but they did and the result is not good. It’s perhaps the best example of how over styled cars are these days and to take that distinction from Lexus is really saying something.

Malibu was impressive, just as I hoped it would be. I like the new body, still not a fan of the double grille thing but Chevrolet seems to be very committed to it so I’ll just have to deal with it. The new center stack is a major bright spot, the ergonomics are drastically improved which is in my opinion where domestic cars have needed the most improvement for decades. Ultimately I think it’s going to be how it drives that distinguishes it from the competition. It’s a big task for any of these cars to be more fun than a Mazda 6...or look better...or have a better interior. Ok so pretty much the Mazda 6 is the only midsize sedan I would even think about driving, the Chrysler 200S is a close second though.

Now that you’ve nearly fallen asleep looking at pictures of midsize sedans, lets get that blood pumping again shall we?

Cheers,

-Andrew

Andrew Maness writes about cars because he has one and also has a computer. He’s been known to drunkenly tweet as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and upload photos to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . He also has a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and thinks talking about himself in the 3rd person is really weird but knows it’s necessary if he wants to be taken seriously as an automotive journalist.

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