"RightFootDown" (rightfootdown)
01/28/2015 at 11:15 • Filed to: None
2
14|
"RightFootDown" (rightfootdown)
01/28/2015 at 11:15 • Filed to: None | 2
| 14 |
A few days ago we brought you the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of the 2015 Washington Auto Show. For those of you who have never visited, there is a bit of a stratification to the DC show. Upstairs is working class, you start with (most of) GM, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, and then Ford. With the exception of the ZO6, Hellcat, GT350, and likely a few full size, fully optioned, trucks, it's all below $50,000 at your local dealer. Downstairs is a different story, it's home to the Europeans and things can get expensive.
Mercedes Benz
Greeting you straightaway is the gorgeous new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . This one, in eye gauging yellow, couldn't be missed. It's a great looking car, classic long hood proportions, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .
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Oh the CLA, how I want to like you. And from some angles I like the $48,500 small sedan from MB. It's low in the front, but also low in the back. To me, from a design standpoint, a car isn't all that aggressive unless they rear is higher than the front. A classic wedge shape shows me that a car means business. The CLA drops off in the rear like, well whatever the opposite of a Kardashian backside is. The seats in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! version are spectacular though, body hugging and looking very light weight. Whether or not they are, who knows, but they look the part. The rest of the interior, just like last year, looks a bit too boy-racer for my taste. And Germany, please, please, please, stop tacking on mini iPad looking displays on the top of your dash. I'm looking at you Mercedes and Audi. It's awful.
And then there is a GLA which in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is priced almost identically to the CLA AMG but looks like some sort of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! modified hatchback. Is "Mad Mike" still there, always liked that guy? The wing, the body kit, it's all a bit strange. Yet I found myself wanting to like it. The seats sucked though, all these go-fast looking bits on the outside, you'd think they would have tossed in the seats from the CLA!
Honda
Just like last year, nothing to see here. The RFD staff has a soft spot for hot Hondas, but sadly there aren't any unless you call this concept a thing. Josh spent like 10 minutes pointing his camera at the concept car. I think he likes it.
Cadillac
USA! USA! USA! I couldn't help but chant this walking through the Cadillac booth this year. We've written about !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with the latest "V" models. And they were both here, eclipsing just about everything else on this level in my mind. From the carbon fiber diffusers to the evil looking black wheels, both the 2016 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! look the part of world-beating super sedans.
BMW
Oddly enough, I spent more time in a BMW that was NOT in the BMW section. The Washington Auto Show has always fancied itself more of a green-car showcase than other shows, and there is even a section featuring said cars. This year it got interesting though and they had an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with its doors ajar so you could get in and poke around. Getting in and out is a chore, thanks to the very wide door sills. But I liken it to what it's like to get into some supercars, it's not graceful, but you are making some sacrifices.
Lexus
The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! grill, you either love it or hate it. That's not totally true, I just sort of don't mind it. So scratch that first bit, it was too black and white. What I can say I love is the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .
And !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
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Jagvar
> RightFootDown
01/28/2015 at 11:23 |
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Great photos! I'm going this Saturday. I almost don't know why, since I went to the Detroit show two weeks ago.
Sejji
> RightFootDown
01/28/2015 at 11:24 |
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Loving the photos. Looks like orange and yellow cars are coming back in a big way. This is great! For a while it was all, white, black, and grey derivatives.
William Byrd
> Jagvar
01/28/2015 at 11:32 |
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Nice! I wrote this after going on media day, then took the family so we could car shop on Sunday, and now I have some friends asking me to go with them so I may go again for round 3 on Saturday. I'll keep an eye out for a shoeless fellow.
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William Byrd
> Sejji
01/28/2015 at 11:33 |
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Agreed! The RC-F was a little glittery, sort of bass-boat'ish, but I loved it.
ACESandEIGHTS
> RightFootDown
01/28/2015 at 11:34 |
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And their booth personnel were very helpful and, okay I'll say it, had really tight pants.
So you're saying they're staffed by hipsters?
Also: are you now, or have you ever been a relation of Robert Carlyle Byrd?
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William Byrd
> ACESandEIGHTS
01/28/2015 at 11:40 |
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I was going to make a joke that "but he was a very helpful chap" actually. haha
Not that I know of, no. I get that one a lot.
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Jagvar
> William Byrd
01/28/2015 at 11:40 |
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Cool! Alas, I'll probably have shoes. I'd rather not have a repeat of the cussing-out I got last year.
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William Byrd
> Jagvar
01/28/2015 at 11:42 |
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haha good call.
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William Byrd
> RightFootDown
01/28/2015 at 11:45 |
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That's my leg! God I hate Mercedes interiors sometimes. Boy racer vents and a mini iPad glued to the dash. Awful.
McMike
> Jagvar
01/28/2015 at 11:49 |
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I'll be there Saturday, too. We're planning on being the first ones there to try a few things on, then get out of there.
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ACESandEIGHTS
> William Byrd
01/28/2015 at 11:54 |
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I'm sure. I was talking once with someone who worked at Robert C. Byrd Memorial Office Complex (or something similarly outlandish yet perfectly normal for that part of the world) on Robert C. Byrd Memorial Highway. I'm totally not making it up. Wouldn't have been surprised if it was Byrdtown in Byrd County.
I wondered aloud whether she was thankful for the talented Mister Byrd's expertise in appropriations bills (and was about to mention his bemusement with such statements—he was known to say something to the effect of "I'm not taking anything that isn't mine to take. Your constituency has a problem with it? Tell them to take that up with
their
senator, who apparently isn't doing his job"), but was met with such an apathetic stare and pause that I casually moved on to "
something something
Mountaineers."
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William Byrd
> ACESandEIGHTS
01/28/2015 at 12:00 |
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lol, that's pretty funny. Admittedly I don't know a lot about the man. Now Richard Byrd the explorer, well I know a little about him, not all that much. Off to the google machine!
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William Byrd
> McMike
01/28/2015 at 12:02 |
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Sunday was a shit show. The Camp Jeep was actually fun, but packed when I came back on a weekend.
Admiral Picard
> RightFootDown
02/23/2015 at 18:43 |
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I don't just hate this abomination of a grille, I absolutely despise it. It is IMO the single-worst grille in all of automotive history.