Pictures of the LAIAS At Last!

[Justin Bimmer]

Here are the first set of photos. Any questions or comments will be answered by me ASAP.

[Justin Bimmer]

[Justin Bimmer]

[Justin Bimmer]

On the Postscript....

Linclon's car are SO UGLY!!!!! They look like electric razors and the instrments are total parts bin from 1970-1986 depending on the model.

Ford has the regular shaving razor front and linclon is the electric razor.

I was asleep at the wheel in the towncar lol.

[ZL-1]

I liked the white Lamborghini pic

[aaaantoine]

There's a Lamborghini in that pic!?

[DetroitNut90]

What is this, exactly?

Ahh...I see they have the Jeep Geländewagen there, too!

[aaaantoine]

What is this, exactly?

Ahh...I see they have the Jeep Geländewagen there, too!

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It sports a Maybach badge.

I guess it's not a concept, then. From the thumbnails I thought it was some sort of Lincoln concept because of the weird waterfall grille with what looked like a Lincoln emblem on it.

[Justin Bimmer]

Its a maybach concept. It looked kinda rough compared to the production vehicle that it was sitting next too. What a LONG hoood.

[GM4ever]

That car is the Maybach Excelero Concept car.

[Sixty8panther]

Wow... great photography CaddyKing...

BTW I was not on AIM the other day when you said hello,

my computer restarted & it logged into AIM automatically

when I was not there. One of these days we'll talk again

& catch up on things.

The Equinox looks dowright mean and the Excelero looks

as cool ever... the profile is still the best angle.

The best thing about this concept, as much as I love it is

that it's so very reactionary to the SIXTEEN. It's just a

B+ attempt to one up the nicer & more elegant Cadillac.

[Northstar]

That car is the Maybach Excelero Concept car.

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I thought it was the Maybach $450,000 Snowplow?

[CreativeVision]

It's nice to see the Sky in green. Looks sharp if you ask me...just needs a different color top(how about green hardtop). White looks awful on it.

[bobo]

I finally made it out to the L.A. auto show on Saturday. I normally go opening day but couldn’t make it this year. The show was more interesting than usual, and having the show one month earlier was one reason why.

A few observations:

Best carrying bag: Toyota. Toyota was one of the pioneers in the bags a couple of decades ago, and this year they had a new design feature—a handle made of plastic tubing that doesn’t dig into your fingers. One design flaw is that the handle was too long, such that those short of stature would be dragging the bag along the ground. Jaguar had their first bag ever, as far as I know. It was fancier than the typical bag but also suffered by being too tall and was a dragger. I saw one lady grab about a dozen, probably to use to hand out Christmas presents. Buick had a pretty classy bag that said “ENCLAVE” on it with a stylized squiggle denoting the vehicle.

My favorite vehicles: Infiniti G35, Mazda MX-5 Miata with Power Retractable Hardtop, and Tesla Roadster. The Infiniti looks so much better in person than in pictures. The inside is a cut above the old model. But it has a foot-operated parking brake?

Biggest crowds: Discounting the supercars, BMW was most crowded, as usual. For individual vehicles, the Dodge Challenger, Camaro, and Giugiaro Mustang concepts. Mercedes was also crowded, but they didn’t have brochures. Instead, cards were handed out on which was a printed code to access the Mercedes-Benz web site to request a brochure (though the code really isn’t needed to get on).

Saturn Aura: It’s a step above the Malibu. The cloth seats on the XE are the unfortunate thin rough-feeling fabric. Overall, it appears decent, but not enough to sway determined Camry, Accord, and Altima intenders.

Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia: For those who like big, jacked up station wagons, these are pretty nice. For me, I'd prefer a minivan.

Mitsubishi Outlander: Better than expected. It’s styled well inside and out and seemed to be a lot of vehicle for $25K. It’s probably the only Mitsubishi I would consider if I were forced to buy one.

BMW X5: The old model got lots of accolades, but I didn’t care for it because of the meager carrying capacity. That is fixed with the new model, and the muscular styling makes it one of the best looking SUV’s out there. I’m still not fond of the concept of a BMW SUV, though, but that’s what the market wants.

2008 Cadillac DTS and STS Platinum Editions: The DTS gets nice chrome accents on the door handles, but it’s unfortunate that the DTS didn’t get the pull-style handles with the remake a couple of years ago, like the Lucerne did. The DTS didn’t have the little chrome GM badges on the front doors or fenders.

Chevrolet Silverado Regular Cab:

Corvette up in the air. I’m not sure why, other than to draw attention to the longer warranty, but I don’t think anybody noticed the car up there.

Honda REMIX:

Acura Advanced Sedan concept. Ugly in pictures, ugly in person, though I kind of like the boattail.

Honda Step Box Concept:

Lincoln Navigator seats: A comment was previously made about the wear, and yes, there was wear, but it looked worse than it was because of color transfer from blue jeans.

The previously shown Saab Aero X:

Buick Lucerne in pieces:

Tesla Roadster, the electric lithion-ion powered, Lotus-bodied roadster that does 0-60 mph in 4 seconds. $100K.

Ford Explorer: The armrest was modified this year to add a hole for use as a door pull. The rear doors didn’t get this improvement, though it’s not as critical back there.

Nissan Altima Coupe: This does look better in person, more Z than MC.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

One word: Photobucket

[pow]

Great pics, bobo! The Aero-X wasn't there when I went Friday...

[Justin Bimmer]

We actually had somebody from Audi come over to us and was jealous of the people that we had at the Jeep exhibit. I can say with confidence that we inneraced with at least 1,000 people both saturday and sunday.

[bobo]

Yeah, Jeep was pretty busy. The Compass looks better in person, especially in darker colors. And people were crawling all over the new 4-door Wrangler.

The Chrysler Sebring sedan looks ok in person, and the dashboard is quite stylish, but it has that unappealing characteristic Chrysler plastic all over the interior.

[BrewSwillis]

That car is the Maybach Excelero Concept car.

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It's pretty wicked looking too:

[ZL-1]

There's a Lamborghini in that pic!?

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Took me a few minutes to id the car

[Dsuupr]

My take on the show;

Worst display; toyota, all plywood and no paint or covers of any sort. It looked like they got cheap on the display

Best display; Ferrari, how could one not fall in love with the car and the display

Worst looking vehicle (new); toyota tundra, it just looked as wrong in person as it does in pictures.

Best looking vehicle; Bugatti Veyron, how could one not fall in love with it

Most disappointing vehicle; nissan sentra SE-R, more oomph and style needed. It just looked cheap and has a engine that just doesn't satisfy.

Biggest surprise; Buick Enclave; It was even nicer in person than I expected.

Biggest issue; 6 hours at the show, and I still didn't get enough time to see everything like I would prefer.

[bcjohnso99]

What I can't get over in all the pictures is the lack of people. I go to the Toronto car show every year and it's crowded all day, every day... it's hard to take a picture with no people in the way.

[AAS]

...

Worst display; toyota, all plywood and no paint or covers of any sort.  It looked like they got cheap on the display

Best display; Ferrari, how could one not fall in love with the car and the display

...

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I think they were trying to sell the whole "Contractor/Work ready" theme for the Turdna (not a typo ).

Anyway... I was also there on Saturday (2-6 pm). The show did seem dead overall. Pontiac and Buick seemed like they had the lowest attendance of all the GM brands. Chevy had a croud because of the Camaro and Z06.

I heard a lot of great comments about the 3 Lambdas, coming from different demographics. The Buick is still the best looking, but in person I prefered the Saturn over the GMC. My mom really liked the Saturn too, and I'm pretty sure we'll be replacing the Tahoe with one. Croc brought this up... the seats in the middle row are low and not deep. I think the depth is a bigger issue, but I wonder if it had to be that way to have the cool accordian style function (the seat bottow flips up and the entire thing slides forward, to provide access to the third row). By the way, i'm 6'3" and I have to say that the third row of seats felt cavernous!!!

[David]

I think they were trying to sell the whole "Contractor/Work ready" theme for the Turdna (not a typo  ).

Anyway... I was also there on Saturday (2-6 pm).  The show did seem dead overall.  Pontiac and Buick seemed like they had the lowest attendance of all the GM brands.  Chevy had a croud because of the Camaro and Z06.

I heard a lot of great comments about the 3 Lambdas, coming from different demographics.  The Buick is still the best looking, but in person I prefered the Saturn over the GMC.  My mom really liked the Saturn too, and I'm pretty sure we'll be replacing the Tahoe with one.  Croc brought this up... the seats in the middle row are low and not deep.  I think the depth is a bigger issue, but I wonder if it had to be that way to have the cool accordian style function (the seat bottow flips up and the entire thing slides forward, to provide access to the third row).  By the way, i'm 6'3" and I have to say that the third row of seats felt cavernous!!!

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Thanks for the great info, I wonder if I will feel as cavernous as I am 270lbs 6'6" tall. Internal size has always been an issue for me. I hope it truly is roomy. Then my wife gets one of these baby's

[AAS]

Thanks for the great info, I wonder if I will feel as cavernous as I am 270lbs 6'6" tall.  Internal size has always been an issue for me.  I hope it truly is roomy.  Then my wife gets one of these baby's 

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Well... there was a heavy (but shorter) guy that had no problem with the back seat either. I'de say at 6'6", you would be a few/couple inches from touching the ceiling with your head. But, since the middle row slides (I had it slid forward one click to be comfortable), there shouldn't be a problem with banging your knees or room in the footwell. It's really only the middle row being low and shallow that might feel funny to us taller people. I wonder if the captain's chair middle row set-up would be different, with taller and deeper seats assuming they don't have to collapse for third row access?

[MyerShift]

It sports a Maybach badge.

I guess it's not a concept, then.  From the thumbnails I thought it was some sort of Lincoln concept because of the weird waterfall grille with what looked like a Lincoln emblem on it.

225507[/snapback]

Ya, it's the Maybach Excelero Concept developed in cooperation with Fulda (a tire maker) to test high-speed tires, or something like that. It's quite hideous in overall appearance.