bzliteyear

i took our 2 kids to the SF auto show today...pretty fun time watching them climb around the cars like their own obstacle course. they liked the SUVs the best, esp the back seats.

during our visit, we got to ck out the new LS and my conclusion is that the $75k LS is now similar to MB/BMW $70k cars now...very plasticky on the inside. only the $110k top of the line had the leather dash and better interior. it reminded me of the S600 or S55 designo series.

p.s. these lousy interiors make me think that there might be a decent business making high end cars to have more leather and be less plasticky. heck, even my friends's maserati w/ lots of nice leather has some cheap plastic buttons/parts.

p.p.s. ...just sipping a beer relaxing on a saturday and *****ing a little...after all, *****ing is easy and it's free.

WSH

W/deflationary pricing of cars, much like airlines, they all need to decontent to preserve their skimpy profit margins.....not surprising....

On an inflation-adjusted basis, today's S600 is about same MSRP as an S500 from the robo-cop gen of ?'92......in fact, today's S65 prob leases for similar, inflation-adjusted lease pmt as '92's S500.....

BTW, would consider overall active/passive safety of BMW/Lexus.....suspect each is notably deficient vs latest S-Class.....need to price in incremental personal safety risks of any car to draw meaningful value judgments.....e.g., cute leathers/brand logos of various cars mean nothing if one's head/spine faces greater injury/disability risks in a crash......

cjf_moraga

I was at the SF auto-show today as well bzliteyear ...and I was thinking exactly the same thing... so much plastic! I know its the leather dash/interior on my S600 that is making me a lot more picky/consious... but I was also wondering if there is a niche for really high quality interiors in mid-range executive or even lower cars... perhaps not everyone wants to put their money into the powertrain... after all so many people treat their cars like a mobile living room.. might as well make it look respectable... the market seems somewhat skewed that the only way to get a non-plastic interior is to pay $120,000+

It's late.. just musin aloud...

Chris

bzliteyear

vs later chris, pseudo-early riser Buzz here, or shall i say PL_Orinda, LOL.

hope everyone had a nice thxgiving. heading to China for quick trip.

genuine microsoft vista, $1...nice chinese bkfst, $1...latest hollywood dvd, $1.
sipping starbucks coffee while in china checking out the forbidden city, PRICELESS actually, it's like $4.

zoink

I plan to go there today..... is there a C63?

What kind of cool cars are there?

cjf_moraga

No I did not see a C63 on the MB booth.. There is an S63 though... No V12's at all either.. Also noticed that MB was the only manufacturer not giving out brochures... No M3 on the BMW booth either... There was an IS-F I think...

In fact, besides a Bentley Flying Spur (cordoned off) and a couple of Ferrari's, I did not see anything too exotic.. This event is not really an "industry" show with weird concept cars and where manufacturers wheel out the interesting stuff etc... More a glorified auto-mall for the low and middle range shopper it seems...

Still worth going just to see all the current models in one place for comparative puposes... See what I mean about all the plastic!

Chris

zoink

Damn.... I wanted to see how C63 looks like in person....

OK.... $8 per person plus eating some great food in SF shouldn't hurt my day even there is not a lot of exotics over there....