chimchim

I just came back from General Motors (GM) AutoShow in Motion. Verdict: last week's Taste of Lexus was WAAAAAAAYYYY better.

At Great America fairgrounds in Santa Clara, CA, the InMotion was still some fun. Muted fun. Much less organized than Lexus, the car driving was chaotic as you found a line for the larger car selection. With just one attendant for about 12 different lines, it was up to the graciousness of the participants to maintain order. The GM cars were obviously better maintained than all the other brand cars. The biggest killjoy was one of the rules. After a brief movie, which only mentioned to "stay in control and don't hit cones", no where saying stay under 20 mph.

Not posted anywhere, the rules (as we collected through the day) were:
- don't hit a cone
- don't swerve
- don't squeal the tires
- don't peal out at the start
- don't drive over 20 mph <<<<<<<<< KILL JOY

Contrast that with Lexus's rules which were clearly posted on signs at the front of the lines and regularly presented by the attendants:
- drive safely
- hit a cone, and you're out

So without knowing the 20 mph max rule, I pushed a Saabaru 9-2x conservatively hard, but fully in control, with some tire squeal in the curves; no swerving, and not even close to a cone. And I get a belittling lecture about, "driving like a maniac and can't have people driving out of control with tires squealing". Never mind that "maniac" is quite the subjective term, and my driving wasn't even near as severe as what was acceptible at Lexus last week.

So I tone it down, and a couple rides later in a Pontiac Vibe GT (with my friend in shotgun), I drive slower, fully in control, no tire squeal, of course no cones, but still push over 20 mph. And I get warning #2 and told to not drive the road car course anymore.

Then I ride with my friend and he drives the same Vibe, slower, and he still gets a warning... and NOW we hear the rule about 20 mph.

Fun part was the Hummer course which let us drive a mound getting the car into a 35 degree tilt (or something like that) and a big hill climb. No so fun was each person was allowed only one drive of the hummer (pick one: H3 or H2)

The Corvette came either manual or auto; and again only one drive of this vehicle (choose C6 manual, C6 auto, or CTS-v). I was nervouse, and not knowing the shifter well I missed getting it into 2nd so I had to rev match again to finish the short course.

And that was it.

GM food was: soda, apple, chips.
Lexus food was: fish cake with thai plum sauce, pesto brucetta (sp?), open face roast beef sandwich, fresh cut fruit, chocolate truffles, etc.

GM driving was: drive like a granny
Lexus driving was: don't hit a cone, but you can drive your limit

I'll go to Lexus next year if I can, but thumbs down on GM. And, the disappointing driving dynamics and ergonomics of the GM cars in person has pushed me further away from GM.

I appreciate the effort, GM, and thank you for the free and moderately fun event. Just not as good as Lexus. And I'm sorry to say but GM cars still have a ways to go in the automarket.

EDIT: I do want to point out that it is a very nice gesture on GM's part to do this event and make it free, plus give away free tshirts too. So props and thanks to GM for that.

AcuraFanatic

Well, this is obviously because GM is gay.

S2Kev

I went to the event yesterday with agent87 and another friend of ours. I didn't think the event sucked. It was definitely cool to test drive a different variety of cars. Too bad that we couldn't get a real good feel for the cars because of how the course is set up. The only course that was pretty good to me was the Truck and SUV courses. Passenger and Luxury car course sucked since it was so short. I think the vehicle that impressed me the most at the event was the Chevy SSR. I just didn't expect it to drive so well. It has even better feedback and response than the Pontiac Solstice, plus it's very torquey. Speaking of the Solstice, it doesn't compare to the 2006 Mazda Mx5. The car is equipped with 18" wheels that make it a little bit difficult to steer quickly. Power delivery sucked. It has no balls at all. I was expecting something faster.

About the 9-2x, the funny thing is I got warned for tire squealing on it too. I didn't even push it that hard. According to agent87, if the tires on the 9-2x are anything like the stock WRX tires, then they squeal like crazy even at low speeds. Overall I thought the event was decent. The Hummer course was cool. I didn't get to drive the Corvette or Cadillac Cts-V. They closed the Performance course which was really crappy anyway since it was just an oval track.

Brar

so they let u take cars on a course to test drive? how old do u have 2 b? lol

S2Kev

Yeah, the car courses are like 30 seconds or less. You have to be 18 or older with a valid driver's license.

chimchim

More like 10 seconds or less... because they complained I got through the course in 5 seconds. B.S. And they wouldn't answer me when I asked, "did I hit a cone?" (and I wasn't even being snide, I was seriously trying to figure out what I did wrong.)

Great job GM for just screaming, "YOU'RE WRONG!" at me but not telling WHAT I'm wrong about.

The whole event did not suck, but a significant portion of it did. I'd rather go back to Taste of Lexus.

chimchim

And driving warnings aside, I came away with rather bad tastes of GM cars (in my interest group: compact), even before they got down on us:

Cadillac STS - good luxury car, very comfortable and obsorbed the bumps really well, great torque for freeway passing, heavy lumbering driving dynamics (as expected)

Saabaru 9-2x - Great functional interior, love the steering wheel; sluggishly slow low end torque until the turbo kicks in, lots of body roll yet handles responsively; stiffer springs, stiffer roll bar, better tires, and a manual transmission could make this car lots of fun.... oh... I just reinvented the wheel. I was supposed to hate the Saabaru, but ended up liking it.

Chevy Malabu Maxx - practical car, barely adequate power, crappy handling with squealing tires practically every time the wheels were'nt pointed straight ahead and you weren't standing still.

Saturn Ion - crappy center console, cheapie fealing cabin, ergonomics that felt just slightly wrong everywhere (and I'm 6'0" 187 lbs). Functionally adequate and underwhelming power, so so driving dynamics (but I got stuck behind a lady going 13 mph)

Pontiac Vibe GT - not a lot of power but because of the manual I could rev it up. The light car was much more nimble than all the previous, making it much more fun.

Some big Chevy truck - I don't care. I just needed to run this one to get "qualified" to run the Hummer course

Hummer H3 - better civilian size, still very capable, fun off road tests that I've never gotten to do before today. Thumbs up. Only, I'd never buy this car because I live in California and not Antarctica.

Corvette (manual) - great niche performance car. GM limits you to just one run and this was my first time EVER driving in a car like this so I had to take it conservatively. Wonderfully powerful gas guzzling rumble from the massive engine, great handling. And "light weight" for an engine of this much power.