{"id":2683,"date":"2006-04-15T03:52:00","date_gmt":"2006-04-15T07:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/04\/blue-sky-in-big-apple\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:04","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:04","slug":"blue-sky-in-big-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/04\/blue-sky-in-big-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Sky in the Big Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Saturn<\/a><\/p>\n

Easter weekend brings the International Auto Show<\/a> to New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center<\/a>. This year, skies are blue regardless of the weather, as Saturn livens its image with a “Red Line<\/a>” intercooled turbo<\/a> version of the Sky roadster introduced at Detroit in January. Joining it are the new Aura mid-size sedan<\/a> and Outlook<\/a> crossover SUV.<\/p>\n

Toyota is busy hybridizing its entire product line, so it was no surprise to see press days kicked off with a new Lexus hybrid, the top line LS600hL<\/a>, to arrive in showrooms in six months. Mercedes has an updated E-Class, shown in 320, 550<\/a> and 63AMG variants. Acura touts the RDX<\/a>, a turbo 4-cylinder “premium crossover” vehicle, and shows a concept<\/a> of a new MDX 7-passenger V6.<\/p>\n

Ford brought veteran racer and car tuner Carroll Shelby<\/a> out for a cameo announcing the Shelby GT-H<\/a>, a 40th anniversary<\/a> rent-a-racer<\/a> to be available at selected Hertz<\/a> counters. Infiniti rolled out the next generation G35<\/a>, along with a new Altima<\/a>, and promised a “refined” 2007 Maxima<\/a> by early summer.<\/p>\n

The only Chrysler debut was a double Jeep whammy, the Wrangler Unlimited<\/a>, dubbed a “four door convertible<\/a>,” and the 4-cylinder CVT-driven Jeep Patriot<\/a>, which, claims its manufacturer, creates a new segment in the industry. Popular Jeep personality Patrick Foster<\/a> made a guest appearance<\/a> to critique the new vehicles.<\/p>\n

Scion showed a new FUSE concept vehicle<\/a>, a chop-top coupe with quirky features, while Bentley flashed the Royal Warrant<\/a> to roll out the new Continental GTC<\/a>. Curiously, BMW used its press conference time to sing the praises of internal combustion and straight six engines, promising dual-fuel (gasoline or hydrogen, at the flip of a switch) 7-series within two years, glossing over the dearth of hydrogen stations anywhere on earth. It was somewhat refreshing, then, to come back to earth with Maserati<\/a>, whose biggest news was a Master Driver School at Road Atlanta<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other intros included Mazda’s first crossover, the CX-9, a new Kia Sorrento, a bigger Hyundai Elantra, an “SC” dressed-up Honda element, and an Equinox-derived Suzuki XL7.<\/p>\n

Noteworthy, if not new, were the far-out fantasies of Toyota, the parlor-like F3R concept<\/a> and four-wheel-steering<\/a> Fine-T concept<\/a>. Most arresting among the exotics is the revival Spyker, sumptuous inside<\/a> but rather beastly<\/a> from twenty paces.<\/p>\n

Sponsored by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association<\/a>, the New York International Auto Show<\/a> runs until April 23rd at the Javits Center<\/a>, easily reached by M42 bus<\/a> from Grand Central Station<\/a>. C’mon down<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Easter weekend brings the International Auto Show to New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This year, skies are blue regardless of the weather, as Saturn livens its image with a “Red Line” intercooled turbo version of the Sky roadster introduced at Detroit in January. Joining it are the new Aura mid-size sedan and Outlook….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2683"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3391,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions\/3391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}