{"id":4050,"date":"2011-04-23T01:42:11","date_gmt":"2011-04-23T05:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/?p=4050"},"modified":"2011-04-23T13:25:28","modified_gmt":"2011-04-23T17:25:28","slug":"pressing-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2011\/04\/pressing-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressing Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

New York’s International Automobile Show is the last on the North American circuit and a moveable feast<\/a>, in that it always opens on Easter weekend. The scribblers of the motoring press get in a couple of days early, so they can write and blog about it before the good citizens form their own opinions.<\/p>\n

There are rarely any new concept cars at New York, but always a few new-model introductions. This year heralded a new Chevy Malibu<\/a>, lauded for exemplary miles per gallon<\/a> (with the four-cylinder engine, of course), and Chrysler had two new Jeeps, a Mojave edition Wrangler<\/a> and an SRT8<\/a> Grand Cherokee<\/a>, its 6.4-liter Hemi<\/a> making it America’s fastest SUV. Ford gave its Taurus<\/a> a nose job<\/a> and touted its “active grille shutters<\/a>,” which make the car more aerodynamic when running cool, and a new SHO<\/a> model that’s mostly a trim package with a Bentelyesque grille<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most of the roll-outs were imports, Hyundai’s new Accent<\/a>, five new Honda<\/a> Civics<\/a>, and a Subaru Impreza<\/a>. Seen before were VW’s new New Beetle<\/a> and the zero-petroleum Nissan Leaf<\/a> (you can<\/i> try this at home<\/a>). Porsche claimed primacy in hybrids with the gasoline<\/a>–electric<\/a> replica<\/a> Lohner-Porsche<\/a> and introduced a hybrid<\/a> Panamera<\/a>, while nearby we were treated to the new Land Rover Evoque<\/a> and an “Autobiography Ultimate”<\/a> package for the Range Rover<\/a> (can you say $170,000?). Rolls-Royce and Bentley were together again<\/a>, if only in proximity, while Saab<\/a> gave no hint of ongoing difficulties, if one ignored the paucity of new product. Popular commentator Dennis David<\/a> got to meet Eleanor Thornton<\/a> and prolific scribe Gregg D. Merksamer<\/a> was intrigued by the Lohner-Porsche.<\/p>\n

Outright concepts were few, one of the more dramatic being the Cadillac with Lambo doors<\/a>. My favorite, though, was the Scion FRS<\/a> (for front-engine, rear-wheel drive, sport<\/a>). Not ready for production, it certainly shows that the son-of-Toyota is contemplating new directions.<\/p>\n

The bottom floor is the domain of trucks. In stark contrast to Malibu’s numbers were the economy ratings<\/a> of the F-150 Supercab pickup<\/a>. The show<\/a> runs through May 1st. Check it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York’s International Automobile Show is the last on the North American circuit and a moveable feast, in that it always opens on Easter weekend. The scribblers of the motoring press get in a couple of days early, so they can write and blog about it before the good citizens form their own opinions. There….<\/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":[11,12,8,14,17,20,159,5],"tags":[168,54,56,163,63,164,166,161,160,154,169,165,111,75,50,162,167,133],"class_list":["post-4050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-cars","category-british-cars","category-events","category-german-cars","category-japanese-cars","category-korean-cars","category-swedish-cars","category-trucks","tag-bentley","tag-cadillac","tag-chevrolet","tag-dennis-david","tag-ford","tag-gregg-d-merksamer","tag-honda","tag-hyundai","tag-jeep","tag-land-rover","tag-lohner-porsche","tag-new-york-auto-show","tag-nissan","tag-porsche","tag-rolls-royce","tag-scion","tag-subaru","tag-volkswagen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4050"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4085,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4050\/revisions\/4085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}