That New Car Smell

No, no new car. All we have is the new puppy smell (still good) and the new puppy was here smell (not as good.)

I did go to the Sacramento Auto Show on Monday afternoon, just to kick some tires and try out some driver's seats. As you might remember, I've been interested in getting a sporty coupe for a while now, so I thought I'd take a look at some new options.

And I learned some stuff. First, the Infiniti G37 is no better than the G35 from a driver's seat perspective. So Infiniti is still on the out list. Second, Pontiac continues to earn domestic cars' crappy reputation. The seat-adjustment lever just about broke off in my hand. I'd looked a a Scion tc once before and was reasonably impressed, but looking at the one at the show left me less so. The interior is really parts-bin stuff.

The BMW 335i remains a very nice competitor, but there was also an Audi S5 there that topped it. Not a fair comparison - the A5 would be apples to apples (the S5 vs. the M3 would be fair), but I don't know I've ever sat in a nicer interior than the Audi. Purpose-built for driving at an invigorating rate of speed. There was no A5 there to compare, and the BMW that was there was all plushed out for luxery.

One car I went to see was the Honda Civic Si coupe, which isn't bad on the inside but does look funky on the outside. The Honda Accord coupe was just the reverse - looks OK from the outside, but the seats just felt odd and out of place somehow.

Two cars surprised me. One was the Subaru Legacy sedan, Spec B edition. Sporty and pretty classy looking all at the same time. The real surprise of the show for me, though, was this car, the Nissan Altima coupe. Nice looking outside, nice looking anf feeling inside, reasonably priced and reasonably fuel efficient (23/31 with the 4-cylinder, 19/27 with the 6).

What I really was able to do was eliminate and include cars at different price points. (All of which are beyond mine for the next number of years.) At $20,000, it's the Civic. At $25-$30,000, it's the Altima, hands down. At $40,000, it's the BMW (at least until I see an A5), and at $50,000, it's the S5.

At $80,000, it's the Audi R8, but that's a whole 'nother story...