Two weeks after Hurricane Wilma’s arrival here in Miami, things still look pretty much the same. Downed trees jut out into city streets, police officers do the work of the now-broken traffic signals, and Florida Power & Light trucks show up all over town. Every morning when I walk Ernie, we make our way around certain piles of debris. The debris is harmless, and I’m sure city workers are focusing on more important tasks like figuring out which buildings are safe to reenter. I know this because people keep getting evicted from apartment buildings and condos, especially out here on Miami Beach where some of the older construction didn’t quite cut it.
Erika and I diverted our attention to the South Florida International Auto Show instead, being held across the street – literally – at the Miami Beach Convention Center. We walked over yesterday and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon hopping from car to car, checking out interiors. Most people know which car exteriors they like, but an auto show is a great way to find out what the cars are really like inside. If you just go to a dealer and check out a single new car, then drive over to another dealer to check out its competitor, and then drive to another dealer to check out another competitor, you can’t really remember the finer points of the interiors that you liked and didn’t like. But when you literally get out of one, walk over to another brand, and get in, you can see exactly what’s different.
When you walk from any car over to a Kia or Hyundai, you can understand why these brands are cheaper. Sure, you save thousands on the car, but when you get in, you see why. The flat swaths of hard plastic, the cheesy way the switchgear slides around, the seat fabric that looks impenetrable, it all feels pretty cheap.
Erika also walked away disappointed after seeing the interior of the Infiniti G35′s. These cars look phenomenal from the outside, like a well-tailored suit, but on the inside the dashboard looks like one of those crazy silver boom-boxes from the 1990′s with all the sharp angles. It’s not going to wear well.
Surprisingly, we both liked Porsche interiors best, and the Porsches were probably her favorite cars at the show! She liked the leather with the contrasting-color stitching, and their interiors definitely befitted the price tags. Infiniti and Mercedes buyers have to get tired of the cheap switchgear and dash after a year or two – there’s not much in these cars to justify the price tags – but the Porsche buyers will be proud for years. Even the $40k Boxsters had far better interiors than any Mercedes model. (Of course, they only have two seats, but still!)
We saw the new Volvo C70, which replaces the C70 hardtop I used to drive. This one has a folding hardtop that looks slick in action, but the car’s proportions aren’t quite right. It ends up with a long posterior that resembles a Chrysler Sebring. It’s hard to make a real four-seater convertible look good. The old C70 did a good job of it, but the new one is a tougher sell.
And the current forerunner for our next car? Now it’s looking like a used Honda Accord. After sitting in Kias, Hyundais and Suzukis, she saw why people might opt for buying a used Accord instead of a new Kia, despite the equal price and the Kia’s warranty.
Brent specializes in performance tuning for SQL Server, VMware, and storage. He's one of the very few Microsoft Certified Masters of SQL Server, a published author, and a Microsoft MVP. He likes travel, Jeeps, Apple gear, jokes, and writing about himself in the third person. Read more and contact Brent.
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