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Wheels.5
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{Wheels.5.1}: Jil {rabbit} Tue, 24 Feb 2004 06:15:14 CST (2 lines)

Seen a great Web site for cars? Got photos we should see? Links to
great stuff? Post them here.

{Wheels.5.2}: Jil {rabbit} Sat, 28 Feb 2004 08:04:13 CST (5 lines)

My review of the Chevrolet Optra:

"http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?
pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1077795256393&cal
l_pageid=968867497088&col=969048871196"

{Wheels.5.3}: 99 Saturn SW {kitty} Sat, 28 Feb 2004 15:03:49 CST (HTML)

{Wheels.5.4}: Jil {rabbit} Sun, 29 Feb 2004 07:31:12 CST (1 line)

No, but it's so true!

{Wheels.5.5}: Jil {rabbit} Sat, 06 Mar 2004 16:13:34 CST (6 lines)

My review of the Honda SiR. Yes, you really can use the
phrase "leather-wrapped phallus" in a family newspaper:

"http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?
pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1078399803194&cal
l_pageid=968867497088&col=969048871196"

{Wheels.5.6}: Ben Conover {benc} Sat, 06 Mar 2004 17:44:29 CST (55 lines)

I got to be chauffered around in, and to drive, a Maybach today. The
REALLY huge one.

"Well?? How was it?" I hear you cry.

Ehhh...

Let me start by saying that I would have more then a little problem
buying a car that costs $396,000. (That's what the sticker price was
on the one I was in.)  That's more then the house my parents bought
up in Maine cost, and my parents house has a LOT more room. The
sunroof costs $20,000 for God's sake.

You could buy a quite decent car for the price of the sunroof in a
Maybach.

First off, this is a big car.

Wait, that's not quite right...this is an IMMENSELY HUGE TITANIC
automobile.

But it doesn't feel like one when you're driving it, which can lead
all to frequently to the situation I found myself in today, where I
think we are just tooling along at about 75mph and I look down at
the speedometeer and the needle is resting at 120mph.

That happened no less then 4 times while I was driving the monster.

It's very quite, in fact a little too quiet.

It would take me a good 5 hours to go through the book that comes
with the car and just begin to mess around with all of the various
gadgets.

Did I mention that the sunroof costs $20,000?

As for being a passenger, while you are wrapped in leather and the
seats recline all the way back and you have a footrest and a
refrigerator and you can have an optional microwave installed and it
has a DVD player and satelite Tv, and God knows what else, it still
felt rather cold and unfeeling to me to be a passenger in the back.

Overall I really have to wonder what the point of this car is and
why Mercedes-benz decided to ressurect a fairly obscure automobile
brand name. I've heard that they are using the Maybach to compeet
with BMW vis a vie BMW's acquisition of Rolls Royce, which doesn't
really make a whole lot of sense to me. The biggest reason for that
is that the Maybach looks too much like the Mercedes S-Class of
about 5 years ago. I would think if they were thinking of competing
with Rolls that they would come up with a brand new design which
took very little if any cues form and of the Mercedes Benz line, but
I guess I was wrong.

If I had the money to buy the Maybach, I would buy 2 or 3 good cars
and invest the rest.

{Wheels.5.7}: Jil {rabbit} Sat, 06 Mar 2004 18:00:49 CST (11 lines)

I will probably be driving the Maybach later this spring. I
absolutely adore the vehicle -- I think it's gorgeous -- but it's
also stupid money.

But it's a hell of a lot better looking than the new Roller.

I know that you mean about the speedo. I drove the 12-cylinder BMW
760 and you simply can't go slow. It's actually ridiculous to sell
the cars here because you can never drive them to their potential.

How did you get to drive this, Ben?

{Wheels.5.8}: Ben Conover {benc} Sat, 06 Mar 2004 20:40:38 CST (21 lines)

One of my classmates uncles owns Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, BMW,
Volkswagon and Range Rover dealerships in the area and he (the
uncle) had gotten orders for 6 Maybachs, 2 of which were going to
one customer!!!, and he ended up getting 8, so he had 1 sitting in
his Mercedes-benz showroom and the other was in the garage. I'm
sorta-kinda-but-not-really looking for a car, so jst for fun my
classmate asked her uncle if we could go to the dealerships and
maybe take some cars out for a test drive. He had no problems so we
ended up spending most of today in cars that I can probably only
dream about buying as "new models." We're going to go back tomorrow.

It's interesting, of all the cars that I drove, I liked the Lexus LS
430 the best. It's got all the luxury stuff one could want without
going off into "what the hell do you need THAT for" land, it's got a
great engine, nice handling, a very reasonable (for what you get)
price, and it just felt more "warm" then the others.

German cars have always come across as being just a hair on the
worng side of emotionless and cold for my liking. Sure, you can
drive a Merc or Bimmer at 120 mph 24/7, but they just seem to be
missing a spark of some kind.

{Wheels.5.9}: Daniel Hagerty {captainbill} Sun, 07 Mar 2004 01:34:27 CST (6 lines)

The reason why they're making the Maybach:

To lure rap stars, sports stars and other superrich people away from
Bentley and RR.

I'm jealous of your trip in it.  I haven't even seen one on the road.

{Wheels.5.10}: Jil {rabbit} Sun, 07 Mar 2004 08:11:54 CST (1 line)

I've only seen them at shows, never on the road.

{Wheels.5.11}: Jil {rabbit} Sat, 13 Mar 2004 08:28:48 CST (5 lines)

My review of the Chevrolet Epica:

"http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?
pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1079046610071&cal
l_pageid=968867497088&col=969048871196"

{Wheels.5.12}: Ben Conover {benc} Sat, 13 Mar 2004 20:12:02 CST (9 lines)

Chevy actually named the car "Epica?!?!

First thing I thought of was "epicack (Sp?), a medicine which makes
you vomit.

Oh yeah, GM's trying REALLY hard to get back into the mid-size sedan
market.

Sheesh.

{Wheels.5.13}: Jil {rabbit} Sun, 14 Mar 2004 08:37:24 CST (4 lines)

Hmmm. I thought of "epic". Actually, the stuff that makes you vomit
is ipecac.

It's a nice car, but buyers can do better.

{Wheels.5.14}: Nigel {nigel} Sun, 14 Mar 2004 09:49:48 CST (3 lines)

I think it's way cool they opted for an inline six (which are,
indeed, smoother than V6's because they're inherently balanced due to
evenly spaced firing.)

{Wheels.5.15}: Jil {rabbit} Sun, 14 Mar 2004 10:36:10 CST (1 line)

It's a nice engine, but man, it uses a lot of fuel.

{Wheels.5.16}: Michael Cerkowski {michael33} Sun, 14 Mar 2004 15:31:20 CST (2 lines)

   Volvo and BMW and Jaguar have done well with inline sixes for
decades...

{Wheels.5.17}: Jil {rabbit} Sun, 14 Mar 2004 15:32:25 CST (1 line)

The new GM mini-truck has an inline five.

{Wheels.5.18}: Michael Cerkowski {michael33} Sun, 14 Mar 2004 15:34:04 CST (1 line)

   That would be derived from Audi and Volvo...

{Wheels.5.19}: Nigel {nigel} Wed, 17 Mar 2004 07:13:48 CST (7 lines)

Years ago we had a gray-market BMW 520i with an automatic, and it had
the peppiest little two liter inline six. If you put it all the way
down in low gear, stomped on the gas, and ran the engine up to redline
before shifting, that car would haul ass; that engine was willing and
able anywhere on the tachometer. It's a good thing the distributor had
one of those nifty Bosch rev-limiting rotors that shunts the spark to
ground at redline.

{Wheels.5.20}: Michael Cerkowski {michael33} Wed, 17 Mar 2004 07:27:08 CST (1 line)

   Yes, that BMW six was highly regarded.

{Wheels.5.21}: Jil {rabbit} Wed, 17 Mar 2004 07:34:27 CST (1 line)

Has anyone here driven the new one? I haven't yet ...

{Wheels.5.22}: Ben Conover {benc} Wed, 17 Mar 2004 13:18:48 CST (14 lines)

Jil,

I drove a new 545i 6-speed the same weekend that I drove the Maybach.

I wasn't that happy with the styling and the color choices are very
muted, but that's typical for German cars.

It's a nice enough car and the price is quite good, they were asking
about $57,995 at the dealership here in Charleston, but as I said
before about German cars, it just felt cold and a little too
emotionless for me.

Of course, like a good BMW you can drive it all day at 140 mph with
no worries, except how much you are going to spend on gas.

{Wheels.5.23}: Joseph Kang {jsk} Wed, 17 Mar 2004 13:33:30 CST (1 line)

And speeding tickets.

{Wheels.5.24}: Daniel Hagerty {bigdaddy} Wed, 17 Mar 2004 14:06:29 CST (3 lines)

I don't like the new 5-series styling.  I think BMW has taken what
could be the greatest all-around car series in history and screwed it
up all in the pursuit of keeping things "updated."

{Wheels.5.25}: Joseph Kang {jsk} Wed, 17 Mar 2004 14:43:44 CST (3 lines)

I like the front end well enough.  But, the back end (once again)
seems like an afterthought.  But, that seems to be the case with a lot
of cars these days, IMO.

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