Went to the show at opening time yesterday. No lines whatsoever. Interestingly, most people were just taking it kind of easy. Not me. With such short courses, I wanted to get as much out of the test drives as possible. Suprisingly, I was able to push the living crap out of the cars I drove. I floored EVERYTHING I drove, redlined first gear in both autos and sticks, 4-wheel powerslided around all the turns, even locked up brakes. No one said anything. It seemed like the rule was: as long as I didn't knock over cones or lose control, or be totally obnoxious like rip around in the "staging areas", or peel out of a stop, no one chastised me. Alot of other attendees smiled and commented on how hard I pushed, but I told them that I wanted to see what these cars could really do. I noticed that later other drivers then started to drive more aggressively, too. Drove the:

GTO - powerful little car with bad doorway design. EVERYONE was hitting their heads getting in and out of them, and even just reaching to close the door once seated. Imagine hitting your head on the door opening twice before you even start the car. That fact alone, I predict, will have this car discontinued in a very short time.

CTS - Not Z06 motor version, 320hp. Nice car.

Escalade XT - This SUV rode much smoother than my Suburban. Seems to me GM reserves all the nice stuff for Caddies, even though they could easily use the same parts in all lines.

Hummer H2 - Alot nicer than I expected. Nice accoutrements, even though some interior space was wasted. Drove well.

Mercedes E320 - For the price I would think it should've had a more solid body, but it was a tinny as a C5. Kind of disappointing. I said as much to my wife later, to which she surprised me by saying, "What do you expect? They're made by Chrysler now, remember?" Ouch!

OK, now for the good part:

C6 - Felt smaller inside - height, width and length. Good thing I'm not a big guy. Looks like a Japanese car, though. I noticed the doors were made like real cars. I can't believe it took over 50 years for GM, oh wait, no, the Italians to step in and make the doors feel like, well, doors, and not like the cheap pastic and glass of all the previous years, especially the C4 and C5. I slammed the doors VERY hard over and over, and a rep finally asked what I was doing. I told her I wanted to see if the window regulators were going to fall apart easily or not. She didn't say a word. Hmmm... I guess she knew about all the plastic pieces that always break.

The drives: When I was told I was to have a rep ride with me, I laughed, and said to the guy who was monitoring the line (2 people in line) "I feel sorry for the rep!" Anyway, I drove the auto first. Pretty nice, quite responsive and powerful, as I expected. Started manually in first, never upshifted, just tached it hard to red line, then just decelerated into the first turn. Powerslid out of the turn by nailing it, then powered into second. By then, I was in the next turn, with my "rider" white-knuckling everything he could hold onto. Powerslid that turn, too, then toned it down a little so I could slam on the brakes. C5 brakes seem a little better, but my rider was happy to know I was at least using them.

Drove the stick around the course 3 times in a row. The rider in this car was really into it. It was cool. He knew the car well, and knew that I knew what I was doing. He asked if I ever drove a Vette before, and when I told him I have a C5 and had a C4, he said he'd coach me on the first lap, and I thought he was going to be a stick in the mud. Boy, was I wrong. First thing he told me was to nail it, in those words! Then he told me when to let off, which I thought was way too late going into the first turn. He also coached me on when to accelerate and how much gas to give it coming out of that first turn. And, I discovered why. Seems like the C6 is a bit more responsive at the low RPMs. If I had given it the same amount of throttle at the same time I would've in my C5, it probably would've spun only the back out. After the first turn, the guys said, "You got it?" He was so cool. I smoked up everything on the next two laps.

My friend and I couldn't believe how hard we were allowed to push on the drives. I would never have pushed that hard in my car. Probably because I wouldn't want to break anything, but those cars I figured needed a challenge.

Now, I'm not sure if it was only because it was quiet on opening day, but man, if you want to try out a GM and some of their competition, that's a good way to go. While you can't get up on a freeway, ona regular test drive on the street, you probably wouldn't be able to get away with the kind of driving me and my friend did.

As far as the C6 goes, it's a nice car, but I'm not feeling like I gotta have one, you know what I mean? It seems like a nice car for ripping up the track, but I don't know about street driving yet, and I'm probably not going to find out real soon. I'm pretty happy with my C5. It has more room inside, and it seems to have more character in the interior (the C6 was quite plain inside). I also like the shape of the C5 better, and I don't like the lights on the C6. But, it IS a NICE car, and I wouldn't turn one down. But, I can't say I'd sell my C5 to go buy one. But then again, I didn't sell my C4 to buy a C5 either. I didn't get a C5 til many years after they came out.

 

Sounds like a lot of fun and thanks for the reviews.

 

The show comes to Vegas next week.

How was the sales push? Any pressure to buy or did you really just get to try out the GM cars vs their competitors?