Orange County Auto Show 2011

It is I, mystere reporting here!

Seeing some of the new cars at the Orange County Auto Show was a blast! Here are some

of the cars and trucks shown on the floor:

This Fiat 500 has the convertible styling of the "bathtub" Nash Rambler of the 1950s, a styling cue that came from Pinin Farina. His styling cues have come back in a fresh design for Fiat.

Now I must hand it to GM for their ideas, even though I'm not a big fan of theirs. They do have some good ideas. But wait until you read about the test drive portion.

Look at that engine compartment

of the Nissan Leaf! Awesome machine!

Now this Acura is a red hot tamale!

This "Star Wars" car got plenty of attention on the floor!

On another blog site, I got a reaction from a reader, where she said she wants that Star Wars car. This car is one cool cat to watch out for in the upcoming car shows across the United States.

Another cool ride which got everyone's attention was the redesigned VW Beetle.

I had the opportunity to do some test drives as well. I drove 4 different vehicles around to see what's new and good: The Ford F-150 Pickup, the Ford Escape Hybrid, the Toyota Tacoma Pickup, and the redesigned VW Beetle.

About the Ford F-150: that truck rode like a car! I learned how to drive years ago on a 1959 Ford F-100 truck with a column shift 3 speed stick shift. I have also driven a 1968 Ford F-100 with a stick shift in the past, along with an early 80s Toyota truck with a 5 speed stick. I've often heard complaints from other people about how uncomfortable trucks are in areas such as the seats, the ride, and how they handle on the road. I've experienced the discomforts, and understand these people's complaints fully. If these same people were to drive the Ford F-150 today, they would not be complaining at all. That truck does what the ads say: it rides like a car! Here's some sad news though: when I compared it to the competing GM trucks (the GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado, those trucks paled in comparison to the Ford! When I sat in those seats, they felt uncomfortable compared to the Ford. The only domestic full size pickup that had comfortable seats besides the Ford was the Cadillac Escalade EXT. The Cadillac, however, is not meant to be a comfortable work truck. My question to GM is this: why couldn't you put some comfortable seats in your base trucks, and make the Cadillac Escalade EXT even more luxurious, instead of making the Cadillac comfortable, and stripping down the comforts in the GMC and Chevrolet lines of trucks? Ford has taken GM to shame. Now to be fair, I didn't have time to sit in the RAM pickups, but in the past years, I've found the Dodge Rams to be more comfortable than GMC & Chevy.

Now about the Ford Escape hybrid: that SUV has power, and great response with the hybrid power. I could zip around traffic in one of those SUVs if I needed to buy one.

Now for compact pickups, I had fun driving the Toyota Tacoma. I've test driven them several times over the past few years. This year, Toyota wanted to emphasize the anti lock brakes on many of their vehicles. As I drove around the track, I was able to get the truck to stop on a dime without getting into a skid. Overall, I could tell anyone who wants a Toyota to go ahead and get one.

Okay, this is my final test drive vehicle report: When I waited in line to test drive a new VW Beetle, I was checking out how many VW Beetles they had for the test drive: 3 Beetles. I noticed in one of the Beetles, there was this gorgeous blonde lady assigned to ride with those of us who were test driving the cars. I started wondering who was going to drive with this lady sitting beside him. When it came down to having 2 guys ahead of me waiting for a test drive, I really started wondering who was going to ride with this lady. I looked at all 3 of the attendants in the Beetles while waiting in line. Soon, it became my turn to test drive one of the Beetles. Who was my attendant?

THE HOT BLONDE LADY!!!!!!!!!!

Now that was my most memorable test ride this year! I had so much fun driving that VW! I think there were some guys waiting behind me who were a bit saddened that they weren't going to drive with that lady beside them!

Now about that VW: The best thing about it was the steering and cornering. I had a great feel of the road, yet it wasn't bumpy. My hopes for the VW buyer is that the Beetle will prove to be reliable as the way it handles too. That is one cool car that will hopefully bring some joy to the pocketbook as well!