2008 Meadow Brook Concours D’Elegance Preview And Event Guide [2008 Meadow Brook Concours D’Elegance]
As you may have noticed when we told you about the North American debut of the Alfa Romeo Bertone B.A.T. 11, we started off the day yesterday at the 2008 Meadow Brook Concours D'Elegance press breakfast. Actually, it was more of a press "stand-around-and-sweat". August 3rd will mark the 30th Concours held on the Meadow Brook Estate in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and they're planning on mixing things up a bit this year. Believe it or not, we're really looking forward to this one — there's going to be some really solid fantasy material on the grounds this year. Did someone say "Mormon Meteor?"
We were treated not only to the BAT concept reveal, but also to several other fabulous historic cars that were in attendance. Chief among them was a 1957 Mercedes Benz 300 SL, fresh from a 100-point concours-quality restoration at Legendary Motorcar Company, making its worldwide debut. If you watch Dream Car Garage this car will look familiar, as it's been their resto project for 13 episodes. The car is actually owned by Southfield-based BASF, so naturally it's wearing a fresh coat of color-correct BASF paint. Damn impressive car — we'd say it's probably better now than it ever was.
And lets not forget another car in the Jalopnik Fantasy Garage, the 1948 Tucker Torpedo. This one is owned by RM auctions, which will be holding a preview event on Friday at Meadow Brook and an auction on Saturdayi. There's a lot on the blocks at this event, including the entrance to the old Packard Plant here in Detroit.
Things actually get rolling on Thursday, with the Second Annual Hangar Party. An event held at the Oakland County Airport, the Hangar Party puts a dozen vintage planes and historical cars together with liquid lubrication and tasty edibles. If you want to get to that one, you better move fast, as we'd bet tickets for the 'oo-la-la' event are getting scarce.
On the list of 'new and improved' for this year is the first-annual "Destination D'Elegance." The full-day event on Saturday before the Concours features free entry, a huge variety of modern supercars, demonstrations on restoration and collecting, a bevy of the worlds most heady modern superbikes and much more. Also notable: If you want to know how the Hyundai Genesis feels from the passenger or driver's seat, Hyundai will be having on-site ride-and-drives of the new kimchi-scented luxo-barge all day. This will be the one the plebes go to, as it's free, and the actual Concours has a steep $25 entry fee. We really want to get there and cover the Pabst-soaked yard-dart contests, but we'll see.
Oh yeah, then there's the actual Meadow Brook Concours D'Elegance set for Sunday. If you pay your ducats you can expect to see 225 of the finest motor cars in history. Like we mentioned, on hand will be the Mormon Meteor; a supercharged, inline-8-packing, Duesenberg Model SSJ (you'll see us licking it), a 1932 Helicron (give it a Google, it'll be fun), the only '56 Taylor Aerocar still in flying condition, 16 different V16 powered cars — with their engines displayed, and rarely seen Bill Mitchell styling concepts from GM's "Studio X" (sounds porny). Of course, that's far from everything. This year they've got a field of groundbreaking and historical Ferraris, so, you know, that should be pretty boring, as well as vintage motorcycles with sidecars. A little something for everybody.
Yes indeed folks, if you've never been out to the Meadow Brook Concours D'Elegance, this year wouldn't be a bad time to start coming. We'll be there as much as possible, bringing you fresh, wallpaper-quality images and car-induced, delirium-saturated prose. For details on events, times and locations, visit Meadow Brook Concours Online.
We can understand the need to cut corners to save a dime, but automakers have a nasty habit of making their vehicles seem even cheaper than they really are. We've put together our list below of the ten worst things automakers do to cheapen their cars. Learn them now, bean counters, before your kids start ducking in the back seat when they see people they know. Vote on the worst and feel free to amend with your own pet peeves in the comments below.
While there's nothing wrong with dark or color-keyed exterior cladding on rugged trucks or delivery vehicles, applying it to most cars is just wrong. Take the Subaru Baja, for example. The caminoized Subaru wagon already had a few strikes against it in the design apartment, and the gray plastic cladding beneath brightly colored body panels made it seem more like a Fisher-Price toy car than an expensive truck alternative.
It's no secret that dealers often make extra dough by charging extra money for items that should come standard, including essentials like floormats. Still, an empty footwell in a modern, carpeted car is going to lead to stains, a lower resale value and well, it just looks really cheap.
What's more fun than than having a massive tire blowout on the freeway, opening up the trunk and finding a can of Fix-a-Flat? In a lightweight sports car or a vehicle with run-flat tires it's an understandable way to reduce mass, but it's completely wrong to exclude a full-size tire from the trunk of a mid-sized sedan. It's always made us think there's a conspiracy between AAA and automakers.
There's advertising that promotes the relative value of a vehicle, pointing out that it offers great features at a lower price than the competition. And then there's advertising that merely points out that the car is cheap enough for even you to afford. A great example of cheap-o advertising is this 
Similar to the body cladding, having dark plastic bits instead of chrome or painted accent pieces is a big way that automakers think small when creating base models. Whereas certain companies, like Honda, have moved towards making small concessions like painted door handles and painted trim, others are still replacing every conceivable shiny part with black or gray plastic. Perhaps the worst example is when they put a piece of off-color plastic in place of a fog lamp.
Nothing says "I'm driving a golf kart" like tiny wheels in large wheel wells. Though we've sort of come to expect it on small cars, like the aptly named Golf, automakers have applied this concept to their cheap SUVs. Hyundai was particularly known for this, especially with their first generation Santa Fe, which left so much room between the small wheels and huge arches we imagined someone could pull the engine out through the wells.
Pushing slower selling cars over to rental fleets has been a popular way for automakers to move inventory, even though the profit margins were low. This not only makes the car seem cheap (it's depressing when someone sees you in a white Taurus and asks you if your real car is in the shop), it actually makes it cheaper by lowering the resale value of the car. Recently, American automakers have 
A friend of ours in high school had a Mitsubishi Mirage with a seat pattern that could only be described as post-industrial Navajo. Though it's intended as a way to make cheap cars seem fun, it usually ends up making cheap cars look like the interiors were stitched out of comforters from Motel 6. The only exception is the VW GTI's historically plaid interior, though some people even have a problem with that.
If Suzuki can sell a car like the 
When exterior trim is added by the manufacturer it's specially color-matched and fitted to each car. Assuming you've already purchased the floormats, the dealer can "up sell" you even further with the addition of special exterior options clumsily installed by the dealership itself. The worst may be the taped-on stripes that end up peeling off after a few weeks in the sun or a trip through the car wash. The dealer behind the unofficial 