Zander Drives Cars

After a two-year hiatus, the New York International Autoshow (Or NYIAS, if you’re fancy) has returned. Naturally, I decided that I would be in attendance, mirroring my appearance at the 2019 show. Let’s cut to the chase: it was great. Maybe it was the fact that it was the first large event I had attended since early 2020, or maybe it was because I was back in my favorite city in the world. Regardless, I loved it.

“Enough with the sappy crap!” You all whine, so I now present to you the good, the bad, and the disappointing of NYIAS 2022.

The Good

Have you ever heard of VinFast? Now you have. In short, VinFast is a Vietnamese car company that started out making rebadged versions of Chevy and BMW products for the domestic market. These cars weren’t anything to write home about, but they did provide the company with money. That money turned around a few hands, and less than a decade after making city cars, they’re now one of the top new players in the electric car scene. The company already has US operations, and when walking into the auto show, it shoes. Posters, pamphlets, and signs all advertise the presence of the company, and their two new models, the VF8, and VF9, the latter of which is based on a BMW X5.

It was immediately obvious when arriving at their stands that they mean business. Posh white carpet, pretty girls, spotless display cars, and merchandise flowing out of every surface. Their area displayed the aforementioned VF8 and VF9, as well as a pre-production VF7, which is a smaller CUV to rival models such as the Audi Q3, BMW X2, and Alfa Romeo Tonale (which we will get to momentarily.) This is also a good time to point out that even with my many, many credentials, I was not considered press and therefore had to go with the general public. Because of that, my pictures are not top quality, so if you’re looking for A+ level photography, go look at Motortrends Instagram.

For a relatively unknown car company, I was seriously impressed. The cars looked nice, clean, and modern, with interiors that rival those of Tesla with better interior quality. The VF8, in particular, had very nice cargo space and is tall people friendly in both front and rear. The news gets better, too. Speaking to an employee, putting a deposit in with a pre-order on the car saves you about $3,000 against purchasing the car without a pre-order. Better yet, you have the opportunity for a sort of “overseas delivery program” like Volvo or Mercedes do. They put you in a luxury resort for a week where you tour the factory, meet the designers, watch your car come off the production line, and even have the chance to drive it before it ships back to the US. Keep in mind, however, that airfare is not included, but with the three grand you saved, that should more than makeup for the cost of flights. Once again, I am seriously impressed with VinFast, and I really look forward to getting behind the wheel of one of their models when they’re available to test drive.

Stellantis made a typically large impression. The newly formed second-largest car conglomerate in the world did not disappoint in bringing the goods to NYIAS. The new Grand Wagoneer L stole the show. This car is massive. With the third-row seats UP, it has more room than my mom’s GLS, with the third row DOWN. This car was made to give the Escalade and Navigator a run for its money, and it is certainly doing that. The Wrangler V8 also made an appearance, although I didn’t care enough to go look at it. I’ll just wait for it to show up at the carpool line next month.

The Chrysler Airflow concept was also given a lot of attention. The sleek black and bronze accented crossover looks great but struggles to stand out in a sea of Hyundai Tuscons and other highly-styled crossovers. I don’t think that this is the future of Chrysler. Sure, it might sell, but to me, it provokes the same amount of emotion I get when I watch rainwater dampen concrete. Nothing. Aside from a Charger and Durango Hellcat, that was about all for the American wing of the company

Alfa Romeo and Fiat, however, were much more interesting. For starters, Alfa Romeo showed up with a Guilia Quadrifoglio AND the new Tonale in green. While my dad opposed the typical circular Alfa rims, I was quite fond of them. The Tonale looks sexy with its sharp headlights and gorgeous grill, and while green can be a divisive color, the Tonale pulls it off better than its Stelvio brother. That being said, the car I was most confused and interested in was a rose gold electric Fiat 500. For those of you out of the loop, the 500 stopped being sold here in mid-2017 after slow sales, but still continues to be a big hit in Europe with its new electric powertrain. This car oozes metropolitan-chich more than anything I have ever seen in my life. Even looking at this car makes you start humming the tune to Duecentomila Ore in your head. It would be the most easterly car on the Cool Wall if that was still a thing that existed today.

Other good notes from the auto show include The new Nissan 400z, Volvo C40, Ford F-150 Lightning, VW ID Buzz, Toyota Corolla GR, and more cars I can’t even begin to list.

The Bad

If VinFast is chocolate that makes you thin, Deus is broccoli that makes you fat. Every other week, a new electric supercar circulates around Twitter, creates some buzz, and then goes into indefinite hibernation. While the Deus Vayanne hasn’t reached that last stage yet, I fear that the car is on its way there. The Vayanne is a 2,200ph, 280mph, electric supercar that costs (ready?) $3,000,000. I’m sorry, but I can’t see this ever working out. The car is designed by Italdesign, which is a design firm along the lines of Pininfarina and Bertone, and while the design isn’t ugly, it’s not beautiful either. From the font, the Vayanne looks like a Lotus Evija, and from the rear, it looks like a McLaren 720s, with the side profile looking long and unimaginative. It just looks like another drip-feed car destined to be bought by 13-year-olds in Grand Theft Auto Online. Expect it as the topic of a Donut video early next year.

A free pineapple mocktail still didn’t distract from the state of Infiniti. While my dad and I agreed that a nice refreshing drink inside a large, hot convention center is absolutely amazing, we both left Infiniti feeling uninterested and bored. It’s a shame, really, because I like the Q50. I like the way it looks, and I like how you can get the same twin-turbo V6 from the old 370z, but the design has been with us for the better part of seven years now, and in a highly competitive (and shrinking) market segment, the Q50 doesn’t have what it takes to be anything near a class leader. The only interesting thing to take note of were these small little sound-deadening pods that were supposed to showcase how little noise can be heard when sitting in their new QX60. We didn’t try them out. Something about sitting in an unventilated pod that others have been sitting in for the better part of a week with minimal cleaning wasn’t as exhilarating as one would think, you know?

It was hard to ignore the lack of European brands in attendance. Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar, Maserati, and other prominent European automakers were absent at this year’s show. While the lack of BMW didn’t phase me much, it was unfortunate that new models such as the new Range Rover and Mercedes EQS didn’t make an appearance, considering how they are some of the most highly talked about cars of the year. For an auto show this size, having an exodus of recognizable brands can start to signal the end of the event as we know it. Sure, car shows won’t go away completely, but with more and more brands choosing to opt-out of these events, it isn’t hard to see why others might follow suit. For me, however, as long as Volvo still has some sort of presence, you can count on me making the four or so odd hour drive up to the big apple to see them.

The Ugly

The Nissan Arya was the most disappointing car in the convention center. When the Arya was released earlier this year, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a moderately inoffensive electric crossover from a car company trying to re-build themselves from their previous image. With the arrival of the new 400z, Frontier, and Pathfinder, Nissan has been on a hot streak of bringing out new competitive cars to replace their aging and rental-feeling lineup that we’ve grown custom to. So, when I got the chance to see Nissan’s latest innovation at NYIAS, I wasn’t too amused by the finished product. The exterior of the car follows a Tesla-Esq route of “smooth = modern” which looks fine, but not super exciting, or out there compared to cars like the Kia Niro or Hyundai Inoniq 5. The first sign of trouble is the wheels. The wheels, like those on lower-end electric Audi models, are covered in plastic bits that will most likely end up snapping to falling apart.

However, the real disappointment comes in the interior. If you see a car covered in piano black plastic: run. While it looks good in press pictures, the reality is that it gets smudged to hell almost instantly, no matter how hard you try not to touch it. I was surprised to see that in a car with a sticker price of almost $50,000, a large majority of interior materials were plastic and flimsy, particularly the center console. If you ever find yourself in a Tesla Model X, grab the center console, and you can easily move it about and rock it back and forth. This is what the console on the Arya feels like. Flimsy. The floating stack with a wireless charger and plastic fake wood felt unstable and extremely fragile. For a company like Nissan, which needs to make as many positive impressions as it can to shake its older image, the Arya is just another example of an automaker phoning it in on a new trend. I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. I was so disappointed in fact, that I couldn’t even bother getting a picture of the car.

NYIAS Final Verdict

Filled with exciting, and interesting electric cars, NYIAS feels as if its trying to be the automotive version of CES. Even with a lacking of major car brands, it was an extremely enjoyable experience and great to finally see some of the cars that have been out of reach during these past two years. It’s been real, Manhattan. I’ll be back soon, I promise.