Well, today I didn't have much going on and was going to drive out and see some tornado damage, but most of the roads were blocked off so I decided to go dealer hopping instead. The first place I went to was Willey Ford-Lincoln-Mercury in Ames. They had 3 Fusions, 1 Milan, 1 Zephyr, 5 Mustangs (all V6s...I never saw any GT on the entire trip), 4 Montegos, 2 Five Hundreds, and 3 of the new '06 Grand Marquis. The CD3 trio looks great in person...after seeing all three, the Zephyr is now my favorite. It's funny because I used to not like the Zephyr, but seeing it in real life is a whole different story. There's so much brightwork that really makes it stand out from the other two. The Fusion looked great as well and the Milan looks good too. There's enough differentiation between the three IMO. Especially between the Zephyr and Fusion/Milan. Also, I saw a black Montego Premier AWD with a spoiler. This is the first time I've seen a spoiler on a Montego. The new Grand Marquis's look bad in Ford photos but it didn't look as bad in person. The thing I didn't like about the grille from photos was that it looked tacked on, but if you look at it in person you'll see that they extended the hood out a little and it kinda fits with the lines of the hood. EVERY Grand Marquis I saw was chromed out...chrome wheels, chrome trim, chrome grille, chrome mirrors; one even had a Landau top. Next stop was a Buick-GMC dealer. I didn't spend much time there because I was mainly looking for the Lucerne and they didn't have one. There were a couple LaCrosse CSX's there. I really like the LaCrosse...a lot of people don't like the headlights, but I love them. The LaCrosse really makes the LeSabre and Park Avenue look old, and the Regal and Century look ancient. Then I went across the street to the Toyota-Cadillac dealer. I completely blew past the Toyota side and went straight to the Cadillac side looking for the new DTS; nothing. They actually had very few Cadillacs there...no STSs, no CTSs...mostly just old Sevilles, DeVilles, and Eldorados. It was very disappointing. I did see something cool though...an '02 Oldsmobile Intrigue Gold Edition...it was black with gold trim pieces. I've never heard of it before but it looked sharp. Then I went down the road to the Chevy-Pontiac dealer. I take back most of the stuff I said about the '06 Impala...in person, it looks MUCH better. They had a black SS there and it looked great. The interior is very nice too. I also saw the new Malibus and they looked better, but they're still no match for the Fusion. GM really needs to get the '07 Malibu out ASAP. The Torrent and G6s all looked good. They had a few G6 coupes there...one was in this really brilliant blue. They are very sporty looking from the rear. Finally, I drove ten miles away to Moffit Ford-Lincoln-Mercury in Boone. They didn't get any rain out there so all the cars were nice and clean. There were a ton of Mercurys....1 Milan, 5 Montegos, 4 Mariners, 4 Grand Marquis's, and a few '06 Mountaineers. One person drove in in a Honda Passport and stopped to look at the Milan. They also had some Mark LTs there. Once again, all Mustangs were V6 models...not a GT in sight. I'll probably upload some of the better pictures tonight...I took probably 70 or so. I was disappointed that I never got to see a Lucerne or DTS though...those were the two GMs I really wanted to see.

I think the Gold Edition Intrigue is limited to wherever the guy who drives around electroplating chrome emblems stops.

I went Ford and GM dealer hopping as well. The P-B-G store didn't have anything interesting... no Lucernes or GTOs, so I left. The Ford dealership had pretty much every Ford car, including a blue GT, and I was impressed by the Fusion. They could have worked more on the interior details (more rear thigh support, actual rear headrests, more rear headroom, and a woven headliner, maybe?), but they've got the basics down. The leather, most of the plastics, and the carpeting were high quality. It's good value, too... $23K for a good-looking SE V6 with black leather/white stitching, V6, automatic, and power seat. Even without the piano black finish and climate control, it was a rather nice place to be in. It's the first mainstream domestic sedan I'd consider.

Edited November 13, 200519 yr by empowah

Pics, dealer 1: Willey Ford

Fusion vs. Malibu



Fusion side


2006 Grand Marquis Premier


Zephyr

Series 2: GM dealers

Pontiac Torrents


Pontiac Grand Prixs


'06 Impala SS...I really like this car a lot now!



'06 G6 GT coupe


Red Tag sale in full force

Series 3: Moffit Ford-Lincoln-Mercury (the nice pics...no rain spots)

Lincoln Zephyr


Montego Premier w/ spoiler


Milan





Ford Fusion SE V6



More '06 Grand Marquis


'05 Thunderbird...I just liked this picture

Edited November 13, 200519 yr by mustang84

I didn't realize they updated the Grand Marquis this year. It's a nice, if minor, change.