New York Auto Show Eye Candy

The New York stop on the International Auto Show circuit has already showcased a bevvy of new debuts and concept vehicles, causing wide eyes and puddles of drool all around. Let’s take a peek at some of the notables thus far.

Nissan announced the official return of 4DSC, and you know what that means… well, maybe you don’t. 4DSC was the Nissan Maxima’s alias in the early 90’s, with Nissan touting it as the first true “4 Door Sports Car”, with fancy 4DSC decals and all. Well, they’ve brought the decals back, and wisely, also pumped up the horses from 265 to 290. That’s some serious go for a $30k sedan.

The 2009 Acura TSX reared its ugly head for the first time at the NYC show. The new TSX is bigger and less powerful than its predecessor, which is a pathetic combination indeed. Acura’s obviously done trying to convince anyone that the TSX is a performance vehicle… it’s a business move over an image move. We’ll see how that works out.

Now here’s a tale of two companies… Kia debuted the top vehicle, the KOUP, at NY after Hyundai’s Genesis Coupe(the latter photo) made a big splash in LA. The difference is that Hyundai’s car will be in showrooms shortly, while Kia’s awesome concept - as is their trend - doesn’t appear to have a plan to see the light of day. Kia whets the public’s appetite every year with their great concept cars… let’s hope they’re spurred on by Hyundai’s effort to turn the KOUP into a production vehicle.

This is the Pontiac G8 Sport Truck, thought it’s not really called a Sport Truck yet. It’s a hard car to name, an even harder car to describe, and even harder than that to make a profit on. But hey, at least Pontiac is going for the gusto, and with their other debut models (The G8 in sedan form is the most powerful sub-$30k car on the road) looking so good, let’s see where the cards fall for this El Camino reincarnate.

And now for a car we can all enjoy… at least, from a distance, while some rich CEO breezes past in it. The near-$200,000 Saleen Raptor has the look and the performance (650 horses should cover pretty much anything you’d want to do on four wheels) of cars in and above its price range. Plus, it runs on E85 (a.k.a. fancy corn) exclusively. Good stuff.