Solara a Motor Trend "Best Car" nominee

by **fotodad** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 6:07 pm

This might be old news. Sorry if it is. But I was watching "Motor Trend Television" on the Speed channel today, and the Solara was among the 20-some cars they choose for best car in 2004. The Toyota Prius won, but it was nice to see the Solara was considered. The only Hondas were by Acura (TL & TSX). And they didn't consider any Lexus cars! That surprised me!

by **Jackass-Jeff** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 6:51 pm

Lexus had no new cars launched. The Car of the Year is usually a new model. The LS barely had the 1/2 generation rear light and headlight updates.

At least a Toyota won =P Have you been in the Prius? It's frickin' nice for a hybrid.

by **cdssolara** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 9:50 pm

Yes, the MT Car of the Year is either a brand new model or an older model with significant changes. Anything that hasn't changed from the previous year is not considered. And I agree, the Prius' styling has really improved. It is by far the best looking of the hybrids.

by **HKSV6SLE** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 2:09 pm

exactly what they said. i wonder how the new GS,IS, and Sc are gonna look like... they are all up for redisgn sometime soon...

by **cdssolara** » Wed Dec 10, 2003 11:41 pm

Yeah, I'll be curious to see what they come up with, too. Someone recently posted a "spy" picture of the new GS, but a lot of people felt it wasn't legit. We'll see.

by **Guest** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:09 pm

cdssolara wrote:Yeah, I'll be curious to see what they come up with, too. Someone recently posted a "spy" picture of the new GS, but a lot of people felt it wasn't legit. We'll see.

All of the pictures that people have posted about the new GS are bs. Photochops etc. Lexus has kept the new GS very very secret. It was shipped over(1 model) via container protected by security guards. It will be release at the Detriot Auto Show in early January. The LF-S is the only Legit Lexus pictures you see.

by **cdssolara** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:37 pm

Anonymous wrote:
cdssolara wrote:Yeah, I'll be curious to see what they come up with, too. Someone recently posted a "spy" picture of the new GS, but a lot of people felt it wasn't legit. We'll see.

All of the pictures that people have posted about the new GS are bs. Photochops etc. Lexus has kept the new GS very very secret. It was shipped over(1 model) via container protected by security guards. It will be release at the Detriot Auto Show in early January. The LF-S is the only Legit Lexus pictures you see.

That makes sense. I'll be curious to see what the new GS looks like.

by **Guest** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:47 pm

Correct if if I'm wrong but isn't the Prius the Motor Trend car of the year for 2004? I thought I read that in their magazine.

by **cdssolara** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:05 am

You are correct.

by **angelo** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 8:14 am

It was interesting to see the test results of all the contenders in the January issue of Motortrend.
Solara SE V6 got 7 sec 0-60 and the new BMW 530i with MANUAL! got just 7.4 sec in the same test (and BMW pretends to be a sports sedan).
Solara is faster to 60 than the 8-cyl Audi A8 and 8 cyl VW Phaeton also.

by **cdssolara** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 8:28 pm

angelo wrote:It was interesting to see the test results of all the contenders in the January issue of Motortrend.
Solara SE V6 got 7 sec 0-60 and the new BMW 530i with MANUAL! got just 7.4 sec in the same test (and BMW pretends to be a sports sedan).
Solara is faster to 60 than the 8-cyl Audi A8 and 8 cyl VW Phaeton also.

Yeah, I was kind of amazed to see that the Solara had better 0-60 and 1/4 mile times than the 530i. The 530 does have slightly less dispacement and weighs a bit more than the Solara, but I would have thought that would be more than outweighed by the manual tranny, among other things. Good for the new Solara!

Still, I would never presume to say that the BMW "pretends" to be a sport sedan. It's near 50/50 balance and rwd make it a much better handler than a Solara, not to mention way more fun to drive. It has better numbers in the MT comparison in all the handling areas. I've also got to think that the driver may not have been completely used to the active steering system that BMW just put in that car. It's not all about 0-60 times.

by **slingshot** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 8:41 pm

Check out this quote in that Motor Trend test about the car I think is the closest competitor for the Solara in what you get for the dollar:

"At the track, the four-cylinder Acura TSX ran an 8.6-second 0-60 mph time, a full two-seconds less than the Acura TL."

Wow, that's mighty slow compared to the Solara's tested 7 seconds! It has great handling though. By the way, the Solara they tested was the SE V6 Sport.

by **TW85** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 9:43 pm

0-60 on the TSX is 8.6 seconds and the TL's is 10.6 seconds? Seems like a misprint.

by **slingshot** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 9:48 pm

I think they meant 6.6 secs for the TL. ;-)

Solara a Motor Trend "Best Car" nominee

Solara a Motor Trend "Best Car" nominee

Solara faster than 530i manual

Re: Solara faster than 530i manual

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