I've been to Ford today. They had a new Focus parked outside, so I thought I'd go in and see how it was. And they had one inside too, covered like it was secret. Who thought up that clever idea? Lets park our new car in broad daylight outside and not let people look at it inside. Next to it they had a new B-Max (C? MPV thing. I didnt look at what it was) which also had the new dashboard and I must say it looks very nice in real life. Terrible in photos. Also Ford like VW like to use scrollwheels for the seat heaters, only Ford put them in the best place ever, flat down so you just roll your finger over them, not pressing hard against them like in a VW. Still like buttons better.
The Hyundai i20 has terrible HVAC controls. They're really nice to look at, but impossible to use. I'm almost asian-sized and I had great difficulty gripping the dials with my nearly asian fingers. No grip and way to resistive to turning. Also the Hyundai poverty spec steering wheels of 2011 are just as bad as they were last year. You must order a leather wheel or you will want rub off your hands (which you might actually do on the sandpaper poverty spec wheels) everytime you touch it. Also the ix35 is really nice. It has the deepest armrest cubbyhole ever. Some say it goes to China.
The new Meriva is awesome. Suicide doors are the best invention of all time. No wonder they all made them like that when the car was born. You just open the door a little, grab the handle and swing in. To get out, the reverse. Works with very little room. Also if you open it alltogether you can get in even if you're an elephant. The back seat of a Meriva is fine for me but if you're the son of Thor you might not fit. But if you are why would you ride in a Meriva anyway when you can ride with the chariot of the god of thunder? You freak. Also the sliding thingy majig in the center console is sweeeeeeet. It slides! You can configure it anyway you like!
And imagine, you can even use the HVAC controls! Also the new Opel interiors make me a little sad, because they're awesome.
I went to the asshole dealer too, the one that sells all cars, Mercedes, Kia (Hyundai & Opel in nice dealership, Kia in asshole dealership), Nissan, Chrysler, Jeep, Hummer, Corvette, Chevrolet and whatever they can get their hands on and they're such assholes that they're in one way charming. They lock all cars they don't want people to look at. Want to compare a povery spec Mercedes to a loaded one? Sorry. Cant let you do that. Want to sit inside any car from Chrysler Corp (even fully loaded ones)? No can do. You wouldnt like it. The KIA Sportage was open though, and it was quite nice. The Rio next to it, locked. They had a Nissan GT-R. Unsuprisingly, it was not only locked, but a angry red note proclaimed DO NOT TOUCH. Way to attract customers.
So I can report the following, the new Jeep Grand Cherokee looks nice. No idea if it is. But the underbelly seems a bit better protected from rust this time around at least. And Chrysler have started added painting the inside of the fuel port since last year. The dealership also had a Nissan Juke. They would rather people don't sit, open or even look at it, but they had to keep it open as it was a demo car and had the letters NEW NISSAN JUKE applied to it. It looks ugly in person. It has a tiny boot. The plastic is hard and awful. The center stack looks like it came from 1998. The C-pillar is the size of a whale. Gear throws are the length of the son of Thor.
So, unsuprisingly, the Nissan Juke is Junk.