Went to the Atlanta auto show today. Saw two TT's - black and<br>silver - but they were both roped off so unfortunately no chance to have <br>a seat. I actually preferred the black to the silver, it takes a bit of an edge<br>off the rounded shape. The pictures don't really do the car justice. <br>It's beautiful - especially the interior. Now if only I could DRIVE it.<p>No 99.5 A4's there - that was a disappointment. <p>Saw the Volvo V40 there - not impressed. The interior design was lacking <br>and rather cheap feeling in comparison to the A4. And the 80 was a letdown.<p>Mercedes had the new S series on display - again I was expecting more. <br>What is it with design in cars these days? Everyone outside of Audi, BMW and <br>VW are going for ellipses and swooshy curves. The new headlight treatment is <br>as bad as the tail lights on the CLK series. I still don't understand that - the front <br>end on the CLK is beautiful, but the back end looks like a Taurus. Now the S series<br>front end looks like Taurus. <p>Checked out the new 328is. Has anyone else noticed how similar this is to <br>the A4 in body design? Some nice bells and whistles inside and the 17" wheels <br>looked great, but I wouldn't trade the A4 for it. What I did love was the M coupe. <br>That is a gorgeous car in either the hard top or convertible model. They also had <br>an M5 on display - roped off again.<p>The surprise car of the day was the new VW GTI VR6. That is one sweet little ride. <br>I've read that it shares 60% of the A3 components - and it shows. The interior <br>has a number of shared features - the dash particularly. Overall the body design <br>looks great, especially the new headlight design. My girlfriend is in love with the <br>A3, but since we aren't moving to Europe anytime soon she'll have to settle on <br>this once we can afford it. <p>Also checked out the Passat and new Jetta. They're OK, but even with all the<br>shared parts the Passat feels cheaper to me than the A4. Actually the GTI had <br>the best design and feel of all the VW cars, as well as Volvo and Saab.<p>Don't get me wrong, the Passat is a nice car, but it simply doesn't have the <br>solidity and unity in design that I'm used to from the A4. IMO VW is going too <br>far in attempting to replicate the A4 with both the Passat and Jetta. The <br>new GTI however is going to sell like hot cakes. Too bad they won't export <br>the A3/S3.<p>So after looking at a lot of cars, I'm still more than happy with the A4 after <br>owning it for over a year. The only other car at the show that I could sit in and <br>afford today was the GTI - I'd love to have that for running around in on weekends. <br>The M coupe was beautiful, but I don't have money to burn, and that leaves the <br>Jaguar XJR completely out of my price range to begin with.<p>Cheers<p>Michael<br>98.5 Silver 2.8 QMS - wanting too many aftermarket items to list<br>