Dire indeed

Firstly, I must agree with one reader that remarked that Boosh might need someone to tell him what to say and what not to say: we are not quite sure of what he says anyway.

Now ... I have a loaner car while my car is in for service. They thought that they were doing me a favor. A brand new --18 miles on the clock-- Pontiac Grand Prix. THis is one dire car indeed. It is so bad that I can hardly believe that this is still the junk being spewed out by the world's largest loss producer. So it all makes sense, I guess.

Firstly, for a car with sporting pretentions (it has a deck spoiler on the trunk lid), this car wallows like a stuck pig in corners. If there is a bump or pothole in that corner, then woe betide you as you feel the whole car "come loose" and threaten to swap ends, or simply let centrifugal force take it wide ... very wide. From the lights, the front wheels spin with authority -- not your authority, but with great conviction, anyway. And the steering gets very light under acceleration, but not in the torque steer fashion of old Saabs and the like: just vague and scary.

Inside the car is a symphony of cheap plastic and smells like it too. New car smell? Only if you associate that with the cheapest of Chinese plastics. Hard, nasty to the touch. The gauges are covered in a clear plastic shield, only the shield is oriented upwards so as to face the top of the windshield. Accordingly, what ever is going on or passing above the car is reflected directly into the driver's face. Disconcerting to say the least. The controls are ill placed (it would be better to have a chimpanzees fingers to get to the stalks behind the wheel), and not at all intuitive.

I don't know what the official EPA gas figure is, but it cannot be good. In two blinks I used a quarter of a tank.

Lastly is the overall driver's and passenger's position in the car: the beltline is too high, the roof too low, and nasty and cheap is everywhere. No wonder they can't sell these. For the same price you could get a nice Honda.