Thinning the Automobile Herd

The internet is a wonderful thing. It enables me to shop based on my requirements without setting foot in a dealership.

I entered my base price range at Yahoo! Autos to generate an initial list of vehicles, and used the auto comparison tool at Edmunds to get details on five at a time. (I wish I could have told it what I was interested in rather than scrolling through all the differences it found, but I can't complain too much about something that's free.)

Here's the data I collected on 45 vehicles. I'm leaving out details about brakes and airbags, the former because only one vehicle failed to meet the requirement (it's off the list), and the latter because the report at Edmunds was difficult to interpret and I think virtually all the vehicles met that requirement, too.

It would be unfortunate if any of the details I gathered are incorrect, but going to every individual automobile's website would have taken prohibitively long. The automakers should ensure the data Yahoo!, Edmunds, and others are displaying is correct.

My hard requirements included at least 200hp and telematics, and these alone were sufficient to thin the herd to only 8 vehicles. Somewhat surprisingly, they're all made by General Motors. The non-GM vehicles in my price range with telematics were all underpowered.

GM's push to make OnStar standard on all vehicles by 2007 will pay off for this particular buyer. (Other automakers have given up on telematics.)

I'm not sure if I'll use OnStar for anything but safety insurance, but I know it can be used to place telephone calls. As one of the last people on earth without a cell phone, I might actually use it as a phone.

I'm amused to see the LaCrosse make the short list. I've been thinking about it since December.

Why is rear parking assist so rare? Is this a new technology? I assumed it had been around for a long time.

UPDATE 2005-05-09 05:40:24 UTC: This concept car makes me salivate. It looks mean. It has eyebrows. And teeth. It's gorgeous. It's a shame it only lightly resembles what they're actually selling.