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CNN Live At Daybreak

Which Cars Are the Finest?

Aired January 05, 2004 - 05:58   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Don't you wish you had so much money that you could afford the finest cars in all the land? But, just which cars are the finest?
CNN's Jeff Flock tours the top cars at this year's Detroit Auto Show, starting with the car of the year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 2004 North American Car of the Year is the Toyota Prius.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tell me why the Prius? Now, this is the first time we've had a win from a hybrid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A hybrid car, right. Look at the thing. It looks like it just fell out of the future. It's not a quirky car at all. This is very mainstream, plenty of room, plenty of power. The price is right.

FLOCK: It runs on gas and?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And electricity. This costs about $20,000 base price.

FLOCK: Other cars that were finalists, didn't win, this is the Mazda -- what is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: RX-8. RX-8.

FLOCK: It's the return of the rotary engine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's also four doors. It doesn't look like it, but it's a four door car, a four seat car.

FLOCK: That's a door?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a door. It's a little access door.

FLOCK: And the last finalist here is a Cadillac?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Cadillac, yes.

FLOCK: It doesn't look like a Cadillac.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it does not, does it, at all? This is the XLR. It is a spectacular car. It's got technology on it that you cannot even get with Mercedes or Lexus.

FLOCK: Now the trucks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The winner is the perennial best selling vehicle in America, the Ford F150.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've been making pickups like this, sort of like this, for almost 50 years now.

FLOCK: What makes this special?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a huge effort on the part of the Ford Motor Company. It's better in every way than the old F150, better in many respects than most of the other pickups out there, too.

This is the Titan. It didn't win, but this is an awesome truck.

FLOCK: You like this one the most?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like this a whole lot because right out of the box Nissan nailed this segment. This is the SRX. Very telling that we've had two Cadillacs in the finalists, one in the car, now one in the truck. We've never had that happen before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And the car show continues for two weeks with more than 700 cars and trucks on display, including the debut of the new 400 horsepower Corvette.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired January 5, 2004 - 05:58   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Don't you wish you had so much money that you could afford the finest cars in all the land? But, just which cars are the finest?
CNN's Jeff Flock tours the top cars at this year's Detroit Auto Show, starting with the car of the year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 2004 North American Car of the Year is the Toyota Prius.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tell me why the Prius? Now, this is the first time we've had a win from a hybrid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A hybrid car, right. Look at the thing. It looks like it just fell out of the future. It's not a quirky car at all. This is very mainstream, plenty of room, plenty of power. The price is right.

FLOCK: It runs on gas and?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And electricity. This costs about $20,000 base price.

FLOCK: Other cars that were finalists, didn't win, this is the Mazda -- what is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: RX-8. RX-8.

FLOCK: It's the return of the rotary engine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's also four doors. It doesn't look like it, but it's a four door car, a four seat car.

FLOCK: That's a door?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a door. It's a little access door.

FLOCK: And the last finalist here is a Cadillac?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Cadillac, yes.

FLOCK: It doesn't look like a Cadillac.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it does not, does it, at all? This is the XLR. It is a spectacular car. It's got technology on it that you cannot even get with Mercedes or Lexus.

FLOCK: Now the trucks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The winner is the perennial best selling vehicle in America, the Ford F150.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've been making pickups like this, sort of like this, for almost 50 years now.

FLOCK: What makes this special?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a huge effort on the part of the Ford Motor Company. It's better in every way than the old F150, better in many respects than most of the other pickups out there, too.

This is the Titan. It didn't win, but this is an awesome truck.

FLOCK: You like this one the most?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like this a whole lot because right out of the box Nissan nailed this segment. This is the SRX. Very telling that we've had two Cadillacs in the finalists, one in the car, now one in the truck. We've never had that happen before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And the car show continues for two weeks with more than 700 cars and trucks on display, including the debut of the new 400 horsepower Corvette.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com