By Nauman Farooq

Among all the glitz and glamour of the auto show, some less than impressive cars get introduced too.

Yes while these cars still might have decent engines or gadgets, something about them was very disappointing.

The list below is my personal “Worst of the Show.” Feel free to agree or disagree with me.

Nissan 370Z Roadster

I’ll start with the least disappointing, but disappointing nevertheless, the 2010 Nissan 370Z Roadster. I don’t know if the show car was the wrong color, or maybe it just didn’t look good sitting indoors, but it looked like a blob of wax with a few cuts made to it. I don’t like the front, it lacks detail compared to its predecessor, and the rear is too fat and rounded.

Yes it has cool features like a power folding roof that can be operated from outside the vehicle, and its 3.7-liter, 332 hp, V6 should give it entertaining performance. Somehow it just misses the mark with me. Maybe a road-test will change my view.

Mercedes-Benz E-class coupe

It would require even more than that to make me like the new Mercedes-Benz E-class coupe. This is the replacement model for the current CLK-coupe, which is still an attractive car, despite being in the market for five-years in its current guise.

The new E-class coupe is one of those cars that just looks ugly from whichever angle you look at it. The front has some sharp lines that seem to be carved from an exacto-knife, the rear is too rounded, and the side view makes you think you are looking at a four-door sedan rather than a coupe because of the extra cut-off line in the C-pillar to accommodate its retracting window.

Mercedes-Benz says that kink was needed to allow the glass to clear the rear wheel-arch, but they managed to accomplish this feat in the bigger CL-coupe without ruining its looks, so why could they have not worked out a solution here? All this just makes its competitor, the Audi A5/S5 look even better.

Iconic GTR Roadster

Now onto the absolute worst car from this years New York International Auto Show, the Iconic GTR Roadster.

From the looks and specs, this sounds like a very exciting car. It’s modeled as a modern day AC Cobra, and will admit, it looks good. It also has a very interesting engine too, a 6.9-liter, all-aluminum V8, same engine as used in NASCAR, minus the restrictor plates, and it develops 800 hp according to the company. Given its 2200 lbs. weight, this car should be seriously fast.

All looks good, until you spot the price-tag, U.S. $600,000 for the base model. For that money you don’t even have a roof or side windows and a brand that has no pedigree.

Perhaps the makers of this vehicle haven’t noticed the current global economic conditions, or the fact you can buy a Superformance Cobra replica with similar performance for 1/5^th the price. This company looks like it hasn’t got any chance of survival.