Watched the "Pilot" Episode. The Pagoda is clearly a character in this show -- it's played up. If the show takes off, and they continue making the car a central piece of the main character's identity, the pagoda's profile should rise with this tide. ( I wonder if a Pagoda Fan is involved with the making of this show -- John Travolta?)
The marketing for this "cable," non-network show is significant in the LA area at the moment -- they have wallpapered the town. It's clear they're putting massive marketing dollars behind this series. This marketing blitz usually only carries a show for 3 or 4 episodes, after that it will live or die based on it's own.
I did notice that in the insert shots of the Auto Gear Shift, they chose to show the shifting like most cars where you pull the gear shift from front to back (top to bottom) in order to put the car in Drive, rather than the reality of the pagoda shift pattern which is back to front. Understandably, as audiences might be confused if it looks like he's putting the car in Park, but then driving away.
