Auto shows don't come any bigger than the NAIAS and if day one
was any indication the 100th anniversary of the Motor City's
annual automotive celebration will be one long remembered. Today
we saw crossovers and convertibles, electric cars, sports
sedans and
monster diesels with more torque than any one transmission
should be asked to contain. No, there doesn't seem to be a
central theme to this year's show, but one universal truth
remains: It's still the granddaddy of them all!
Chrysler Group
Besides serving as a filling, if somewhat bland,
snack bread and butter is also how Chrysler
describes its minivans. Even with GM and Ford waving
a white flag in the minivan war Chrysler continues
selling hundreds of thousands of the people haulers
and after trumping the foreign competition with
Stow-N-Go a few years back, has decided swiveling
seats are the next big thing. Along with the nifty
seats come squared off styling, more power thanks to
a 4.0-liter V6 and a revised instrument panel. It'll
be interesting to see how much longer this segment
lasts before the rising tide of crossover sales
start sending the unloved people movers the way of
the Dodo.
Ford
There's a saying in this business that you can
tell how good of a year an automaker had by the kind
of food they stuff us auto scribes with at auto
shows. Well, we didn't see so much as a Lifesaver at
this year's events and, at least so far, Ford hasn't
joined Oldsmobile and Plymouth at the great auto
show in the sky. While the production equipment
rolled out today doesn't get us too excited (a new
front end and 3.5-liter V6 for the Five Hundred and
a heavily revised Focus, now available in sizes
2-door and 4-door) the concept Ford Interceptor
tickled our fancy until we cried like little girls.
Here's the car that could make the 300C yesterday's
news (Senior Editor Muxlow just informed me that the
300C is yesterday's news). Lincoln actually
showed signs of life by dropping a sexy red head in
Cobo called MKR. It features a direct-injection
3.5-liter V6 with twin turbos spooling out 415 hp
and it all comes wrapped in chrome and some of the
best looking sheetmetal we've seen come out of
Lincoln since their average customers were in
diapers (Senior Editor Muxlow just informed me I
should clarify we're talking about baby
diapers here). Add some headlights large enough to
actually light the road and get this puppy in
Lincoln's showrooms before the brand flat lines for
good. Oh yeah, there was something there called an
Airstream concept but with a car as classic as the
Interceptor on the stage my eyes were blocking out
the toaster, oops, concept and focusing on the
muscle sedan. Of course, those black spots could
have been from the hunger pains too. It must have
been a bad year for Ford.
General Motors
A concept called Volt was what the General decided
to focus on today. According to them Volt is the
answer for just about every problem. Is the world
running out of oil? Gas prices too expensive to even
pull the car out of the garage? Shoelaces in a
knot? It doesn't matter, Volt will save the day!
Actually, it's a very novel idea that keeps the
General soaking up the greenie love. After their Los
Angeles auto show announcing a plug-in hybrid Saturn Vue GM has made up some serious ground in the PR war
with Toyota. It's clear to us the best minds inside
GM are making some serious headway on the oil
dependency problem and we can't wait to see what
they come up with next. GM is already in partnership
with two battery companies to develop and test
next-generation Lithium-Ion battery packs. As it
sits the Volt would charge up overnight plugged into
your garage outlet, get you about 40 miles on pure
electric power and then, if more range is needed, a
small engine running on just about anything except dirt
will act as a generator to recharge the batteries.
The mpg numbers General Motors quotes are
impressive. We could say the same for their efforts
in this area lately.
Acura
The Acura Advance concept could make a seriously
nice luxury sports car and if we're really lucky
it'll show up pretty much unchanged as the next NSX.
The concept has room for a front-mounted V10 and a
rear-wheel biased version of Acura's Super Handling
All-Wheel Drive. Apparently V8s are not Acura's
style. Go big or go home we guess. From the sounds
of it they are going big.
Audi
Diesel is the name of the game at Audi these days
and they are justifiably proud of their oil-burning
accomplishments. Not only did their all-conquering
R10 LeMans racer conquer all in 2006, new diesel
engines are being introduced left and right to
expand Audi's TDI offerings worldwide. A 6.0-liter V12 TDI was the engine
of choice in the Q7 concept shown today. It has 738
lb-ft of torque and if you listen very closely you
can hear its 6-speed automatic transmission beg for
mercy.
More important is the 3.0-liter diesel actually
coming to the U.S. later in 2008. Better yet, it'll
be legal in all 50-states.
Mercedes-Benz
An ice skating rink was installed to drive home the
fact that Mercedes offers a lot of all-wheel drive
models these days and also that overfed journalists
are not as graceful as professional ice skaters.
Then, rather at odds with the whole ice thing,
Mercedes unveiled an S-class sized sedan with a
folding soft-top called Ocean Drive. We like the idea, but the
squared-off front end leaves us, ah, cold.
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce buyers will have to reinforce their
toupees now that the uber-cool named Phantom Drophead Coupe has made its official debut. The
production car looks much like the concept that
debuted a few years ago even keeping the brushed
aluminum hood, wood tonneau cover and rear-hinged
doors. It's nine inches shorter than its four-door
sedan brother but it's so hard for the proletariat
to see your wealthy mug behind the saloon's giant c-pillar
this might be the better option.
Seriously, this car looks like a million bucks so
considering its only about $400,000 this is really
the deal of the decade. We want one.
Jaguar and Volvo
Incase you don't live and die by the Swedish
automaker's every move, the XC90 crossover has been a success so
it stands to reason that a smaller crossover, to be
called XC60, should be every bit as popular with the
safety-conscious buyer. Except this Volvo looks
pretty good so maybe style-conscious buyers will
also start shopping in Volvoland. The last car to
break cover on the first day of the show was the
gorgeous Jaguar C-XF. According to St. Ian Callum,
Jaguar's Dean of Design and automotive hall of famer
the car that replaces the S-type next year will look
a lot like this sport sedan. If that isn't the best
news Jaguar fans have heard in a long time we don't
know what is. The car looks great with muscular
lines flowing in all the right places. We've got a
nervous feeling this one is going to be watered down
when it finally rolls off the line, but we're keeping
our fingers crossed what we see is mostly what we'll
get. For Jaguar's sake we hope it is.
Read about what
made news on Day 2
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