Detroit 2009: A Pivotal Moment

 This is a remarkable Detroit show; one that 10 or 20 years from now may be seen as a pivotal moment in the history of the automobile. At Detroit 2009, the electrification of the automotive powertrain moved from being a technological sideshow to the mainstream. For the first time ever, the most of the star cars of an American auto show were not powered by internal-combustion engines.

Detroit 2009: America Reinvents the Compact Car

I bumped into Ford design chief J Mays in London last summer, just outside the Bluebird Restaurant on the chi-chi Kings Road. J lives nearby, and we strolled a half a block or so to grab a couple of coffees and sit in the bright summer sun and talk cars.
As we watched the traffic stream past, every second car seemed to be a Mini Cooper or Mini Clubman. Ford had recently announced it intended to bring the new Fiesta to the U.S. But would Americans, I wondered, be really interested in buying a relatively expensive, high style small car that wasn’t a Mini?

Best of the 2009 North American International Auto Show

DETROIT – Strip away the glitz and glamour of gimmick press conferences, brightly lit, unrecyclable displays, burnout-ready rear-wheel-drive V-8s, and what do you have? The 2009 Detroit show. The good thing here is, without all that glitz, one tends to notice the cars. And we ink-stained wretches get more or less the same show that the public gets beginning Saturday. A few of the things that stand out:



Best concept: Cadillac Converj. A coupe that’s so good-looking, you’ll want it whether you love or hate the idea of extended-range electrics.

Best concept detail: Blue lights along the 2+2 center stack of the, yes, Cadillac Converj that lights up “reverse waterfall” style, from back to front, as you start up the car and light up the battery pack placed under the center console. Cool.

Best of show: Cadillac Converj. See above.

Best contrasts: Both Cadillac’s and Lincoln’s concepts are front-wheel-drive models on c-segment platforms.

NAIAS 2009: Congresss Car Show

As press days for the 2009 NAIAS wind down it occurs to me that this year’s show was scripted perfectly for congressional consumption. You want future tech? We’ve got full-electric vehicle announcements (Ford’s 2010 commercial vehicle and Dodge’s Circuit plus Toyota’s FT-EV and the Mercedes E-Cell), and we’ll show you more plug-in EVs than you can shake a Con-Ed bill at. Ethanol? That’s so 2007. Fuel cells? Their Right Honorablenesses are skeptical that’ll pay off before the loans come due. Diesel? Wheredya think ya are, Eur’p?

Jaguar XFR/XKR Tech Donors: Vette ZR1, Ford Fusion

During the 2009 North American International Auto Show I had the opportunity to chat up some engineers and get a deeper dive on the technology that helps Jaguar’s new supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 develop its astonishing 510 horsepower and 461 pound-feet of torque.

First and foremost there’s the Eaton Twin-Vortices Series compressor, which is identical in concept to the ones pressurizing the Corvette ZR1 and Cadillac CTS-v, using four-lobe screws with considerably more twist in them than most of the old three-lobe blowers had. The design is 20 percent more efficient, and a redesigned air intake resulting in a more direct airflow path reduces flow losses by 30 percent. As a result, this supercharger consumes less energy to produce 510 hp than the existing engine uses to produce 416, and virtually delivers the efficiency of a turbocharger without the lag. Pressurized air flows out through a pair of intercoolers, each of which can remove 28 BTUs’ worth of heat per second.

2010 Detroit: Sporty Hybrids – Go Fast or Suck?

Take the temperature of the auto industry right now, and you’d find that it’s green. Or blue. Or whatever color you happen to associate with fuel efficiency and environmental consciousness.
So far, not a single automotive press conference has gone by without mention of some sort of new gas sipping vehicle, emissions reducing technology or campaign to save the whales. Just look at the vehicles announced at this year’s show; of the twenty odd major reveals, seven involved either hybrid or electric vehicles. From the Audi e-tron to the Hyundai Blue-Will, BMW ActiveE and Volvo C30 BEV (battery electric vehicle) – the message is clear: green is the new black.

The Electrics Are Coming! (But will anyone care?)

To walk the NAIAS show floor one imagines that the gasoline supply is practically gone and the world will be plugging in to get around any day now. There’s a whole “Electric Avenue” area on the main floor, a big display featuring several electric competitors vying for the $10 million Progressive Automotive X-Prize, and a driving loop in the basement. Below are highlights of the some of the more intriguing exhibits, and you can read our postings on the Commuter Cars Corp. Tango and Green Vehicles Triac. But is there really a market for these cars?
But before the NAIAS opened the Boston Consulting Group addressed the Automotive Press Association to present its research into the challenges, opportunities and outlook for electric cars over the next decade. They are not bullish. Barring unforeseen breakthroughs in chemistry, lithium-ion battery costs will drop by only 65 percent or so, to around $360/kilowatt-hour. Most assumptions for volume adoption of electric cars are predicated on a $250/kWh battery price (and Boston Consulting reckons $215 is required for total cost of ownership to break even with combustion after three years). Further cost reductions are limited by a floor in commodities that comprise a quarter of the battery pack. Manufacturing in third-world countries doesn’t help either, because the intellectual property costs are higher than the manufacturing costs, and shipping costs eat the savings. That means that total cost of ownership may break even with combustion engines in 1-5 years–but only if current incentives are extended. It’ll take 9-15 if they’re phased out. External factors that would change that horizon include: Continued incentives of $7700, $375/barrel oil, or a 210-percent gas-tax hike. Failing any of that, Boston pegs EV penetration at no more than 10 percent of the market by 2020.

2010 Detroit: Best of the North American International Auto Show

DETROIT – A grizzled veteran who attended all of the 2010 North American International Auto Show press conferences here Monday and Tuesday says he lost count of automakers’ use of the word “sustainable.” That much hasn’t changed — it’s been the word of the show since at least the mid-’00s. The difference, this time, is that while electric vehicles grabbed much of the headlines, the big news this year is small cars.
Consider the new Ford Focus, perhaps the major star of the show, judging by press day coverage, or the Chevrolet Aveo RS “concept” car, the 1.4-liter turbo four-door hatchback headed for production late this year. The Aveo’s only concept elements may be the 19-inch wheels and center dual exhaust pipe, which Chevy hopes the sport compact tuner crowd adds to the suddenly interesting subcompact.
So let’s call that the theme of the 2010 NAIAS. I didn’t attend all the press conferences, because Motor Trend has a full staff covering this show, and we split them up, but I saw pretty much everything:
Best in Show: Unlike previous shows, even last year’s, there are no big standouts. Rather, the show was filled with good, solid product, most of it quickly headed for production or lightly disguised future production models. That said I’m going to award the Audi e-tron Detroit concept because the German automaker continues to extend its design leadership to a rather pie-in-the-sky electric sports car. Updated from the Frankfurt ’09 e-tron, the crystal-blue Audi combines R8 styling in what looks more like a TT-sized coupe. The two rear motors provide 201 horsepower and 1955 lb-ft of torque (that’s not a typo — that’s apparently Audi’s multiplied torque number) to the rear wheels only (no quattro). What I like best, though, are the rear sail panels flowing into horizontal taillamps that give the car a mid-century “Jetsons”-era look. Sublime.

2011 Detroit Show Underdogs—the Little Guys

Detroit is back to maybe 80 percent of its original glitz and glamour, but with Nissan and a few other mainstream makers absent there was room on the main floor for some decidedly un-mainstream players in a dimly lit corridor between the swanky Chevy and Volvo stands. And these small companies that I had never heard of purport to be taking orders for cars you can buy now, or very soon.Coolest looking of the bunch is the Mach 7 Motorsports Falcon, a Corvette-powered mid-engine exotic hailing from Holly, Michigan, a small skiing hamlet north of Detroit. This company, best known for making body modification kits for Dodge Vipers, is trying its luck with a 200-mph, $200,000 American exotic, but most of the purchased components come not from the Viper, but from its archrival Corvette. Engine choices include your choice of a 500-horsepower LS3 or a supercharged 640-horse LS9 small-block, the frame is a hydroformed tube chassis employing mostly Corvette suspension pieces, upgraded with an adjustable KW coil-over spring/damper kit. The body and interior are completely custom made (those sinister looking headlamps are aftermarket replacement units for a Dodge Avenger, shrouded a bit). And a Targa-style roof panel lifts off for open-air motoring. Performance is quoted at 3.5 seconds to 60 for the top-dog version. The company hopes to build 15 per year. We wish Mach 7 all sorts of luck–Michigan could certainly use another profitable car company–but considering that the official Falcon web site doesn’t load on the day of the press conference, we caution you not to fork over a hefty deposit in giddy haste without a thorough read of the refund policy.

2011 Detroit: Our Take on the Good, Bad and Ugly from This Year’s Show

DETROIT – Two years after being left for dead, Detroit’s auto show has lived to see another day. Last year, Chrysler’s dank, dark display looked like something out of the Gulag Auto Show, and it left Chrysler division CEO Olivier Francois depressed over his brand’s complete lack of new product.
This year, Chrysler’s display is bright, full of new 300s, Dodge Chargers, Jeep Grand Cherokees, plus facelifted Chrysler Town & Countrys, and Sebrings magically turned into relatively tasteful 200s. Those 200s are short-timers, designed to help Chrysler’s midsize lineup limp along for another couple of years.
Amidst all the glowing bright lights, are very few concepts at this year’s Detroit show. No, the paucity of concepts isn’t the sobriety of an auto industry that only wants to show realistic, near-production cars. The “dream” cars will be back in a year or two. This is the budget-cut hangover. The Detroit Three, especially General Motors and Chrysler, laid off so many designers and engineers and put so much future product on hold that it’s paying for it this year.
Nevertheless, there’s plenty of reality and near-reality to love and hate at this year’s show. Here’s what Team Motor Trend thinks of this year’s 2011 NAIAS. Be sure to click here for our complete look at everything from the 2011 Detroit show floor.

Rulebreaker: New Cadillac ATS is GM’s Most Radical Car Since the Volt

“We broke a lot of our own rules,” says Dave Masch, chief engineer of the highly anticipated 2013 Cadillac ATS, Cadillac’s new 3 Series fighter. He’s a GM lifer, and that term carries a lot of baggage — GM lifers are supposedly dull, plodding, buttoned-down company men who worship system and process over product. They follow the rules that gave us the Olds Alero, Chevy Aveo, Pontiac Aztek, and dozens of other forgettable pieces of automotive dross. But here was Masch showing me around the new baby Caddy and pointing out all the stuff GM’s product development rulebook would never have allowed. And he was loving every minute.
The ATS might look relatively conventional — the exterior and interior are predictable evolutions of the current Cadillac design language — but in truth this is arguably the most radical new car from GM since the Volt. As you will have read in “Trend,” this Caddy is basically the size of an E46 3 Series BMW, and weighs about as much as a new BMW 135i. That doesn’t sound like rocket science, but getting the ATS built with those attributes intact required a fundamental mindset shift within GM’s product development teams.
The decision to optimize the new Cadillac’s exterior design and chassis engineering around 18-inch wheels is a case in point. Bigger wheels and tires look cool, but are heavy. By taking them off the table at the beginning of the development program, not only could the ATS designers finesse the styling to suit, but Masch’s engineers didn’t have to overengineer suspension components to cope with the extra unsprung mass. Instead, they were able to focus on their core deliverable: making the ATS feel as light and agile and fun to drive as an E46 3 Series. Besides, as Masch points out, even on 18-inch rubber, the car still has the same rim-to-road ratio as a Corvette ZR-1.
But Masch’s team went further than the obvious stuff like right-sizing the new Cadillac’s wheel/tire combination. “Our mantra was ‘every part, everybody, every gram,’” he says. And to do that, they tore up large sections of the GM product development rulebook, the one Bob Lutz colorfully rails against in his book “Car Guys vs. Beancounters”:  “…we engineered for an extreme situation…and alienated literally thousands of customers…on a daily basis.”

2011 Detroit: Choose Your Own Edition

By now you’ve seen a ton of our 2011 Detroit auto show coverage.  Our team attended all of the sneak peaks, press conferences, reveals and receptions and exhaustively profiled all of the concepts and production models made their debut. Now, it is time for YOU to make your picks.
I’ve walked the show floor and put together six match-ups based on vehicle class, price, exterior design, and just because it seemed like a good idea. Some of the pairings are obvious, while others are semi-ridiculous.  Click on the links if you need more information or to see more pics – or just go with your gut. In the comments section below, let the world know which one you’d rather have in your garage.  Time starts now.