THE DETROIT AUTO SHOW

Well, another year has dawned, and if it is January 2012 there must be an auto show in Detroit, and I am here to cover it for your and give you the whole scoop, the lowdown, and nothing but the truth.

First, I would like to say a word about Detroit.  When auto writers come to Detroit, they tend to make some comments about the city, and they usually don't know what they are talking about, but I do - because I grew up in Detroit.  I lived in Detroit through its halcyon years in the 50's and 60's, when it was really the "car capital" of the world, and a vibrant, spectacular city that featured tremendous culture, arts, music, and it really was a wonderful place to live.  Regardless of the renaissance that some of the Detroit carmakers may be experiencing now, it really has nothing to do with the city of Detroit.  While some progress has been made in reclamation and restoration of the city, it still remains a vast wasteland and a total tragedy, compared to the vibrant city that I remember growing up, and which included a large, healthy middle class, many of whom worked in some connectedness, if not directly, to the auto industry, and that era of America is gone forever, tragically and unfortunately.  Now, on to the show.

As I did with Frankfort last fall, I am going to go through the show based on what I consider to be the most important or significant cars you need to know about.

Ford Fusion/Mondeo:  Here we have Ford's latest attempt at a world car, blending their strategy of combining European and American models into one primary model, slightly altered for various markets, and I think this is a good idea because Ford of Europe has always had some interesting design dynamics, and recently Ford has been on a big roll upwards, as they didn't take bail out money and made it back on their own.  The Mondeo is a good-looking car in general.  It incorporates a lot of the current popular design themes, which include especially a large front grille, which on the Fusion is executed well, if a bit generically, and the general glass house of the car is also executed well, and much better than on other recent Ford models.  There are some harmonious and delicate aspects to the car, especially in terms of the way the glass house hides the bulk of the body, the slightly rising waistline, the rear trunk panel.  These are all well done and show a real focus on design delicacy, which was never something Ford did well, if at all.  The interior is a little more generic, but still nice looking, and overall the car is a good-looking entry into the midsized field.  You have to realize that the midsize segment is so large, and, includes Camry, Fusion, Sonata, Malibu, and several other players, and this is a huge segment of the market, so this is a very important car for Ford.  I would say that Ford has done a good, credible job overall in bringing a forward-looking and modern car to the market.  Clearly, the Hyundai Sonata has been the major influence in this segment over the last couple of years, with its dramatic styling, and this has encouraged Ford to take the direction it has done.  This should be a good car, especially because Ford does well with its various hybrid and Eco-Boost models, and especially if Ford continues to develop the My Touch infotainment panel as this model comes on the market.

Dodge Dart:  The Dodge Dart is an interesting car, and also a reflection of an interesting company.  This car is basically a re-bodied Alfa Romeo Guilietta.  It is a little bit wider, a little bit longer, a little bit more appropriate for American tastes.  It is a nice first effort.  I think the interior is particularly nice, with the large touch screen and leather seating, which looked to be of high quality, and a nice instrument panel; overall, a nice design ethic on the inside.  I wish they had done as much on the outside.  The car is essentially bland, derivative, a good-looking car, but nothing particularly stands out about it, and herein we have the big problem.  Chrysler does not know how to differentiate its models yet at this point, and their design is in a chaotic state.  They are going to have a different front end on this car for China, which is more European.  They are going to have a different model of this car, which is an Alfa, for Europe.  Chrysler is not gelling in terms of design.  They just don't have it together for these particular models yet.  That is not to say that they won't in the future, but the most glaring example of this is the front-end grill on this Dodge.  It is ridiculous in that it doesn't really show any strong corporate identity either for Chrysler, or for Fiat brand at a larger level.  What Fiat needs to do with Chrysler is to begin to really get its design ethic for the various divisions, including Chrysler, Dodge, Alfa Romeo and Fiat, together.  These four sub-brands are so ill-focused designwise that it is hugely problematic.  In fact, the only one of these sub-brands that has a coherent design focus is Alfa but they are mired in a long-term slump caused by the lack of new and exciting models to be sold worldwide throughout the group.  Now, this will be the focus of another separate blog of mine, and look forward to a full review of the Chrysler-Fiat situation.

Cadillac ATS:  The Cadillac ATS is probably Cadillac's best effort overall, although we haven't really seen fully the XTS Premium Sedan which is about to be released this year, but the ATS works at a lot of levels.  It has good, high-quality engineering.  It is about the size of the BMW 3 series.  It shows a slightly evolving "art and science" design theme from Cadillac in specifically the following areas.  The roof line has a little more roundedness to it than in other recent Caddy designs.  The overall body shows a little more fluidity than the ultimately sharp-edged crease design of the models in recent years, and this shows design evolution, which I am glad to see.  The grill is kind of an unfortunate hybrid.  It looks like Cadillac was toying with the idea of going to a full-frame, Audi-style grille, and in the end decided to have the body panel in front of the grille bisect it,  and therefore it looks  underdeveloped and not as bold and striking as it could have been.  I think Cadillac to go with the full-frame grille by eliminating the body section in the middle, yet reducing the overall size of the full-frame grille so it is not as large and omnipresent (and some say obnoxious) as the Audi face, and make it more tightly integrated and more resembling a Maserati face.  This would have been a very good look for Cadillac, but they chose to not go the full distance this time.  Perhaps they will with one of their next models.  Other than that, the car looks good.  It is going to have the new CUE infotainment system, which looks to be a world-class system, and Cadillac is finally offering a tan leather interior for their cars, which is so long overdue.  We will just have to wait and see how the car drives, but it looks to be a very thorough and competent effort.  Cadillac is really beginning to develop a place for itself in the market, based on its recent designs, and one can only hope that the ATS and XTS move this forward.

Lexus LF-LC:  This is Lexus' first attempt at a "concept car" in some time, and it is a smash.  For those of you who read my blog, you know that I am not a big fan of Lexus in any way whatsoever, and I think in general their cars represent the epitome of blandness, the finest in automotive soul-lessness that has ever been seen on this planet.  Lexus cars have no soul, they have no spark, they have no edge.  They are the epitome of bland driving machines, and that is why they are regularly and righteously slammed in this blog.  Now, the LF-LC is somewhat different.  It is a concept car for a potential coupe and it has some really nice design features in it.  The grill, which is smaller in the upper sections and then expands to a large vertical mesh below, is really well executed.  It takes the concept of today's larger, more oversized grilles into a really beautiful area.  They just did a tremendous job with the front end and knocked it out of the park.  This shows what can be done with a large grille format, but used in a slightly unusual way.  The C-pillar and roof elements are also spectacular in this car.  The C-pillar itself has A Lamborghini Espada flavor  to it, in the way that it turns upward, and it meets the roofline in a very delicate treatment, which is airy and beautiful, and really compelling.  Along with the glass roof, and the fact that the roof pillars themselves dial back into the glass roof toward the rear, this gives the car a tremendous lightness of look, which is very unusual and suggests a refined design ethic that one wouldn't really believe Lexus was capable of.  The swept-back angle of the windscreen, in combination with this roofline and the grill, as well as the projector headlamps, produces a look that is nothing short of stunning, arrogant and extremely bold.  I didn't think it was possible from the Lexus designers to create a car that had this much pop.  This car rivals an FF or a 599 for visual audacity, and that's a huge compliment.  Inside, things are a little more  sane, but not much.  The design ethic inside is equally bold and inspired, with giant wood panels in each door panel, and a super-large screen in the center of the console, and kind of a race design feel to the general cockpit, the steering wheel, the seats in leather and suede panels.  Overall, it is a really spectacular effort, and if Lexus had any corporate strength of commitment, they would build the car immediately as is.  And the fact that they probably won't, and the fact that these design elements will get watered down into something that looks a lot less inspiring is truly tragic, and suggests the kind of corporate timidity that we see throughout the industry.  But as a concept, it certainly was the star of the show.

Bentley CGT:  The Bentley Continental GT has never been one of my favorite cars, for a number of reasons.  While the basic design shape was good, I felt like the car never achieved a focus in the marketplace, especially given its audacious price.  I remember the first time that I stepped into a dealership to drive the CGT and I asked the salesman his overall impression before I got behind the wheel, he said, "Well, it's kind of like a big Audi, but faster, heavier, and way more expensive”, and of course that was true.  Now, for the first time, the Continental GT has gotten some important modifications and deserves a review for that.  It has the new corporate V8 engine, which is, of course, lighter, more frugal, more efficient, and just a better motor overall for this particular car.  It has the 8-speed box from its corporate Volkswagen parent, and it finally has a telematic system that doesn't have its roots in the 1990's.  Remember, we are talking about an over-$200,000 car here.  Of course, these things should have been on the original car, but they weren't.  In any event, the styling has also been tweaked and slightly modified in a way that I find very appealing.  The black grille works very well, and the AMG-inspired air dams below it look superb, as well as the new bulge over the rear wheels, and the new tail treatment.  All of these changes work together to give the CGT a sharp, kind of cutting-edge look that the original never had.  I haven't driven it yet, but from what I understand, given its lightness, and the still powerful capacity of the V8, along with the 8-speed, improved telematics and improved fuel economy, this could finally be the car that the CGT was supposed to be all along.

Mercedes SL:  The new Mercedes SL made its debut in Detroit, although pictures of it have been available for some time.  I will be brief in my comments because I am going to do a full post on what's going on with Mercedes design these days.  Let me say here that the SL has some interesting elements.  The grille is very nice in an old-school Mercedes way, but looking at the design overall, one has to be disappointed.  It has the current Mercedes design vernacular of too much forced edginess.  It is almost like Gordon Waggoner, the design chief of Mercedes, was not satisfied with some of the beautiful cars that Mercedes had turned out over the past ten years, including, obviously, the original CLS, the current S-Class, and  the current C-Class, and decided the cars needed more edgy, slashing, angular treatments, and he has created a whole series of cars that are truly uninspired, and the SL is the latest one.  There are a number of thematic elements in the car which just don't work that well.  The way the headlights sit in conjunction with that beautiful grill is truly unfortunate. It is pretty clear when you look at the car frontally that there is something problematic about the headlight design.  The car in profile looks okay, but again the large air intakes are problematic, in the same way that they were on the SLR, and overall the car certainly has a butch quality to it, but lacks the elegance and authenticity that, of any Mercedes, the SL should absolutely have.  This will not go down in history as one of the great SL designs.  I think the Mercedes design staff felt that the last generation of cars, including the last SL, were a little bit bland in their fluidity and organicity, and that's not an inaccurate judgment, but the problem is that in trying to revitalize some of these models they have gone to the worst kinds of solutions, the kind of slash-stripe-line-cut that have no place on a Mercedes.  Instead of reworking the whole design to be more authentic and to be more groundbreaking, they have added these appendages that make the cars look almost as bad as the Chris Bangle-era BMWs.  It is unfortunate, and, as I said, I will speak more about it in a full post.  There may be more that comes up later in the week, but I wanted to give you the best from the first day here.  Certainly, the theme of the Detroit show had to do with moderation in midsized cars, moderation in power trains, and sportiness in styling.

One other comment that needs to be made is the rise of the four-cylinder engine.  We know that because of the fuel economy standards here and in Europe, automakers have gone to putting four-cylinder engines in their cars in a mad scramble.  Look at the BMW 328i.  But certainly, in the midsize category, including Camry, Fusion, Altima, Sonata, Malibu, and others, there isn't a six-cylinder engine to be found.  That is truly a remarkable development, and we will see how this four-cylinder and four-cylinder/hybrid class of engines is responded to by the market.  Will buyers in this class accept that kind of power train, or will they ultimately demand something slightly less economical but more sophisticated. Watch this space.

                                                     FRANKFURT REFLECTIONS

Well, the Frankfurt Auto Show has just concluded, and certainly this is one of the biggest, car shows around the world.  Remember that Frankfort alternates with Paris on a yearly basis, and because of concentration of power within the German motor industry itself, the year the Frankfurt show is held always provides for a very significant extravaganza, and this year was no different.  There was so much going on at Frankfurt this year that it is really impossible to cover it in one post, so what I am going to do is just reflect on the cars that I found to be interesting, significant, and worth talking about.

THE NEW 911

I wanted to just make a note about the new 911 because it seems like the car, while so anachronistic and so completely outmoded in engineering terms, is finally looking better from a design point of view.  By this I mean, because of the slight movement in the rear axle, and the positioning of the engine and the rake of the front windshield, I feel like the car finally has a more integrated look, and it actually looks somewhat more modern now that these changes have taken place.  The overall stance is better and, again, the proportions provided by the changes I have mentioned give the car a better-balanced stance.  The other element in design that contributes to the better look of the 911 is the front wings, which seem to rise a little higher, almost in Dino-esque fashion, providing a nice design element for the 911, while the front trunk line plunges slightly, helping the overall effect.  The 911 is still an acquired taste, but it is a better looking one.

BMW I-8

This car is significant because it certainly heralds a somewhat new design ethos from BMW, but also because of its unique propulsion methodology.  I wanted to comment on the design, to say that this looks like a very nice evolution of the current BMW design themes, and I hope that we see this in more BMWs.  I feel like the current BMWs were a reaction to the “emperors’ new clothes” designs of Chris Bangle.  The current line is somewhat blander and more generic as a response to all those ugly cars, and now the I-8 begins to take BMW into a new design direction which looks very positive and potentially quite elegant.

JAGUAR CX-16

This is Jaguar's new sports car and somewhat smaller than the XK, and it was presented conceptually at Frankfurt, although it will be in production soon.  I think the car overall came off as a significant success.  From a design standpoint, the grille was certainly an improvement on the current XK, and the overall stance and line of the car was fluid and nice.  I like the side-opening rear hatch.  I like the haunches over the rear wheel arches.  And really, this car is a further statement to the fact that Ian Callum is not only a brilliant designer, but one who essentially knows how to design a coupe that looks right.  There were no superfluous body surface treatments, and the car was clean and well sculpted, and I think it will be a beautiful production car.  Another big design success for Jaguar following its revolutionary XJ sedan.

MASERATI KUBANG

I was glad to see the Kubang, in the sense that Maserati needs desperately to increase their model range if they are going to be financially successful and a long-term player, and therefore the Kubang was a welcome addition to the Maserati line.  As a design statement, though, to my eyes, and to those of most others, it was significantly lacking.  What was strange about the Kubang and was disappointing, especially compared to its Giugiaro predecessor, was that this Kubang, while having good general proportioning, lacked the design flare it could have, should have had, and desperately needed.  The car sat extremely high off its wheels, which made it look awkward to begin with; but even if we set that aside for a moment, the overall specific design of the car was just not innovative enough.  It had the traditional Maserati mouth in the grille area, and an attempt at sculpting haunches both over the front and rear wheels, but as an overall design it just did not grab you enough, and I was really disappointed in that.  The car will probably drive well, and hopefully the interior will be a strong selling point additionally, but one had hoped for more from Maserati's first SUV concept.

MERCEDES BENZ F125

The Mercedes Benz F125 was really just a technical exercise designed to show the potential for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the future, but once again it continues in a line of Mercedes Benz concept cars (the F130) that preview the look of future S-Class generations, and Mercedes continues to develop the look of their next S-Classes through these concepts.  It was clear from looking at the F125 that the development of the S-Class aesthetic continues along these lines, with a lower glass house around a primary coupe silhouette, and a very large, encompassing grille, with smaller headlights positioned above at the outer sides of the body.  It is clear that this is the direction for the next S-Class, and one can only hope that when we actually see the car in the metal, it turns out to look good.

Mercedes has a lot of innovative developments in the pipeline, and certainly hydrogen power is one of them, as well as the next generation command system, which will be much more interactive, more Internet-based than the current one.

KIA GT

This clearly was one of my two stars of the show, and I was knocked out by this concept, even though it's a Kia.  I have to tell you that the designer, Peter Schreyer (formerly of Audi) did a magnificent job of presenting his vision of an ultra-modern four-seat GT car.  But what makes this car so unique in design is it channels and enhances design elements from the Lamborghini Espada of the 1970's so incredibly successfully.  You can see this in the turn of the C pillar, in the flattening of the rear window, and the proportioning of the roof.  If you look very hard, you can see that the Lamborghini Espada was the true inspiration for the Kia GT, and it is all the better for it.  It looks smashing, it looks dynamic, it looks exciting to drive, and it is about time that someone picked up on the themes that were so beautifully expressed by Bertone in the Espada and translated them in a more modern idiom, which Schreyer has done with this car.  Let's hope this makes production.

PEUGEOT HX1 CONCEPT

This is a large Peugeot concept for a large crossover, and it is notable because of Peugeot's attempt in again refining their design ethic, and they certainly have done this more so with the HX1 concept.  For an ultra large crossover, the car looked very nice and had many innovative features in and out.  Once can only hope that Peugeot doesn't water this down when it gets to production.

SEAT IBL CONCEPT

This was my other star of the show.  This car is what any brand new Alfa Romeo should look like.  This is a beautiful, clean, harmonious design of a mid-sized sedan that really was striking in its cleanness.  As a matter of fact, it reminded me of earlier Bertone Alfa Romeo styling exercises because of the angularity of aspects of the design, especially the lower kink in the C pillar, and the way the headlights and rear tail lights were small and fluted in, the way we have seen on Alfa Romeo concept cars before.  This really is a spectacular car.  The glazing was perfect.  The proportioning was really balanced. Most of all, something that is missing  from so many of today's cars, the sculpting was clean, fluid and simple, highly industrial, with no problematic lines whatsoever, yet the car managed to retain an athleticism and a dynamism that you often don't see in these concept cars.  Part of that had to do with the crease at the line of the door handles throughout, running the full length of the body.  Part of it had to do with the dramatic kink of the small window cut-out in front of the C pillar.  Part of that had to do with the integrated tail spoiler, which was so dynamic.  Part of it had to do with the general rake of the windscreen angle.  So for me, in terms of design, this car was a smash hit.

There was a lot of attention to electric and alternative propulsion at Frankfurt, and I wanted to mention that everybody had a different take on it.  Certainly, in Europe, as opposed to America, not only hybrid propulsion has become the norm, but electric propulsion is also becoming a very, very clear option, and we should see these cars entering production now and become more mainstream in the very near future.  I love the Audi A2, which is a full electric version of a small Audi city car, and the world would not be such a bad place if we all end up driving cars like that for our daily commute.

THE SHANGHAI MOTOR SHOW

Well, it's that time of year again and the wild and wacky Chinese are holding their annual (alternating with Beijing) motor show. This year's extravaganza featured the usual conglomeration of unusual Chinese celebrities and business people intermingling with an international cadre of journalists, motor executives and others -- and why not? China has rapidly become the largest automobile market in the world. Let's take a look at a couple statistics that will truly blow your mind.

In the year 2010, new car sales in the U.S. were around 11½ million. In that same year, new car sales in China jumped to over 18 million units, and they are expected to top that figure by 10-20 percent in the current year. So, if you look at these figures and recognize the astronomical growth that is occurring now, and the growth potential over the next 24 months, you see why China has become the world's hottest car market. And, of course, as established manufactures flock to set up plants and build their cars there, they are clamoring for a share of the market.

It is interesting in terms of what China doesn't have, which is an effective homegrown automobile industry base. Oh, sure, there are many, many Chinese automobile manufacturers in the country, more than I could actually name, but they don't produce products that have a market future, not only outside China, but now that the large manufacturers are coming in, even within their own country. It is a situation in which we could basically say that astronomical numbers of cars are build and sold in China, but very little is being designed in China. Well, let's take a closer look at the show, because every car maker was there with a massive presence, indicative of China’s importance.

My first star of the show is the Mercedes A Class. This car is Mercedes' new target vehicle for small hatchback class, and what made it really stunning was its design, from its unusual grille inset to its dynamic, flowing style. This car really captured the best of Mercedes' new design ethos, without the artificial and cumbersome elements that have disrupted some of Mercedes' more recent vehicles (the new CLS). This car was clean, sculpted, beautiful and dynamic, and deserved the plaudits it got in Shanghai. While the A Class platform has never been sold in the United States, the new A Class, which this car will be based on, will be sold in the United States with a 4 cylinder engine. Let's just hope that Mercedes doesn't dilute the concept when it comes into production. Traditionally, Mercedes has a history of sticking pretty close to their vision-name concepts when it comes to production models, and we hope that the A Class follows this pattern. One note about the A Class interior. The infotainment equipment was clearly the next step for Mercedes after their current command system. It featured a very large pop-up screen that essentially looks like an iPad, and has the same kind of UI and same kind of connectivity; and you can see that, as I predicted so long ago when manufacturers were still fighting Bluetooth connectivity, this is the route all manufacturers are taking, producing cars with high-quality, large-screen multi-media units which handle every conceivable infotainment, information and navigation function, and do it all with great graphics. I know this new system from Mercedes, which I have looked at in other concept iterations, will be a world-class when it comes online.

The Volvo Concept Universe was another interesting car in the show, and this clearly is the first fruit of the new ownership of Volvo by Geely, the Chinese auto conglomerate, which could never produce a worthwhile car on its own, and had to buy Volvo to start making competitive cars. This is a very significant moment in automobile history overall, because, as the Chinese buy car companies because they are so wealthy, what will they do with them?

Let's look at what Geely is doing with Volvo, and I think it’s best illuminated by the Volvo Concept Universe. This is a large, executive style sedan that has a generally modern and flowing look, but has a ridiculously ill-proportioned and bizarre front end that can only be described as Chinese design at its absolute, pretentious worst. The grille, the hood line, and the general front of the car apparently represents what the Chinese consider to be "posh" and "upmarket," while the rest of us could only think it looked atrocious and at the end of the day, just funny. Let's hope that some Volvo executives, before they are replaced by their Chinese counterparts from Geely, have enough influence to prevent this concept from coming into production.

The Audi Q3 was Audi's latest attempt at a small compact SUV. This car is one size smaller than the Q5, which gives Audi a full penetration lineup of Q7, Q5 and Q3. Actually, from a styling point of view, the Q3 is the most successful of the three because it is the sportiest, features the most tapered roof line, and generally provides an upmarket experience in a small, soft roader. I like the Q3, although it is not yet scheduled for importation to the United States. One hopes that Audi will bring it in, because it looks like a very high quality and appropriate vehicle for the times.

The Buick Envision was Buick's latest attempt at a large-scale SUV, and it was rather successful, I thought. The design was fluid and flowing. It featured a beautiful interpretation of a blacked-out B pillar, and had unusual doors which opened for the full frame of both front and rear seat passengers. Of course Buick has long been a big-selling brand in China. Long before the automotive crash of 09 and the massive evolution of China as a car market, Buick was America's largest selling brand in China. This is because the Chinese favor big, luxurious, soft-riding sedans as their primary method of transportation, and of course that is what Buick has always built. So, the Envision looks like a neat concept.

Far more relevant and beautiful was the Peugeot SxC. This was my other Star of the Show. This concept for a small SUV was one of the most dynamic and sporting propositions in the field I have seen. It’s like what the Infiniti FX could have been had it been designed by European designers. It has a low roof, a sporty design, very elegant, very minimalist, very clean, striking head and tail light designs, a very nice new-style Peugeot grille, and had a tremendous wow factor. One can only hope that Peugeot puts this car into production.

The Citroen DS5 was a car I have waited for for a long time. Several years ago Citroen introduced a concept car called the C5 Aerolounger. This was a beautiful example of a five-seat, soft-road car in the mold of the Audi Q5, but much more dynamic looking. Well, Citroen has finally built the car and introduced it as a part of their DS line. It looked good. I was a little bit disappointed in the window line between the C and D pillar, which didn't resolve itself as well as it did in the Aerolounger Concept, but still it was a very good-looking car and it had a tremendously upmarket interior. Citroen is, of course, now stacking their DS model cars with better interiors, but this really was the best I have seen. Hopefully it will be a big hit for Citroen, and we can only praise God that Citroen is back a making innovative looking cars. Thank God for the French!

Finally, the BMW 6-Series coupe completed the line, which had already included the introduction of a convertible. You know, BMW design, after being in the dark ages for so many years now seem to be coming back and certainly seemed to reach a design renaissance with the new 5 Series, which is an absolutely stunning and beautiful sedan. The 6 series coupe continues this trend. It’s a classic European and classic BMW shape that definitely will grow on us with time. Certainly not one of the terrible calamities committed by the Boy Who Couldn't Draw (Chris Bangle), but the 6 Series coupe is a little bland, and I think BMW could be a bit bolder and hopefully their Vision Dynamics Coupe, which is coming soon, can make that statement.

So that's about it for Shanghai. It was hysterical and funny and a pleasure to be involved, and it was certainly a sociological moment. Watching the influence of the automobile cultures of Europe and the United States invade China and seeing the response of the Chinese people is an interesting phenomenon. China really has had no automotive culture of their own. Their automobiles were ridiculous mock-ups of other cars for many years. Now that they are bringing in European and American lines to be built and sold in China, it will be interesting to see how this trend develops.