The crowd - all industry and media on the preview day - was thinner too and the presentations were a glam-free zone. Chrysler, which specialised in over-the-top unveilings - one year it created an amazing indoor blizzard to launch something called the Aspen - didn't even hold a press conference.
By far the weakest of the Big Three US makers, Chrysler is now run by Fiat and will rebadge small cars from Europe eventually for sale in the US. But that union has yet to be consummated. Instead, it spread familiar models across ample real estate and sprinkled in some stars from its Italian partner in the shape of a Maserati and Ferrari. So at least there was something worth seeing.
General Motors executives looked like they would rather be getting on with fixing the company than making presentations, but its small car roll-out is much more advanced. It revealed something called the Chevrolet Aveo RS, which is nominally a hotted-up version of a current small car but really shows how the next one will look, sold in Australia as the Holden Barina. Stay tuned, was the message.
By contrast Ford, the only one of the three that didn't have to kneel before Capitol Hill to plead for redemption cash, is starting to look like a changed company. Under the guidance of Alan Mulally, formerly of Boeing, it has divested itself of luxuries like Aston Martin and Jaguar to focus on its core brand. Its various global divisions are all working together to make cars that can be sold everywhere, rather than each one doing its own thing. These days, thou shalt have only One Ford.
Its new car was the next generation of the Focus, a small sedan and hatchback that aims to capture a sizeable chunk of the world's most popular segment. Ford's growing clarity of vision was evident in its presentation, which was better than in previous years and easily the most confident of the Big Three. For the home crowd, it was almost inspiring.
It was left to the overseas car-makers to push the technical boundaries, and the Japanese and Germans made the most of their chance to linger longer in the spotlight than usual.
Honda showed the production version of its new hybrid, the CR-Z, which is a funky little sportscar along the same lines as a previous model called the CR-X. Only with added batteries.
Toyota unveiled one of the most significant cars at the show in the FT-CH, a smaller, cheaper and definitely better looking hybrid than the Prius, which will sit below it in what will eventually be a whole range of dedicated petrol-electric models. So far, it's destined for sale only in the US.
From a position of profound scepticism only a few years ago, the Europeans now have hybrid fever and when it comes to electric vehicles, may even have edged into the lead.
Volkswagen took the wraps of a stylish two-door imaginatively dubbed the NCC, for New Compact Coupe. It teams a 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine with an electric motor in a now familiar hybrid format, but its trump card was its elegant looks rather than its technology.
BMW, which has been experimenting with battery-powered Minis for some time, extended the exercise into its own line-up with an electric version of the 1 Series Coupe. Its Mini stand, meanwhile, showed Germans really do have a sense of humour by reviving the Mini Moke. The presentation for the radical open-sided Beachcomber featured male dancers dressed for Bondi and carrying surfboards, and was the closest thing Detroit had all day to a ray of sunshine.
“Here comes the sun” was the theme tune at Mercedes, though, which showed off its new E-Class Cabrio to the George Harrison ditty and demonstrated new technology that keeps the cabin turbulence-free by filling the car full of models with huge buffant hairdos. The test lacked rigor - it was conducted inside and the car was stationary - but at least it broke the small car monopoly.
Most intriguing was an electric sportscar from Audi, hot on the heels of the E-tron it revealed at the Frankfurt show last year. Smaller and lighter than that model, with only two electric motors instead of four and fewer batteries, Audi underlined the difference between the two by calling the new car E-tron as well. Confused? You will be, because Audi has decided that any model it makes with any electric power will bear the E-tron tag. It wants E-tron to become a byword for battery-power in the same way Quattro has come to stand for its all-wheel drive systems.
If all the E-trons look as good as the one Audi revealed today, bring it on.
No comments:
Post a Comment