Chicago Auto Show: Best and Worst of Show
February 11, 2008

By Jane Nakagawa

It’s hard to outshine the glitz and glamour of Detroit’s North American International Auto Show. But the Chicago auto show has always drawn crowds, and this year is cause for a true celebration because the nation’s biggest and oldest auto show marks its 100th anniversary.

This impressive milestone is well chronicled on the show’s official Web site, where the history of America’s automobile culture can be viewed through myriad photographs gathered from manufacturers’ and private collectors’ archives. Simply click on the decade of your choice and you can practically hear the music.

The Chicago show was closed during World War II and reopened with well-deserved fanfare in 1950. Through the next two decades you can see America’s soaring confidence, initially through fins and chrome, and then through muscle cars. But signs of a breakdown began to show in the late 1960s. First came Ralph Nader and the safety crusade, and then the oil shock of 1973.

Change Is Hard

Ralph Nader's advocacy of automobile safety led to the unanimous passage of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. The Act marked a historic shift in responsibility for automobile safety from the consumer to the manufacturer.

Detroit was hit hard by the 1973 oil embargo. Before the embargo, American cars were getting bigger and thirstier each year. After it, Detroit couldn’t keep up with the demand for six-cylinder compact and four-cylinder subcompact cars. Japanese and European automakers were beginning to export more and more compact cars into the U.S. to meet the demand. Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Peugeot, Toyota and Volkswagen racked up record sales during this period.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

It’s hard not to make the comparison between the full-size trucks and SUVs languishing in dealer lots today and the bloated sedans that sat unsold in the 1970s. And just as consumers learned from Ralph Nader to require safety features from manufacturers, Al Gore is telling consumers to demand greater innovations in alternative fuels and powertrains.

One of the major entries in this year’s Chicago show is the Dodge Challenger SRT8. The original Challenger, launched as a 1970 model-year vehicle, was Dodge’s contribution to the pony car market started by the Ford Mustang. Although the 1970 Challenger was well-received by the public, its introduction came as the pony car segment was already declining. Sales fell dramatically after 1970, and Challenger production ceased midway through the 1974 model year.

The Crystal Ball

The Chicago show highlights the major style conflict between the iconic American pony car and the less-familiar proportions and design language of alternative-fuel vehicles. Which vehicles belong to the future, and which are just old?

Five Best of Show

The BMW Concept 1 Series tii is retro, but in idea only. The original 2002s were fun to drive, affordable and great-looking. This concept is fun to drive but BMW missed the opportunity to truly innovate on package and style.

The Chevrolet Traverse is the newest and best-looking crossover of the GMC  Acadia/Saturn Outlook/Buick Enclave family. It’s good to know you can finally replace that old TrailBlazer and you don’t have to do it with an import.

The Dodge Challenger SRT8 is a great-looking addition to the pony car revival trend. It will undoubtedly make many enthusiasts happy but it’s also hard to shake that feeling that once again, Dodge may be a little too late.

The Ford Transit Connect is an efficient, European-style commercial van. The proportions may be a bit odd but you can’t beat the functionality of the expansive cargo area. And relative to its American cousins, it’s a gas sipper.

The Hummer H3T Alpha may be the shyest sibling of the Hummer family but this compact truck is still unmistakably Hummer and a real truck. Oversized design cues are all still there and so is the body-on-frame platform.

Five Worst of Show

The GMC Denali ST Hybrid Concept is an idea headed in the right direction -- a new-age pickup truck -- but the styling isn’t in sync with the new powertrain. It’s trying so hard to be manly, you wonder what it’s hiding.

The new Mitsubishi Galant is supposed to compete head to head against stylish rivals such as the Nissan Altima. The bad news is it looks more like a Hyundai -- the good news is the Sonata is a pretty nice-looking car.

The Suzuki Equator is another bad rebadging idea conjured up by auto executives with little regard for the consumer. If you didn’t want a Nissan Frontier, why would you want one from Suzuki?

The Volkswagen Routan is a rebadged Dodge Caravan. The idea of rebadging makes consumers feel stupid but the Routan is especially disappointing because this is about as far as you can get from a Microbus.

The Yes! Roadster is a hand-made German sports car vying for the small but prestigious luxury sports car market. The lines on this roadster are so busy it looks like a sports car with ADHD. But it is fast, rare and expensive.

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