Detroit Auto Show: Eleven Vehicles That Matter - Or Don't
January 18, 2010
The 2010 North American International Auto Show is one of the most restrained editions of 
the Detroit confab many can remember.
But the show's comparative scarcity of high-impact concept and production vehicles didn't stem the avalanche of opinion on the most notable vehicles.
After scores of media outlets have weighed in, AutoObserver cuts through the clutter to give the real score on the 10 most significant - for better or worse - vehicles of the 2010 Detroit auto show.
Hippest
Geez, can the Germans really be serious about electric cars? Can they make them all look like the Audi E-tron? The 155-mile driving range is righteous, too.
Compare the E-tron to Nissan's fuddy-duddy Leaf (never mind the Leaf is for real and can be owned this year) and we'd rather put plug to socket with this German view of the personal-transport future any day.
Hype-est
We're straining to see the relevance of Cadillac's CTS-V Coupe beyond the obvious purpose for building it, that being to serve as the de rigueur company ride for all the "car guy" execs at General Motors Co.
The enthusiast media was slobbering on cue, but here's why the CTS-V is futile:
1. Cadillac will sell maybe 1,500 of them to actual money-paying customers.
2. In two years, the rap sheet on this car will be "mind-blowing performance, but it's hard to feel confident about using it when you can't see out of the thing."
3. That monstrous caboose really isn't the stuff of coupe legend.
Six months out of bankruptcy and GM's right back to vanity-performance projects. You can feel the corporation collectively holding its breath until the Republicans take charge again and GM can resume the business of making the best vehicles nobody buys.
Finest
Ford Motor Co.'s 2011 Focus looks like the real deal. The total surprise is that the styling for the sedan and hatch is equally tempting. The general shape looks like it may endure.
We're not as sure about how the interior will wear - the visual noise from all those shapes and stuff is tiring after 90 seconds - and it still looks like there's potential for a price-point train wreck, but if Ford's going to try to train the consumer to pay big for small, the 2011 Focus may be its best shot.
Flimsiest
Hate to pick on GM (well, not really), but the Cadillac XTS Platinum concept - the precursor to the one-car replacement for the STS and DTS - still needs work.
The XTS concept's styling is flat and resolutely unimaginative. Caddy was smart to play the hybrid card, though. We hope this car definitely signals there's a lot of "concept" here and there's plenty more clay work coming.
Hairiest
It wasn't exactly news, but Ford's 2011 Mustang shows there are plenty of places left to go with the Mustang's design - all the new tucks and bulges and interesting styling packages are helping to make the Mustang an increasingly compelling visual statement.
A delicious metallic maize color on a display model here - not a production-car color - was mesmerizing and if the new 5-liter V-8 is as good as its specs promise, the Mustang's future seems secure. The V-6 Mustang wearing a 
"30 MPG - 305 HP" decal was painfully forced, though.
Scariest
Three-way tie between the awful-future-that-might-be of the Lancia-Chrysler Delta "concept," the awful-future-that-is of the Honda CR-Z and the awful cheesiness of the show's Electric Avenue display area.
There's nothing redeeming for the Frankenstein creation that is Chrysler-Lancia Delta that looks mostly like an attempt to craft an Alfa Romeo Murano.
The CR-Z delivers a fleeting perfume whiff of everyone's lost love, the late-'80s CRX, but it all looks like it's trying desperately not to look as cheap as it is, while the 31 mpg/37 mpg ratings have even the most ardent Honda fanboys wondering "Why bother" with all the hybrid componentry. Oh, and there's a solid rear axle. In 2010. From Honda.
Meanwhile, the first-ever Electric Avenue display probably wasn't a bad idea. But when the floorspace was offered at a bargain price, you know what happened. Most of the vehicles that ended up here actually would be more in place at the home show in your local community center.
Okayest
The GMC Granite concept seemed to generate plenty of positive reaction and there is some interesting attitude here - we're just wondering if it's the right attitude for GMC.
Though carefully detailed outside (seemingly more carefully than the Cadillac XTS Platinum) and visually absorbing, in the end the Granite doesn't seem all that original, apart from its shock value as a GMC.
More Okay Than Not
Much as you might worry about what it says about you, it's okay to like the Buick Regal GS concept. And yeah, yeah, it's okay to like the "regular" production 2001 Regal, too. 
Although the idea of a Buick with a 6-speed manual and Brembo brakes is a stretch at this moment, there's no denying that, apart from some odd compression at the rear, the Regal GS is a svelte design. The production Regals flanking the GS concept at the Detroit show were plenty sleek, too, with impressive fit and finish inside and out. 
So get the old-fart jokes out of the way and let's move on. If GM doesn't laughably overprice the regular Regal out of the gate (the initial production run, worryingly, comes from Germany, currently not known as a low-cost manufacturing region), the Regal could be a real possibility to begin Buick's quest for the holy grail: sub-sexagenarian customers.
If We Must
Volkswagen's crisp and oh-so-finished-looking New Compact Coupe concept broke no new 
ground. But as with the Audi E-tron, if the world's going combustion-electric, this German interpretation of hybridness is red GTI to Japan's beige Corolla.
If You Must
The Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet was a snore, as was the entire monochromatic Mercedes Detroit-show display.
There may be a more exciting dentist's-spouse car out there, but we've yet to find it. - Bill Visnic, senior editor 
PHOTOS:
1. Tango 2-seat electric car.
2. Audi E-Tron concept: it's cool to be electric after all.
3. Cadillac CTS-V Coupe: GM company-car nirvana (General Motors Co.)
4. Ford's 2011 Focus is the show's most solid play (Ford Motor Co.
5. Cadillac XTS Platinum: this a concept - where's the flash? (General Motors Co.)
6. Ford showed the new Mustang GT 5-liter in this tantalizingly unavailable hue.
7. Chrysler-Lancia Delta: we're not saying anything more.
8. Honda CR-Z: reality falls short of expectation (Honda Motor Co. Ltd.)
9. GMC Granite: GMC does Scion xD, Kia Soul (General Motors Co.)
10. Buick Regal GS concept: save the age jokes, the Regal is solid (General Motors Co.)
11. Volkswagen NCC concept: hybrid that doesn't hurt the eyes.
12. Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabrio: reports confirm it was unveiled.
Posted by Bill Visnic at 11:31 PM under Analysis , Business , Commentary , Companies , Ford , GM , Toyota , Volkswagen, Audi | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
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