Makers Cautious as Subdued Detroit Show Starts Pivotal New Year
By Michelle Krebs January 14, 2010Most of the energy at this week's Detroit auto show epicentered at Ford Motor Co.'s display, 
with eddies splashing out to General Motors Corp.'s guardedly optimistic stand and Audi AG's gleaming base of operations.
But the majority of automakers were laying low, and media crowds were visibly reduced at the show with a reputation for over-the-top product introductions and boastful talk about the coming year.
There was no avoiding the 2010 Detroit auto show's subdued and geared-down mood, fashioned from the collective attitude of automakers licking their wounds and hoping the worst is past.
It also was yet another evolution of the show itself: there was plenty of room thanks to fewer automakers opting to display and fewer journalists opting (or fewer existing) to attend. A surprisingly expansive area of main-floor real estate was occupied by seemingly inappropriate electric vehicles of all manner, few of them of the road-going passenger variety.
Ford was the Detroit show's indisputable crown prince, guardedly celebrating in plain sight with the vibrant and expressive 2012 Focus -- hatchback and sedan are equally compelling -- spinning proudly at the entrance to the Land of the Only Domestic Automaker Not to Declare Bankruptcy.
Ford backed up the Focus with the tasty new Fiesta, a host of newly buffed-up 2011 Mustangs and further enhancements for its Sync voice-operated electronic-device management system. In the weeks leading up to the show, Ford also improved its financial standing by paying down some debt, getting on with its payments to the United Auto Workers' health-care trust and by winning an upgrade for its own credit and watching its stock price surge to highs unvisited in nearly five years.
Rival GM carefully countered with a discreet display area and some compelling new production and concept cars. The Buick division entertained healthy media crowds come to consider the new Regal and the visually striking Regal GS concept.
Cadillac wisely used the occasion of unveiling the XTS Platinum Concept -- the 'tweener sedan to replace today's STS and DTS -- to also convey hybrid intentions for the Cadillac flagship, much as the European competition has recently shown for their full-size sedans. The all-wheel-drive XTS concept uses a battery pack sized for plug-in duty and leverages GM's largely unused two-mode hybrid transmission.
GM's most important car at the show was the Chevrolet Cruze. Reflecting GM and the show's humbler attitude, there was little fanfare for the Cruze, already shown elsewhere and palpably upstaged, stylistically, by Ford's Focus.
The GMC unit unveiled the Granite concept car, with emphasis on "car."
No more smashing of Rams through plate-glass walls for the Chrysler Group LLC. The company, in the midst of an under-the-gun restructuring by partial owner and managing partner Fiat S.p.A., had little to show and little to say about its plans for the coming year.
New was a Lancia Delta hatchback wearing a Chrysler grille and a pair of Fiat 500s, a model many Americans have yet to see in the metal. There were new trim options for several models.
Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne defended Chrysler's decision not to put future models or concepts on the stand as the press and public "have been threatened with success" before by such vehicles that may or may not be built. Plus, Marchionne said, "I have to sell what I have now" before new Fiat-based models arrive.
Japanese Makers Holding Firm
Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. both dropped about 20 percent in sales last year, and at the Detroit show both stuck with safe bets for their brands: hybrids.
Toyota showed a hybrid concept of its iQ subcompact and a four-door hatchback hybrid concept, the FT-CH, a car likely to be an lower-price alternative to the Prius, part of a plan to create a family of Prius-like models.
Honda finally unveiled the production version of the much-discussed CR-Z two-seat hybrid. Opinions on the CR-Z varied widely.
An ebullient Subaru said it plans to follow up with an even better year than its record-breaking 2009 and believes that if a recovery begins, it can take market share from Toyota and Honda. Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. again chose not to have a display, although its 2012 Leaf was a centerpiece of the new electric-vehicle area.
Mazda brought to Detroit the Mazda 2 subcompact, which goes on sale in late summer. Company executives are frank in saying they do not expect overwhelming sales volume unless gasoline prices climb again. They are projecting U.S. market sales of 11.5 million for the year.
Europeans in Maintenance Mode
The major European automakers also were restrained at the Detroit show, bringing little in the way of new product, although Audi's latest E-tron concept car, shown for the first time, was a visual treat. Audi executives are hoping for a modest luxury-market rebound this year but have become less strident about longer-term sales goals.
The company is projecting industry sales of 11.5 million this year and a luxury market of about 1.1 million units.
Indicative of the European makers' gradual and grudging embrace of hybrid and full-electric vehicles in the U.S. -- as opposed to their favored diesel alternative -- the highlights of the BMW and Volkswagen displays were electric and hybrid, respectively. BMW showed an electric variant of the 1 Series, and Volkswagen's New Compact Coupe Concept was a hybrid stylish enough to dispel the technology's green-weenie image. -- Bill Visnic, Senior Editor
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