The Encore is the right size, right design, a winner!
The return of Ford's Lincoln brand...
With a bold new design, the MKZ is worth the wait!
Hyundai's lifetime-battery-replacement guarantee
Hyundai has a different take on Millenial marketing:
Cadillac Debuts New ATS at NAIAS
Audi's take on Luxury & Electric Vehicles
While showing new A4 and Q3 Vail Crossover (2014?)
Some highlights of NAIAS 2012...
North American International Auto Show in detroit, MI is a fantastic collection of the world's greatest vehciles. The Chineese auytomakers have decided not to show this year, but we dont miss them, either. Nissan has rteturned with a big showing of their new Pathfinder concept. Manufacturers have not released a complete list of the vehicles they'll debut at the show, but NewCarNews can share what we know at this time:
General Motors unveiled its 2013 Buick Encore. A small SUV, unique in this class and I can tell you this will be a spectacular winner for Buick and GM, both here and in China. At Chevrolet, it's a 2013 turbocharged Sonic RS (due for release in late 2012). Plus two great looking vechiles that they beleive will ttract Millenial interest. The stunning new Cadillac ATS was revealed Sunday January 8, with its new 270-horsepower, turbocharged 2.0-liter engine.
Ford reveals the 2013 replacement for the Fusion. Lots of buzz here about this one!
Chrysler revealed an all-new Dodge Dart.
The very hot Kubang from Maserati will got it's first North American unwrapping with news that it will be built right here in Detroit at the Jefferson North plant. . Germany showed the 2012 BMW 3-Series sedan, Mercedes-Benz 2013 E300 BlueTEC Hybrid, E400 Hybrid and SL-Class, plus the Smart "for-us" concept. .
Volkswagen's Bentley brand offered a 2013 Continental GT V8 and Continental GTC V8.
Honda offered an Accord Coupe Concept, then from Acura a ILX concept, the 2013 RDX and a NSX concept.
Nissan has a new Pathfinder plus a concept electric van. . Toyota's upscale Lexus brand introduced a hot concept LF-LC and presented the 2012 version of its somewhat less expensive full-size LX 570 SUV while Toyota shows off the Toyota NS4 plug-in hybrid concept and the 2013 Prius C. Hyundai debuted the 203-horsepower 2013 Veloster Turbo. Hyundai USA CEO John Krafcik made the announcement that the latest hot hatch was cleared for production during the SEMA show in November.
--Bob Giles
Can SAAB be saved?
Photo by Bob Giles
Sad, but obvious news that Swedish carmaker SAAB has filed for bankruptcy. This comes after the attempts by Chinese investors to take over Saab were blocked by its previous owner General Motors, which still owns some technology licenses for Saab. But now sources say that a Chinese investor may be looking again at creating a way to buy the company. Saab CEO Victor Muller is not commenting on this latest twist. You'll recall that Muller used his luxury sports car maker Spyker Cars to buy Saab from GM in 2010, promising to restore its Swedish identity, but the company ran out of money within a year.Readers of NewCarNews were the first to learn of Muller’s intent to buy Saab, even before GM acknowledged they had received his proposal. Muller continued to impress everyone around him with his personal passion to keep Saab alive. It is the stuff that makes a great book, a keynote address to an automotive banquet, and an important case study at the HarvardBusinessSchool. Muller will always have the admiration of auto geeks for staking all he had to keep an important brand alive. It is a road few travel, but a risk worth taking. --Bob Giles
Chrysler to build a 2013 SRT Viper
The Snake Returns to Conner Avenue Assembly Plant
Something we all knew that was about to happen...Chrysler Group LLC will reopen its Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit for the production of the next generation SRT Viper. With the plant’s reopening, nearly 150 jobs, both hourly and salaried, will return to the City of Detroit. The Conner facility was idled when production of the Dodge Viper ended in July 2010. “The next generation Viper will make its return to the product lineup in late 2012 as a 2013 model,” said Ralph Gilles, President and Chief Executive Officer - SRT Brand and Motorsports, Chrysler Group LLC. “We’re extremely excited that our ultimate American sports car will continue to live on and be produced exclusively here in the Motor City.” Current Chrysler Group hourly employees who previously worked at Conner were first offered the opportunity to return to their home plant. The balance of the positions will be filled by hourly employees volunteering to transfer to the Conner Avenue plant. Conner Avenue will begin building the new Viper in late 2012, but employees began reporting for training and orientation this fall.
Bob Giles Photo (2011)
North American International Auto Show Adds European Industry Executive to Team
The North American International Auto Show has named to its team former director of the Frankfurt International Motor Show, Dr. Kunibert Schmidt. The announcement, which is effective immediately, was made by Rod Alberts, executive director, NAIAS. Alberts said Schmidt will bring years of valuable, international auto show experience to NAIAS.
"Kunibert Schmidt is a highly creative, and respected individual, and one of the true all- stars in the business of international motor shows," said Alberts. "Under his direction, the Frankfurt show became one of the largest and most important in the world. As a result, in one way or another, we've all learned from the Frankfurt show."
After 32 years with the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), which presents the Frankfurt show biennially, Schmidt retired in early 2010 as managing director. He also served as a member of the VDA Management Board for 19 years. He joins the NAIAS as an industry consultant, and is responsible for representing the Detroit show to manufacturers, media, suppliers and other important audiences in Europe. Schmidt, who is based in Berlin, has and continues to be a consultant to global Tier One automotive supplier Schaeffler. Former German Transport Minister and current VDA President Matthias Wissmann said Schmidt has earned an impeccable reputation in the automotive industry.
NAIAS 2012 Dates
·Press Preview: Mon-Tue, Jan. 9-10, 2012
·Industry Preview: Wed-Thu, Jan. 11-12, 2012
·Charity Preview: Fri, Jan. 13, 2012
Public Show: Sat-Sun, Jan. 14-22, 2012
NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW 2012 CHARITY PREVIEW RAISES OVER $3,000,000!
The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) has raised over $3,000,000 for local charities. Beneficiaries of the Charity Preview include: Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, Boys Hope Girls Hope of Detroit, The Children's Center, Judson Center, The Detroit Institute for Children, Think Detroit PAL, March of Dimes, Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation, and the DADA Charitable Foundation Fund, a fund of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.
PONTIAC Brand Returns
General Motors' time-tested automotive brand Pontiac will return to the GM line-up, according to a high-level GM executive. No time table, probably in the next two years, but we will probably first see Pontiac police cars and competitive racing vehicles. Stay tuned! If Pontiac beins production of a consumer vehicle how will they sell it? Will old dealets be allowed to buy back a franchise? The main thing is that Pontiac brand will not be lost forever.
SAVING VINSETTA GARAGE
Historic Gem To Become Restaurant
Woodward Dream Cruise participants will get a look at the remake of the classic Vinsetta Garage on Woodward in Berkley. Closed for over a year, the gas station turned classic car body shop will soon become a restaurant!
Local producer Gary May is using this iconic location for video work he's producing for a soon-to-be- aired series called, "AutoWeek's Vinsetta Garage". This is Gary's brainchild, and the location will serve as his production anchor and occasional interview location.
AutoWeek owners give us a preview of what the restaurant may soon look like. This is the Spartan set-up for this weekend during the Woodward Dream Cruise, but you can't get in unless you have a special wristband. This is an exclusive"invite only" spot for AutoWeek's best sponsors and contributors. Don't even try! But here's a preview for you.
New OnStar Software Links Love Ones
Hey, It’s 2046!
by Bob Giles, NewCarNews.TV
Michelin Design panel members before the Automotive Press Association in Detroit, MI 5-5-11 The theme of the panel discussion was Inspired by the 2012 Michelin Challenge Design theme, “City 2046: Art, Life and Ingenuity.” We’ll see some of the design winners at the 2012 North American International Automobile Show in Detroit next January. (Bob Giles Photo)
(Detroit Athletic Club, APA Meeting, Detroit, MI 5-5-2011) For a about two hours today it was 2046 as four automotive design experts talked to the media about future car design in a world that experts not surprisingly predict will be far different than today. For instance, there will be another ten billion of us on the planet. If you think of oil as being dominated by supply and demand, well, try to guess what pump price might be for 2011 cars thirty-five years from now. Don’t even guess.
2046 will see today’s population centers become megacities. That change is already happening in cities like Shanghai. Streets in Paris and ring roads around London and Los Angles are becoming parking lots. Huge concentrations of people will find it even more difficult than today to get from one point to another.
The prediction is that cars will become personal transportation devices mostly devoid of spectacular design that creates emotion attachment and a personal bond. Some will be independently driven, other linked together in trains. Some will be windowless cocoons, coffins on wheels, flying carpets, small programmable mattresses with wheels that know where to take you. Personalization will be there, but it’s unclear to what extent.
2046 is a different world. And the world is already changing.
Today’s youth is becoming less interested in the car as an emotional experience. They want wheels to get to their destination. That could be a bike. Ownership of a car is not critical. The destination is more important than the experience of the journey. That is time better spent in networking and communication with friends, not developing a relationship with a piece of machinery. Many today think of the car as appliance, a transport device. If that is the trend, then it appears that car design will have an even more difficult time in the future to excite new car buyers with great design rather than function. Knowing what we know today about distracted drivers, car windows would become less important in the future.
It’s a different world.
The automotive panel (assembled for the Automotive Press Association by sponsor Michelin Tire Company) agreed that one obvious solution is to create centers of population that did not require traveling great distances between work and home. A good friend of mine is in Saudi Arabia right now creating such a city for its government. A square-mile city to be built from the sand up that is self sufficient and fully sustainable. Is that where Detroit should be?
So what can Detroit take away from this? Right now, we have abundant open land, a dwindling population and an alarming trend of educated talented youth migrating away from the state. Should Detroit right now define itself as the city of the future? Detroit: First city of 2049!
Oakland County has the Woodward Dream Cruise. Detroit could start its own Future World Cruise with the streets filed with future vehicles along Woodward from the Cultural Center and the designs at Center for Creative Studies to Hart Plaza where we could all test drive a 2046 flying carpet windowless pod. I think I’ll try to get a meeting together of forward thinking civic leaders to plan this. Hey, it’s 2046! The future is now!
Christopher Borroni-Bird from GM, Joel Piaskowski from Ford, Joseph Dehner from Chrysler, and Larry Erickson from the College for Creative Studies before the APA
2012 New York Auto Show Nears:
2011 NewCarNews.TV Photo Album...
Image:
All Photos: Bob Giles NewCarNews.TV
Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit”
Strikes a
Chord in New York
The question was, clearly, could
they do it again with
three new '300' models?
---Louise Giles
Could
Chrysler come to the worldly Big Apple and create in April the same kind of inspirational
buzz it ignited in January with the Eminem Superbowl commercial that celebrated
a resurgent rust-belt city as much as a car?
Enter risk-taker
Olivier Francois, president and CEO of the Chrysler Brand, at New
York’s Javits
Convention Center late in the first
day of the press previews for the show.
But enter
first, in person, the glorious gospel choir that elevated the Eminem commercial
from average to anthem.
From the robed
choir’s first attention-grabbing chord on the stand at the Javits, it was
obvious that this was to be no normal new car preview. There was another message at work.
Francois took
the stage not so much to recall Detroit’s
gritty past as to celebrate New York’s
own gutsy stance in the face of adversity.
New York’s beautiful Chrysler
Building, he reminded the press,
was built on determination and pride in the depths of the Great Depression. Referring to more tragic recent events, he
asked, “Is there any city more than this one that knows how to get back up
after being knocked down?”
With the
choir’s soaring voices as accompaniment, Francois called onto the stage a trio
of gleaming Chrysler 300 automobiles that each celebrated the human spirit of
overcoming. As each vehicle rolled onto the stage, it was paired in Francois’
commentary and on the screen with a human figure that had grown from a humble
background to a height of accomplishment—and represented a potential target
market for the vehicle.
Detroit Lions’ defensive tackle NdamukongSuh was shown driving up to his mom’s humble home in a
chocolate-colored 300C, “the jewel in the crown of Chrysler.”
Designer John Varvatos, who had flashed from a
blue collar beginning to the top of the New York
fashion industry, was pictured in a white 300 SRT8 with ultra luxury
performance.
Los Angeles Rapper Dr. Dre was matched with a
platinum gray 300S, a street machine “a little edgier and a little darker…with
its own voice and sound.”
The cars, Francois concluded, had earned “the
country’s respect for a spirit, for an icon, that’s imported from Detroit.”
Olivier Francois, president and CEO of the Chrysler Brand
LEXUS LF-Gh Hybrid Concept NYC Debut
All Photos: Bob Giles NewCarNews.TV
Lexus Concept
Design Claims
New Respect
in High Performance Hybrid Field
---Louise Giles
It was the tail lamp that did it.
The lamp, trailing a thin line of
red lens right into the trunk lid, indicated a blur of motion and excitement
that seemed to define the new high performance LF-Gh hybrid concept from Lexus.
Will the design detail make it past
the concept stage and into a future production vehicle for the North American
market?
Brian Smith, vice president sales
and dealer development for Lexus, while not commenting directly on the tail
lamp design, affirmed that features in a concept design sometimes do not end up
in production.
But, whatever the outcome, the
vehicle had staked out its claim to a new emotive level in the luxury high
performance hybrid field.
Lexus seized the eve of the New York auto show press previews
to turn a loft-like building in New York’s art gallery district
into a high-end backdrop for the reveal of a concept vehicle designed to
command new attention and respect for the brand.
The concept, which Lexus
says “sets out to redefine the premium grand touring sedan,” will be at the
Lexus display at the 2011 New York International Auto Show through May 1. More than just a concept, Lexus says the
vehicle “explores Lexus’ future direction,” citing the car’s assertive and bold
grill as an example. The grill—and that
pleasing tail lamp—make the viewer hope that the future which would include
such winsome features will come soon.
Image:
VW's Transparent Plant in Downtown Dresden
The Rick Wagoner Version
Sources Confirm Gentleman Rick is Writing a Book
Turn on your Kindles! Sources confirm to NewCarNews.TV that Rick Wagoner has been busy writing a book that will tell his version, from the inside, of the events that led to his firing as chief executive of General Motors by the White House. Except for a very few close friends, Wagoner has be off the radar since his departure from GM, so his book will and automatic best seller and hopefully we'll see "Gentleman Rick" on some of the more high profile talk shows. Wagoner was elected to The Washington Post Co.'s board of directors last year. The Post Co.'s release says that Wagoner "retired from General Motors Corporation in August 2009," As part of the bankruptcy, the federal government took a 61 percent stake in GM, which it still holds. Wagoner was a 32-year GM veteran and had been chairman and chief executive of the company from 2003 to 2009. Despite the problems the company experienced in the U.S., Wagoner is credited with expanding GM's presence in China.
Waiting for the Superbowl Commercials: Can they top these two from 2011?
While many sponsors revealed their advertising plans for Sunday’s Super Bowl, the Chrysler brand remained tight lipped to create a stronger impact for the reveal of their new marketing and advertising campaign featuring famous Detroiter, Eminem. The brand’s new spot, “Born of Fire,” features the all-new 2011 Chrysler 200 and reveals the brand’s new tagline, “Imported from Detroit.”
A success story from the supplier side...
Bill Kozyra, chairman and CEO of TI Automotive
Joann Muller APA President
Bill Kozyra, chairman and CEO of TI Automotive and chairman of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, addressed some very difficult issues that faces his industry over the last two years before members of the Automotive Press Association in Detroit. He claims that two significant factors, uunprecedented teamwork, and cooperation and shared sacrifice among automakers and their suppliers helped save the North American automotive industry from collapse. Kozyra says that profitability is returning and a renewed sense of optimism is taking hold, including his own TI Automotive. TI is the remake of the old Bundy Corporation and deals with fluid storiage and delivery systems in vehicles. Ti was on brink of failure in 2009 but has emerged from the recession as a leaner, stronger, more focused organization and recently earned the largest global supply contract in company history. --Bob Giles
Auburn, Indiana: Worth a Museum Stop!
Image:
The Cord-Auburn-Dusenberg museum was built on the site of the original headquarters of Auburn Automotive Company. The first level of the museum offers restored Cords and Duesenbergs. The second level features other automobiles dating from the 1900's-1950's. The museum boasts a collection of over 120 cars. There are a total of three floors, and they are the proud owners of the largest collection of Duesenbergs on display in the world.
