Germany’s iconic sports car manufacturer chose to unveil the cabriolet edition of its newly released 911 in the most unexpected of venues. The state of Michigan has historically been such a small market for Porsche that they abstained from displaying a single car at the show for a couple of years. Combine that slim sales volume with a city that normally experiences single digit temperatures several months out of the year and the unveiling of a bright red Porsche 911 Cabriolet at Detroit’s Cobo hall is as unexpected as Detroit’s warm weather this week. Read more…
As if the idea of a Smart pickup wasn’t funny enough, the big wigs brought in funnyman John Lovitz to entertain the assembled press and try in vain to convince us that an “urban pickup” from Smart was a sound idea. We can’t even pretend to get on board with this one. Read more…
The SL roadster has been around a long time and the sixth generation that debuted today looks equipped to carry Mercedes’ flagship roadster banner long into the future. For starters the standard engine is now the superb 4.6-liter twin-turbo that produces 429 hp and a gargantuan 516 lb-ft of torque. Tasked with motivating an SL that is now 275 pounds lighter than the outgoing version (hooray!) SL drivers will be rewarded with a 0-60 mph run of only 4.5 seconds. Read more…
Having just celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011, Chevrolet is keen on establishing its predominance with the ever important young car buyer. There was much talk about how the car has a diminished importance in the eyes of the under-30 crowd due to their ability to interact from their own homes through social networking sites and smartphones. In order to adapt and attract that younger generation, Chevrolet introduced one production model and two concepts. Read more…
Chrysler made its morning press conference a celebration of a resurgent Dodge and rolled out a convincing argument in its quest to conquer the compact market in the form of the Dart. The small sedan is the product of the Fiat acquisition and successfully covers an Alfa Romeo developed platform with tough Dodge styling including a full-width tail light inspired by the Charger. Read more…
One vehicle that we have been anticipating for months is the all-new 2013 Ford Fusion. We spotted several heavily disguised mules around Detroit that made us anxious to see just what Ford had up its sleeve. When the fresh sheetmetal was rolled onto the turntables today we were far from disappointed. As contemporary as Ford has kept the Fusion, the new model leaps forward with an attractive 6-window greenhouse complemented by a low Aston Martin-like grille rather than the chrome 3-bar piece formerly decorating the car’s nose. Read more…
Unlike with the Car of the Year “surprise” (we incorrectly predicted the Passat) the North American Truck of the Year award actually went to the vehicle your humble editors expected. The Land Rover Range Rover Evoque simply advances the entire luxury crossover segment to stylish new heights unmatched by the other finalists to be ignored by the judges. Awkwardly enough, Jaguar/Land Rover didn’t choose to participate in this year’s NAIAS so they won’t be able to brag about their new award to the 800,000 people expected to attend the upcoming public show. Oops.
One of the most anticipated industry awards is the annual North American Car and Truck of the Year awards. The title is highly coveted by automakers due in no small part to the proprietary nature of the voting by 50 journalists from the United States and Canada. The Hyundai Elantra beat out the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Passat to take the 2012 award even though your humble editors had publicly predicted a Passat victory. Though photos and video of the 2011 Elantra were mistakenly displayed as a Hyundai executive accepted the award, make no mistake that the 2012 Elantra is a car that appears to be deserving of the accolades. Read more…
Properly covering an International Auto Show requires a lot of hardware and the AT Crew brought enough gadgets to produce a 24-hour cable news channel. Unfortunately the show doesn’t open until tomorrow and we’ve got things to say today so we repurposed our hotel suite into a makeshift soundstage and set the camera rolling. We highlight some of the expected stars of the show and go on the record with our predictions for North American Car and Truck of the Year in the best 36 minutes you’ve ever seen produced in a hotel living room.
Normally we’d be asking for sympathy as we setup residence in the winter wonderland of Detroit to cover the North American International Auto Show, but truth be told the temperatures this year are mild and there isn’t a snowflake to be found. But even if a blizzard descended there’s no place we’d rather be since the annual kick-off to auto show season always delivers the stunning concepts and fresh production debuts we crave. We’re expecting a good show this year as the automakers close the books on a resurgent 2011 and look forward to a growing market this year. Tomorrow we’ll be onsite bringing you all the pictures, news and video you’ve come to expect from us, but for tonight here’s a preview of what’s to come. Read more…
