Fastest Cars: Detroit Auto Show

Showing posts with label Detroit Auto Show. Show all posts

Lexus Does the Walk and Talk Around the LF-LC Sports Coupe Concept

One of the most attention-grabbing design studies at this year's 2012 Detroit Motor Show was the Lexus LF-LC, a prototype for a sports coupe powered by an unspecified hybrid powertrain.

Lexus says that its goal with the concept was to share its vision of what a premium sports coupe could look like with the public as well as to display the brand's evolved styling language and future technologies.

In this new video, the Japanese company's designers from its Calty Studio in California, which was responsible for the creation of the LF-LC, talk us through all the design details. Hop over the break to check it out.

Before the official unveiling of the new ATS earlier this month, Cadillac had given us an insight on the development of its new premium sedan model at the Nürburgring racetrack through The Journey web videos.

For the fourth episode of the series, the wreath and crest brand takes us on a trip behind the scenes of the car's world premiere at the Detroit Motor Show.

It may not have hosted as many world premieres as the recent Frankfurt Motor Show, but there were plenty of important debuts at this year's edition of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which closed its doors on Sunday, January 22, to draw in the crowds.

According to the show's organizers, Sunday's attendance of 101,141 topped last year's final day numbers of 98,106, and brought total attendance of the 2012 NAIAS to 770,932 over a period of nine days (for the general public), which is a little over 35,000 more than last year and the highest since 2005.

The 2012 Detroit Motor Show is more or less consigned to the dustbin of history, but that doesn't mean we'll stop talking about the vehicles that made their world premiere at the Cobo Center and especially the concept models.

Truth to be said, high-end sports cars such as the Acura NSX and Lexus LF-LC studies are the ones we'd really like to drive in the not so distant future, but for most of us, it's models like the two Chevrolet coupe concepts that correspond to mainstream reality.

While very different in philosophy, Chevrolet's Code 130R and Tru 140S Concepts share several attributes: both models were designed as four-seater coupes for the young at age (or young at heart); both are based on existing platform architectures and use production hardware, and finally, if they were to be built, their price would be in the low $20,000s.

At the 2012 Detroit Auto Show that comes to an end on Sunday, January 22, Lincoln put on display the MKZ Concept to preview both the looks of its soon to be launched mid-size sedan as well the brand's new styling direction.

But FoMoCo isn't the only one to present a design concept for a future Lincoln as the Lawrence Tech University had its own proposal in the form of a quarter-scale model for a pure-electric Continental for 2025.

The study for a luxury sedan model is the work of Lawrence Tech students Colin Bonathan and Jeeho Cha and it was endorsed by the Ford Motor Company.

It all started in the summer of 2011 when Bonathan and Cha came up with plans for a Lincoln concept as part of their undergraduate degree program in transportation design. The university said that Ford officials liked the concept so much that they commissioned the quarter-scale model for display at the Detroit event.

Some are agency models that simply stand or sit in new vehicles and smile at the camera for hours on end while others, like Joyce Brew, a product specialist who directly for Toyota, try their best to inform potential buyers as well as to assist members of the media on press days about their latest products on show.

They are the beautiful faces of the motor show circuit and on the occasion of the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, CNN Money produced a video to give us an insight on their competitive profession and how it has changed over the years.

You can hop over the break to watch the video report for more.

The 2012 North American International Auto Show's press days are done and gone which only means one thing: it's time to show you some of the beautiful ladies that gave a sassier tone to the vehicle presentations at the Cobo Center in Detroit.

So, if you feel the need for some eye-candy, hop over the jump to check out our high-resolution gallery.

Sad to say, many classic vehicles are often left to rot and inevitably make the dreaded trip to the crusher, after being stripped out of anything that can be recycled.

Thankfully, that’s not always the case and some vehicles survive even after 6 decades. Even though the first-ever 300 SL, a racing model from 1952, was destroyed, the second car that was built with chassis number 194 010 00002/52 survived as it was in Mercedes’ ownership.

Good manners dictate that unless you are provoked, you can politely ignore your adversaries. In the case of those involved in the auto industry, politely point out to your clients and/or the press why and in which areas your products are superior. That's a common practice. Openly attacking your opponents is considered rude.

But Not anymore. At the 2012 Detroit Motor Show, some pretty poisonous remarks were uttered by several executives. BMW North America boss, Ludwig Willisch, dismissed the new Cadillac ATS and Lincoln MKZ saying that, despite their claims, they are simply not in the same league as the 3-Series.

“We don’t produce trucks, nor taxis or buses”, said Willisch. “We don’t produce sofas on wheels – and we don’t take mass-market vehicles and rebadge them as premium.”

When Carlos Ghosn, the man who has successfully turned around Nissan and is now trying to do the same with Renault, is discussing the auto industry, then you can be sure he knows what he’s talking about.

During an interview with Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the 2012 North American Auto Show, Ghosn said that 2011 was a record year for most manufacturers, and it would have been even better had the tsunami not crippled most carmaker’s production for many months.

The North American version of the Toyota 86 rear-wheel drive sports coupe will be available in in the U.S. this spring as the Scion FR-S. Despite the absence of the “86” designation in its name, Scion makes no attempt to cover the fact that the FR-S is a descendant of the original Toyota Corolla AE86.

This is why Scion will launch a first batch of 86 cars in the States before the FR-S becomes available to the general public.

There's a reason why the crowds aren't allowed to touch most concepts and prototypes, let alone take them for a spin. With a few exceptions, these models are created purely for show and lack the painstaking attention to detail under the skin found on production vehicles.

But while a mishap is understandable and perhaps even excusable, it's also hugely embarrassing -no matter how small it is- when it happens to a vehicle like the Lincoln MKZ Concept with which Ford itself says it's not only introducing a new car but "essentially a new brand". Even more so when the incident occurs at the largest auto show in North America…

To make matters worse, Detroit's Free Press was on hand to film the smoke coming from the MKZ (or at least that's what it looks like in the video). Hop over the break to watch the clip.

If it's attention that Chrysler wanted, it sure got what it asked for with the most secretive concept model of the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, the 700C minivan. And this despite the fact that the automaker didn't even issue a formal press release on its conceptual people carrier.

But all for good reason as Chrysler brand global boss Saad Chehab explained in an interview with Australian news site Drive at the Cobo Center.

Chebab told the website that Chrysler did not release any supporting information on the 700C because it "wanted unsolicited opinion about the car and its potential" from the motor show visitors. He also said that the 700C was a last minute addition to Chrysler's Detroit Motor Show booth.

Every year, the first major international auto show takes place on American soil: it’s the North American International Auto Show, or NAIAS as it is more commonly known, and it’s located right in the heart of the U.S. automotive industry, Detroit.

It’s only natural, therefore, for domestic manufacturers to display their newest models at the Motor City.

Among other presentations, Ford will unveil its new Fusion global mid-size sedan that will be sold as the Mondeo in other parts of the world including Europe, while Cadillac is already releasing spoilers of the brand new 2013 ATS and so is Dodge, which will introduce the first product of the Fiat-Chrysler collaboration, the Alfa Giulietta-based 2013 Dart compact sedan.

Toyota was one of the few brands that managed to keep one of its Detroit Auto Show debuts under covers until the grand opening and today, the Japanese manufacturer officially revealed the NS4, a sleek looking plug-in hybrid concept.

Like many other conceptual studies shown in Detroit, the NS4's role is to preview the future in the areas of styling and technology.

Toyota says that the NS4 concept signals a new styling direction for the brand "aimed at making an emotional connection with consumers". And truth to be said, the NS4 looks far more interesting than any other Toyota sedan – but then again, it's a concept, so it's supposed to look great.

Dodge has calculated that with three available engines, three transmissions, 12 exterior colors, 14 interior color and trim options in either cloth or leather, the highly customizable Dart will offer buyers some 113,000 different configurations.

And if that ain't enough, Mopar has just announced that it will release more than 150 accessories and performance parts for the new Dodge compact saloon that arrives in U.S. and Canadian showrooms later this year.

The problematic luxury child of the Ford Motor group is trying to recuperate from years of neglect with a fresh concept model that not only previews the next MKZ mid-size sedan due in dealerships later this year but also serves as a vision of Lincoln's next-generation vehicles.

Of course, those of you that have been following the automotive industry will know that this is not the first time that Ford has attempted to rejuvenate its luxury brand. All the same, the Blue Oval claims that the MKZ Concept, which debuts at the 2012 Detroit Motor Show, marks a new era for Lincoln.

“With the Lincoln MKZ Concept, we are not introducing a new car. We are essentially introducing a new brand,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford's vice president for global product development. “The MKZ Concept is the next step in the reinvention of Lincoln, something we’ve been quietly but aggressively pursuing.”

Car manufactures always try to devise new ways to get the most publicity out of launching a new product. Sending a press release and some images, or pulling the wraps off at a motor show, is simply not enough.

For the all-new Buick Encore, GM chose to reveal pieces of a puzzle that completed an image of the vehicle. Yet, even though we could see most of it, the final piece that was missing fell into place today at the Detroit Auto Show.

We first saw Maserati's upcoming entry in the luxury SUV segment at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September and now the Kubang is making its North American debut in Detroit, the city in which it will be built.

The shorty story on the Kubang is that it shares a platform with the latest Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango, but features a unique body designed at the Maserati Style Center headed by Lorenzo Ramaciotti.

Nissan may be calling the Pathfinder a concept but we all know that the study exhibited at this week's 2012 Detroit Motor Show is as close as it gets to the production model that will follow in fall this year.

The first thing you'll need to know about the 2013 Pathfinder is that Nissan has abandoned the current, third-generation model's body-on frame architecture and returned to a unibody construction. We say returned because the first generation of the SUV utilized a ladder-type frame with the second generation making use of a unibody construction.

The fourth generation of the Pathfinder also brings less rugged and more crossoverish looks and the promise for a more luxurious interior and a plethora of technological goods. Nissan also says that the SUV will offer excellent legroom in all three rows and ample cargo room behind the 3rd row of seats.

Lexus Does the Walk and Talk Around the LF-LC Sports Coupe Concept

Cadillac ATS: The Journey from the Nürburgring to Detroit

2012 Detroit Motor Show Sees Best Attendance Numbers Since 2005

Poll: Which Chevrolet Concept Coupe Would You Like to be Built?

Students Design an All-Electric Lincoln Continental for 2025

Our Kind of Girls: A Look into the Lives of the Auto Show Circuit Models

The Most Beautiful Models of the Detroit Motor Show

Living Legends: Oldest Mercedes 300 SL in Existence Shines at the Detroit Motor Show

Auto Execs Take a Swipe at Each Other at the Detroit Motor Show

Carlos Ghosn Talks About Moving Production Overseas, Mercedes-Benz Alliance

Want to Become One of the First 86 Owners of the Scion FR-S? Read on

D'oh! Lincoln MKZ Concept up in Smoke at the Detroit Auto Show

Chrysler Boss asks if the 700C Concept Minivan is Stupid, Beautiful or Crazy [with Poll]

Carscoop's A-to-Z Guide to the 2012 Detroit Motor Show [Updated]

Toyota NS4 Plug-in Hybrid Sedan Concept Signals New Styling Direction [Updated / Videos]

Mopar Preparing More than 150 Accessories and Performance Parts for the 2013 Dodge Dart

New Lincoln MKZ Concept Previews Production Model and New Design Language [Updated]

2013 Buick Encore is a Nissan Juke-Sized Small Crossover [Updated]

Maserati Brings Kubang Sport Luxury SUV Concept to its Birth Town

Nissan Reimagines the Pathfinder as a 7-Seater SUV Based on a Unibody Platform [Updated]

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