Detroit Auto Show 2016: All Of What’s New
Last year’s Detroit auto show made for splashy headlines with the unveiling of a new Ford GT, the production Acura NSX and a pair of Ford Shelby GT350 Mustangs. Barring major surprises, this year is more sedate, and the focus is on practical production cars--crossovers, trucks, a minivan and luxury sedans.
Here’s a list of the major reveals at the 2016 North American International Auto Show, updated as the show progresses:
Periscoping the Detroit Auto Show
Watch Editor-In-Chief Sharon Carty touring the show floor with Periscope. Includes a surprise encounter with Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.
Last year’s Lincoln Continental show car was a sensation, of sorts, imagining an American luxury sedan with enough Bentley touches throughout that Bentley itself was a little put out. Today, Ford took the wraps off the 2017 Continental production car—toned down in most respects, but still designed to offer a quiet alternative to other luxury cars, here and abroad.
As for GMC’s new runner, the Acadia looks surprisingly masculine, and meaty. It’s a vehicle I’d drive without shame. That whopping 700 lbs. diet is due in part to a significant shrinking of the SUV, both in terms of length and width, squarely placing it in the midsize crossover division—despite looking similar to the previous generation in pictures.
The original Honda Ridgeline pickup was, to put it kindly, an oddball. It had its fans who wanted a car-like ride twinned with the ability to haul an occasional payload, but in the tradition-bound U.S. pickup realm, the flying buttress style, relative lack of grunt and relatively high cost all made the Ridgeline one of Honda’s rare miscues.
Yet pickups are such a part of American culture that no automaker the size of Honda can ignore them. Hence the 2017 Honda Ridgeline, a reworked pickup that shows Honda sticking to its new ideas about what pickups should be, while trying to win back some of the buyers it turned off before.
Kia has been trying to appeal to ballers—literally—with the LeBron-approved K900, and it’s now targeting the fullsize luxury SUV market with the Telluride Concept. Whimsical and gimmicky features aside, it’s a futuristic concept eying production reality.
What you see here is the Genesis G90, revealed today at the Detroit auto show. It joins the lineup as its premium luxury flagship, a Mercedes-Benz S-Class rival that will likely save customers at the bank.
Lexus anointed a new king today at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
The all-new Lexus LC 500 will serve as Toyota’s luxury brand new flagship, dethroning the Lexus LS.
Akido Toyoda, Chief branding officer, said the LC 500 was the product of the LF-LC concept vehicle that debuted in Detroit four years ago. That car was muscular, highly-defined and outrageously sporty. The LC 500 is better.
Based off the well-received Q60 concept, the road-going version keeps most of the good lines while adding a minimum of less-graceful ones. Under the hood, Infiniti will offer one of three power choices—a 208-hp turbo four-cylinder or a all-new 3-liter twin-turbo V-6, tuned to either 300 hp or 400 hp. The seven-speed automatic pairs to either standard rear-wheel-drive or a new all-wheel-drive setup.
Audi H-Tron Quattro Concept
The whole “Clean Diesel” thing didn’t work out too well for Volkswagen, and so its follow up is to cozy with your forgetful side by offering a feast of actual clean vehicles—like all-electric SUVs, and now, a hydrogen-powered ride that can travel 373 miles and be recharged in fewer than four minutes.
Nissan Titan Warrior Concept
What’s the point of a concept truck like this one, the Nissan Titan Warrior? Unveiled today in Detroit, the Titan Warrior is a mostly cosmetic remix of the all-new Nissan Titan XD full-size diesel, with the 5-liter Cummins turbo V-8 left untouched. What was redone instead was the exterior and stance, all meant to show off an off-roading feel that Nissan’s full-size pickup has heretofore not possessed.
In addition to a plug-in hybrid Fusion Energi, an all-wheel-drive Fusion V-6 Sport debuts, with a mildly racier exterior, a projected 325 horsepower and 350 lb.-ft. of torque from its 2.7-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost, and continuously controlled damping—a system that varies suspension tuning within “a blink of the eye” based on road conditions and handling requirements.
Volvo XC90, Honda Civic Win North American Car And Truck Award
The 2016 Volvo XC90 ran away from the competition, winning the North American Truck of the Year award by nearly 200 points. The 2016 Honda Civic took the mantle for the Car of the Year award.
Chrysler did not dominate the minivan market; it was the minivan market. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will attempt to return to those halcyon days by unveiling the Chrysler Pacifica – the new nameplate for Chrysler’s minivan. The Pacifica is impressive in all the ways the modern Town & Country was not. The new Pacific arrives with more than 100 innovations – some original, others swiped from competitors – showing this family hauler is ready to roll into the future.
2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class
In a world of smart gadgets and mobile devices, Mercedes-Benz would like to position the 2017 E-Class sedan as the most intelligent mobile device on the planet. And judging by how it drives, parks and communicates for itself, the German automaker has a strong case.
It’s been a full year since Ford first revealed the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor, and since then the exact parameters for the world’s only full-size sport pickup have remained vague. Today, Ford fills in some of those blanks, but not all — showing off the production Raptor with a new four-door version and a boost in power.
The Avista concept unveiled Sunday night takes the capable bones of the new Camaro—eight-speed automatic, rear-wheel-drive, magnetic shocks at the corners—and wraps it in a personal 2+2 pillarless coupe that suggests what could have been if the Grand National hung around.
Death of the Power Plenum grill? The concept previews the design of Acura’s future sedans, which will hopefully reverse the languishing sales of its current four-door lineup.
Shrink down the M4, drop in a twin-scrolled inline-six good for 365 horsepower and you have the M2, successor to the venerated 1M. A Smokey Burnout mode (yes, that’s the actual name) encourages you to let out the hoon within.
BMW has answered a question nobody asked with the BMW X4 M40i, a performance crossover hatchback that takes on the Audi SQ5 and Mercedes-Benz GLC450 AMG. Its twin-turbo 3.0-liter engine makes 355 horsepower and 343 lbs-ft of torque.
On the surface there’s little controversy about having another midsize GM crossover on the market, except this one is made in China and imported into the US. The Envision is expected to cost around $40,000 and take on luxury vehicles like the Acura RDX and Audi Q5.
Chevrolet Cruze Hatchback
Chevy is having another go at a compact five-door, the previous generation of which was never sold stateside and looked like an awkward mashup of a Holden and a Malibu Maxx. Sharper styling comes with practicality, as it boasts 42 cubic feet of cargo space with the rear seats folded down.
Following the acclaimed XC90, Volvo continues the reimagining of the brand with the slick S90. The flagship sedan will have one of the most advanced semi-autonomous tech on the road, with a standard Pilot Assist that can stop, steer and cruise up to 80 mph.
