On the Floor, In Detroit, Part 2

"Groagun" (groagun) 01/14/2015 at 20:31 • Filed to: Detroit2015

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So I love Detroit, the city and it's people: but what about the show and the cars?

Judging the cars is a very personal obligation and my views may or not be just like yours. Above we have a picture of what has become the clear center piece of this years NAIAS. Sorry Acura but the NSX, believe it or not, is just too old, news wise that is. We've seen and done it now for years. see Doug Demuro at Jalopnik !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

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While the Ford GT stole the show, the truth is that it isn't the real star of the industry. While the Show and the Industry are related, they are two separate and totally different things.

See that truck behind in the above photo: that is a way more significant vehicle than the GT. The F150 Raptor, this one with the EcoBoost V6 is more significant. It's not as sexy, as fast or even desirable, depending on where you live, have you been to West Virginia? but it represents the average buyer and the segment in which Americans can't seem to get enough of, pick up trucks!

The new F150 with all of it's aluminum and EcoBosst V6 has been the topic of discussion for some time now. Recently it hasn't been so good as the fuel economy has been average at best. This to me is a complete and total failure.

Shedding 700LBS or so from the weight should have resulted in some healthy to moderate MPG gains. Instead we are left saying WTF? The truck and chassis aren't the problem and while I think moving to aluminum was stupid, the real problem lies with this engine. How and when Ford fixes this I have no idea but good luck to them.

Other trucks made their obligatory appearances at the show and none went over as badly as the new Nissan Titan. It was so ugly I didn't even bother to take a picture of it. It's a fine truck and surely will do the job but my god it was hideous. Many of the Chevy trucks were just ignored on the floor, even the new Colorado and Canyon.

The Ram 1500 Rebel was kind of 'meh' and the only other pick up to garner any real excitement was the Hyundai Santa Cruz. Now that truck was interesting but all agreed, it will never be built and or never look like that. Some hype was displayed at the Toyota booth for the venerable Tacoma: I think it's funny that the word 'coma' appears in a Toyota product. What was funny on display was the two trim levels of Tacoma. On the main stage was the blue up market edition and on the side stage was the off road TRD performance version in 'Desert Storm' garb.

I stood back and actually watched the serious truck guys gravitate to the sand colored one and all the suits and pretty people surround the blue street machine. It was funny to see the jeans and T-shirt crowd completely separate from the suit and tie crowd.

From the car side of the equation there were a few stand outs, besides the Ford GT. The Cadillac CTS V and Lexus GS F were notable for all the wrong reasons. Both in my opinion are garish. The history of these brands is not reflected in either of these cars and I think that is a mistake. Can't these cars have the power and prestige without resorting to DTM styling?

The Volt and the Bolt. The Volt had a nice new style and fairly impressive tech spec increases. The minuet the Bolt was shown, the Volt was forgotten. Well after the presentations were done the Bolt was still being surrounded, pictures taken and executives and engineers being interviewed. The Bolt is impressive, on paper, even if it is a 'take' on the BMW i3. I hope they can deliver on what they claimed, we'll see.

The SUV/CUV selection seemed a little thin but had some significant players on display. In the 'seen them but don't really care' category were the Lincoln MKX and the new Porsche Cayenne Turbo S.

The Volvo XC90R and MB GLE Coupe kind of stole the show on the performance side of things amongst the new metal category and seemed to do well versus the X6-5M's from BMW. The other odd balls were the new Audi Q7 and Jeep Renegade Mopar editions.

The Audi was praised for losing 700LBS but blasted for it's looks and the Jeeps just got totally ignored. I know this crowd has seen them before, most of them, but the Renegade is a significant vehicle on several fronts for FCA. It should have gotten a little more notice.

The real sore spot was at the VW stand. Having plastered every where the NA Car of the Year Golf, it was painfully obvious that VW is still an also ran in the American market. When the Cross Coupe GTE was shown, all you could hear were the whispers from thousands of journalists saying, 'just build the damn thing already!'

There were some really nice vintage cars as well at the show and two that really caught my eye were these:

It was too bad to see these cars kind of ignored at the show after all the new cars had been launched and what seemed to be the failure to recognize the significance of these two in particular. Especially the Honda, who need to desperately get back to form.

Overall it was a good show made great by the people and staff at Cobo Center and the City of Detroit. I encourage you to go and soak it all in. On your way into the main hall though, I implore you to stop at one of the booths outside by the Congress Street side entrance: Zenos Cars. I did not expect them to be there and what a breath of fresh air they are. Cool car produced by cool people and I think more worthy of the the title 'Car of the Show'!

SHARPSPEED > Groagun 01/14/2015 at 20:43

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That opening shot of the new GT looks straight out of a concept sketch.

Groagun > SHARPSPEED 01/14/2015 at 20:59

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The whole car did, in both good and bad ways. I'm still not sure what to really think about it. Love the idea and having Ford back in the game but I'm not totally in love with this car.

SHARPSPEED > Groagun 01/14/2015 at 21:05

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It was built with racing in mind from the beginning. In that aspect its far more true to the GT40 than '04-'06 GT ever was, and the way I look at it, therefore far superior.