Our family has a bit of a tradition of going to the Cleveland Autoshow every year to browse through all of the new cars. Its generally Grandpa Miller, the uncles and myself. I think maybe once one other cousin joined us, but as I recall, he didn't enjoy it that much. This year, I was extremely excited about all of the new sub-compacts that I've been reading about all year long. It seems like there has been a huge buzz about small, fuel misers. Unfortunately, it seems as though either Cleveland didn't get the memo, or I run in different circles than the rest of the automotive world.
Hits: Ford's "new" lineup and their new interiors, Porsche Cayman
Misses: Dodge's display of Challengers (although I think I went at the wrong time, I ran into a guy with a mullet, a large mustache and a bit of a beer gut hanging out of his faded black T-shirt), fewer small cars than anticipated, no Fiesta.
As a disclaimer, I realize that our current economic situation (especially in regards to the auto industry) is less than desirable for the introduction of new cars and the lavish displays that correspond to those new cars. The spartan nature of the show this year was definitely a testament to that. However, I thought that it actually made the show a little bit more enjoyable. Less fluff, more substance.
I was a bit disappointed, to say the least. Obviously, I was really excited about Fiesta (which I realize is a 2011 model, but due the end of this year with all of Ford's early release models), but Ford only had the same Verve concept car that was there last year. I have a few pictures of it, since the majority of the styling transferred to the production car. Big props to Ford for designing a concept that was actually able to convert well into production.
Honda had a pair of Fits there. I still can't get into the styling on them, although it does seem to have a very open greenhouse. This seems like it would allow quite a bit of visibility, which is more than can be said for a lot of the smaller cars that I've been looking at. The 2nd Generation US Fit seems to have gotten a bit larger, and moved into C-segment territory. My opinion is that the Fit is kind of old news.
Nissan had a Cube on display. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sit in the car, but it seemed like it would make a nice compact mini-van (is that a segment?). I heard a couple of negative comments about its styling while I was taking pictures of it. Its definitely funky(see previous post re:FuNkY), so a few folks will be wanting to get their hands on these cars. Its a people mover, and would probably be great if you and your college roommates were going on a camping/snowboarding trip for the weekend. If I understand car commercials, that's what about 87% of college students and young adults do, so it'll be perfect!
SmartCar had a couple of cars there as well. Including a dissection of their unibody showing off their active crash protection zones. A lot of people still seem skeptical of the cars ability to withstand a collision with a larger vehicle. I'm sure it wouldn't be pretty, but from what I've seen, the car isn't as succeptible to instant death to all occupants as the public seems to think it should be. I could certainly see myself driving one of these if I worked in Wooster and only had a short, urban commute. Better still would be a diesel version (which we'll probably never see stateside). For a longer, typical US commuter...forgetaboutit.
Saturn and Lincoln both had concept vehicles there. Saturn with their Plug-in Electric Flextreme, and Lincoln with their Focus platformed "C". Concepts are generally taken with a grain of salt, but I would give both a thumbs up. The Saturn is a bit of a Shooting Brake design, with a cool panoramic faux T-top. The Lincoln C has a Renault vibe with the strange rear deck that juts out. However, the front end of the car was very sharp looking, and the interior was sophisticated and modern, but still looked like a lot of it could transfer to production with only minor modifications (like seats that met safety standards).
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My other interests lay with the performance cars that were on display. I've become a huge Porsche-phile over the last year and a half, so I definitely wanted to check out the 997 facelift. Pretty much the only noticable difference was longer snout on the 997.2. Its still a beautiful car, but the longer front overhang means its going to be a bit harder to get it up some steeper driveways (like mine) and over pesky speed bumps. However, the Porsche that I'm most excited about is the Cayman. I realize that its still the same design its had, but its just a very organic car. It'll be interesting to see how Porsche divides the power between the Cayman and the 911. I kind of see the 911 staying on in naturally aspirated form and possibly with a GT3 model as well, while a boosted Cayman takes the 911 Turbo place. All reports that I've heard say that the Cayman is a more refined chassis and could handle significantly more horsepower. That's all speculation, though.
We browsed through a variety of other cars, stopping for a while to look at the Camaro and the GT-R. Both cars are extremely cool, and mostly likely pretty fast, but for that kind of scratch, they're both a bit like spreading butter with a butcher's knife. When you can have a balanced, refined sports car like a Porsche 911 (or Cayman) for the price of the GT-R, its really a no-brainer, unless you're 16 or still believe that HP and 0-60 times are the only numbers that matter.
I've saved the best for last, so hopefully you're still with me. While I'm not really a big car fan, I've got to say that I was pretty impressed with Ford's display. They had 2 of the 2010 Ford Taurus SHOs on display and I'm very impressed with all aspects of the car. For about $40K, you're going to be getting a car that looks fierce, has a twin turbo 3.5 EcoBoost (made in Cleveland) that should (hopefully) be comparable to BMW M3 performance, although I think the SHO is going to be aimed at the Audi and M5 bunch instead with the larger car being a little bit harder to lug off the line, but being comfortable for long drives and having plenty of freeway power. The 2010 Ford Fusion is also a very sharp car. Ford seems to have realized that their Gillete grille was getting dull, so they've retained the 3-bar grille, but sharpened the rest of the front end. The new headlights and tail lights are very previous gen-Acura TL (which was an improvement over the current Acuras), and with a 3.5L Duratec, it should have plenty of power to shift it around.
The thing that stuck out most to me was Ford's new interiors. Wow! I've been hearing about them all year, but having a chance to get upclose and personal with them, its obvious that Ford is putting the money into the part owners see the most; the inside of the car. There was a lot of double stitched, two tone leather. Most of the plastics seemed softer and heavier, the climate control knobs (when they were not replaced by electronic switches) seemed like they were heavier and more robust. Sitting in the Chevys, Scions, and Jeeps, the interiors just seemed cheaper (yellow backlit LCDs don't help) and less ergonomic. Sitting in the Audi TTS coupe reminded me of the interiors that I had seen in the Ford display. That's impressive, especially considering where Ford's interiors were 15 years ago, or even 10. I have lots of memories of the solid, hard plastics and clicky-breaky feel of air conditioning vents and levers.
