Car Enthusiast - click here to access the home page


 


2010 Audi e-tron concept. Image by Mark Nichol.


2010 Detroit Auto Show. Image by United Pictures.

photographs

2010 Detroit Auto Show

The doors have opened to the 2010 Detroit Auto Show and one of the confirmed stars is Ford's new global Focus.

   

OUR SHOW ARTICLES BY BRAND
   Audi
 BMW
 Buick
 Cadillac
 Chevrolet
 Chrysler
 Dodge
 Ford

  GMC
 Honda
 Jeep
 Mercedes-Benz
 MINI
 Toyota
 Volkswagen
 Volvo

 

SHOW PHOTOGRAPHS BY MODEL
  Audi A8 (8)
Audi e-tron concept (26)
BMW Concept ActiveE (53)
BMW Z4 (13)
BMW Z4 sDrive35is (30)
Buick Regal GS (12)
BYD at the Detroit Show (7)
Cadillac concept (1)
Cadillac CTS Coupé (9)
Cadillac CTS-V Coupé (19)
Cadillac XTS Platinum concept (13)
Chevrolet Aveo RS (17)
Chevrolet Camaro Synergy (2)
Chrysler 300C (12)
Chrysler Delta concept (14)
Chrysler PT Cruiser Couture Edition (5)
Detroit Auto Show (96)
Dodge Nitro Detonator (3)
EV Wave II (2)
Fiat 500 EV concept (18)
Ford Focus (43)
Ford Mustang (17)
Ford Mustang Boss 302R (3)
Ford Mustang Convertible (2)
GMC Granite concept (19)
Honda CR-Z (45)
HP2G Revenge Verde (2)
Hyundai Blue-Will concept (12)
Hyundai Santa Fe (2)
Jeep Liberty Renegade (3)
Jeep Wrangler Islander Edition (3)
Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Mountain Edition (3)
Lincoln MKX (19)
Mercedes-Benz Detroit sculpture (15)
Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet (120)
MINI Beachcomber concept (39)
Nissan LEAF (2)
Saba Motors Carbon Zero Roadster (2)
Tesla Model S (3)
Toyota FT-CH concept (18)
Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid concept (8)
Volvo C30 BEV (15)
VW New Compact Coupe concept (37)
ZAP Alias (2)
 
2010 Audi e-tron concept. Image by Mark Nichol.

2010 BMW Concept ActiveE. Image by United Pictures.

2010 Fiat 500 EV concept. Image by Mark Nichol.

2011 Ford Focus. Image by Ford.

2010 GMC Granite concept. Image by Mark Nichol.

2010 Honda CR-Z. Image by Honda.

2010 Mercedes-Benz Detroit sculpture. Image by Mark Nichol.

2010 MINI Beachcomber concept. Image by Mark Nichol.

2010 Toyota FT-CH concept. Image by Toyota.

2010 VW New Compact Coupe concept. Image by United Pictures.
photographs

 

Motorshows homepage -> 2010 Detroit Auto Show

2010 Detroit Auto Show - Mark Nichol, Shane O' Donoghue, Kyle Fortune, Alisdair Suttie


After a fairly miserable 2009 for the car industry, albeit punctuated by some quite sensational cars, we're fully expecting a vintage 2010. And we're already off to a good start, because the Detroit Motor Show (official name: North American International Auto Show) played host to some fascinating new cars. Here's the list.

2010 Audi A8.   Audi A8

The A8 was officially unveiled in Miami so there's not much we didn't know about it coming into Detroit, but it's the first chance we got to poke around the new Audi flagship. First impressions? Quality is sublime, but the rear seats seem strangely cosy. Maybe that's to do with our recent American diets though? Read full article here.

2010 Audi e-tron concept.   Audi e-tron concept

The e-tron electric supercar, which promises devastating performance to match its 'TT of the future' looks, is Audi's show star. Audi's press stand was absolutely stuffed with journalists, all desperate to see what the company's future looks like and hear about its plans for electrification. Read full article here.

2010 BMW Z4 sDrive35is.   BMW Z4 sDrive35i

We already love the Z4, as you can read about here, so the prospect of a spooled up sub-M version has got our knickers in a right twist. Changes are discreet - 335bhp, up from 306bhp, harder suspension and silver mirror caps - but it still looks great. Read full article here.

2010 BMW Concept ActiveE.   BMW 1 Series Concept ActiveE

This is the debut of Project i, technically, which is BMW's umbrella name for a succession of green cars it'll be introducing over the next few years, including a two-wheeled, two-seat tandem car thing (Ed: isn't that called a 'motorbike'?). The electric 1 Series is more normal than that - it's very normal, in fact, which is what's so good about it. Nice clean power, nice lack of compromise. It hits the roads in 2011. Read full article here.

2010 Cadillac XTS Platinum concept.   Cadillac XTS Platinum concept

Cadillac's rumoured new concept car has arrived in the form of the XTS Platinum saloon, which will become the flagship of the range. It's a full hybrid in concept format, which means it can travel on electric power alone and it's set to hit American dealers in 2012. Read full article here.

2010 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe.   Cadillac CTS-V Coupe

As expected, Cadillac wheeled the CTS-V Coupe out in Detroit, which packs 556bhp in an angularly styled coupé shell that eschews B-pillars and curves of any kind. A 6.2-litre V8 provides all those horses. See, not all motorshow cars are green. Read full article here.

2010 Chevrolet Aveo RS.   Chevrolet

Chevy's stand is huge, and packed to the rafters with new metal, as you'd expect given the maker's in its hometown. The headliner is the Aveo RS, which Chevy hopes will make American buyers like hot hatches more - they’re not that popular in America beyond the tuning scene. The Orlando and Malibu are there, as expected, as well as loads of SUVs that are irrelevant to us. What didn't show, though, is the Camaro Convertible. Shame.

  Chrysler Lancia Delta

Yes, it actually happened. Despite having no real presence and not holding a press conference in Detroit, Chrysler plonked one of the most talked about cars in the entire show - a Chrysler-badged Lancia Delta - on a plinth, and then basically ran away. Weird. Read full article here.

2010 Fiat 500 Electric.   Fiat 500 Electric

Fiat and Chrysler are awkward bedfellows at the moment, and that's very evident in Detroit. Like Chrysler, Fiat turned up with no pomp or ceremony (or press conference) yet still displayed a car that people wanted to talk about - the electric 500. We tried asking the Fiat representative, but she seemed more interested in posing for pictures than discussing lithium ion and solenoids.

2011 Ford Focus.   Ford Focus

The 'one Ford strategy' was all the rage at the Blue Oval stand as it unveiled the all-new, global Focus in Detroit during probably the show's biggest ceremony. America is now salivating over a new small car that turns its back on softly sprung blandness and poor plastics in favour of sharp handling and 'big car quality'. Read full article here.

2010 Ford Mustang Convertible.   Ford Mustang

All the hype on the Ford stand is reserved for the new Focus, but the maker also has an updated Mustang or two on display. Tweaks include a 412bhp 5.0-litre V8 - that's more than a tweak, granted - and some cosmetic changes here and there, which you probably won't notice because there are fewer Mustangs in the UK than there are Big Brother housemates.

2010 GMC Granite concept.   GMC Granite concept

The car formerly known as the Urban Utility Concept is birthed as the Granite, which is so small that GMC has given it a super butch name to compensate. Well, we say 'small'. By GMC standards it's small, but it'll hold a mountain bike in the cabin and you'd probably struggle to squeeze it into a disabled space over here. Nice styling though. Read full article here.

2010 Honda CR-Z.   Honda CR-Z

With much ceremony Honda has unveiled the CR-Z coupé, a car it hopes will make hybrids all sexy again. From the outside it looks ok in a 'Honda Insight's sporty brother' type of way, but inside it's less promising. Interesting, but perhaps not the Honda sportscar renaissance many were hoping for. Make up your own mind... Read full article here.

2009 Hyundai Blue-Will concept.   Hyundai Blue-Will PHEV concept

The 2009 Seoul Motor Show hosted the world debut of the Blue-Will plug-in hybrid concept, but it's out again in Detroit, which means Hyundai is fairly serious about the claim its first plug-in vehicle is a pointer towards a future design direction. They all say that about concepts, granted, but if a future Hyundai four-door looks anything like this, we bet big-headed award show crasher Kanye West will stop being disparaging about the Korean maker in his songs.

2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet.   Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet

We already know plenty about this (how surprising can an E-Class based car be by now anyway?), but that doesn't stop us getting excited about the range-completing drop-top. Possibly more intriguing, though, is the CLS art installation next to the Mercedes café, which shows a molten metal next-gen CLS 'emerging' from the ground. Read full article here.

2010 MINI Beachcomber concept.   MINI Beachcomber concept

We've only just got our heads around the 'baseball cap' roof of the MINI Coupé, and now there's this, the Beachcomber. It's unmistakeably a MINI, but loads of the details are different, including the lights, grille, jacked up ride height, odd bonnet scoop and, of course, the complete lack of doors. In this form it will never make production, but there's lots about it that will, like its 4x4 system, and possibly the 'centre rail' that stretches the length of the cabin. Read full article here.

2010 Toyota FT-CH concept.   Toyota FT-CH concept

Another world debut for the NAIAS, Toyota has unveiled the FT-CH hybrid, which is only a concept but will form the basis of a production model to rival the Honda CR-Z coupé - also unveiled in Detroit. This four-seat coupé uses the same hybrid tech as the Prius. Read full article here.

2010 VW New Compact Coupe concept.   Volkswagen New Compact Coupe

In a genuine Detroit shocker, Volkswagen didn't unveil the new Touareg or Jetta, as expected, but instead brought the New Concept Coupe, which you can think of as an A5 meets a Passat. It's not groundbreaking, but we're certainly in favour of a VW four-seat two-door that looks like this. It's a hybrid, of course, and it looks production-ready to us. Read full article here.

2010 Volvo C30 BEV.   Volvo C30 electric

Like the 1 Series ActiveE, the C30 BEV (battery electric vehicle) makes normality its selling point. It apparently drives like a normal car, has a decent enough 90-mile odd range and accelerates in a non-embarrassing fashion. To be honest, a motor show is not the place to get worked up about what will ostensibly be just another C30 - it's the driving that will get us going. For that we'll have to wait until 2011, which will give us plenty of time to move all the boxes out of the garage and buy an extension cable. Read full article here.








 

Internal links:   | Home | Privacy | Contact us | Archives | Old motor show reports | Follow Car Enthusiast on Twitter | Copyright 1999-2024 ©