DETROIT: Did you try to fly last-minute from Las Vegas to Detroit on the weekend CES ended, so you could catch up on technology at the beginning of the North American International (Detroit) Auto Show? If you were lucky, you got a middle seat. A lot of people got shut out -- certainly the nonstops. As PC/CE technology works its way into the dashboard, thousands of people want to be at both shows.
The premier U.S. auto show, which began as CES ended, was a festival of small, fuel-efficient, and hybrid cars. Since it takes 18 to 36 months to bring new cars to market, this may be part of a longer-term shift, not just a knee-jerk reaction to gas-price shock in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
POCKETFUL OF SMALL CARS
Small and subcompact cars can attain real-world economies on the order of 30 mpg to 40 mpg. The Honda Fit is something between a subcompact van and a four-door hatchback. It goes on sale this spring at about $14,000, quite nicely equipped with AM/FM/CD and power windows standard. The Nissan Versa is larger (169 inches, versus 157 inches) and comes in both hatchback and even longer sedan versions. It will be here in the fall, at $12,000 and up. This spring, Toyota will replace the Echo, one of its few sales non-hits, with the Yaris, at $15,000, in hatchback and sedan versions. The Chevrolet Aveo, built in South Korea by Daewoo, gets a refresh and goes on sale mid-year.
MAKE MINE BIGGER
The term minivan scares off many buyers -- particularly women who don't like being typecast because they live in suburban settings and their kids play sports such as, oh, soccer. And SUV connotes a gas-guzzling, Prius-crushing behemoth. So the convergence of tall station wagon, minivan, and SUV-on-a-diet is the crossover utility vehicle, or CUV. One of the slickest CUVs is the Ford Edge and it's fairly compact at 182 inches long. The Lincoln MKX and the Mazda CX-7, shown as a prototype, have similar running gear. And Buick wants to refine its image -- and attract buyers who don't hold AARP cards -- with the Enclave.
Mini showed the Traveller, a concept with serious room for four travelers. In the current 2+2 Mini, half the passenger room in back is taken up by the seatbelt buckles. The Toyota F3R is a long, low concept minivan with three rows of seating.
The Chrysler Group brought out "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria at the introduction of the Chrysler Imperial prototype; it's a stretched and highly stylized Chrysler 300. Lexus announced the LS460, the evolution of the LS430, with a 380-hp V8 engine and an eight-speed automatic transmission; it should be on sale this fall. Lexus hopes it will surpass, not just match, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
BIGGER MARKET, SMALLER SHOW
How do the two shows differ? Although automobiles represents more of the gross domestic (or world) product than computers and consumer electronics, CES is far bigger in square footage. Detroit is more jacket-and-tie, CES more open-collar. As with other auto shows, Detroit has two or three relatively manageable press/analyst days before the public storms in; CES is theoretically trade-only, but one of the frustrations of CES exhibitors and attendees is the number of end-users and onesie-twosie buyers who get in. The continued expansion of CES means near-gridlock on the show floor at midday, and could drive out more exhibitors -- at least to hotel suites on the Las Vegas strip. CES has some barely dressed booth models; Detroit has become more demure in dress. But it's open-bar at most press conferences.
The other difference is location, and not just the fact that Las Vegas in January can be shirt-sleeve weather, while Detroit can involve winter blizzards. (Recently, NAIS has followed CES, which means if you're stranded en route to the second show, you're stuck in Las Vegas. The opposite possibility was depressing.) Detroit is home to the U.S. auto industry, and there's a hometown, home-team interest in how GM, Ford, and the Chrysler part of DaimlerChrysler are doing. Answer: Detroit hopes each year that the year's models can turn things around. That's especially the case with General Motors and Ford.
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