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This time one year ago I was alternating between being very very tired, frozen stiff, fascinated, engaged, disengaged and all sorts of other things. I was at the North American International Auto Show. Call it the Detroit Auto Show if you like.
I met Jan Ake Jonsson for the third time, each time being on a different continent. I’ll have to organise a hookup in Africa some time. Later in the week I attended the GM Style event and had my name on the guest list immediately above “Wagoner, R”. He hadn’t checked in yet, either, which gave me the idea of hanging around the check desk and having a word with him about his little Swedish subsidiary. Maybe I should have.
I was most fascinated by how physically small the Detroit show was compared to it’s reputation as the biggest show in the world. And I was slightly fascinated by how physically run down the city of Detroit was, or at least the bits that I saw.
That was then, this is now.
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General Motors started the show with a parade of vehicles in the streets of Detroit. It was intended as a statement to the country of the quality of machinery that’s available now as well as the vehicles that will make up the future of the company.
There were seventeen vehicles in the procession and none of them were Saabs, though quite a few include technology developed in Sweden.
Interestingly, there were no Hummers, either, but there were two Saturns.
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The guy introducing the Cadillac SRX (think Saab 9-4x and add in the 2.8 Turbo V6 from the Saab 9-3 under the hood) called the engine “rightsized”.
Film.
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Is it just me, or does the Volvo S60 concept look like a bull terrier?
Full S60 gallery at Autoblog.
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Toyota released the 2010 Camry, which looks just like the 2008 (or is it the 2009 one?) only uglier.
The 2010 Camry goes on sale in the US in March 2009. Rumours that the’ll skip the 2011 model all together and offer the 2012 Camry in May of this year are yet to be confirmed, but Toyota is apparently telling anyone who will listen that it will take years for the Americans to catch up to them.
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Dodge continue to act like they’re planning on becoming viable in the near future and have released the Circuit EV electric concept car.
The body’s based on a Lotus design and actually looks pretty good with the standard Dodge crosshair grille.
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Saab have nothing new on show other than the Saab 9-5 Griffin Edition, which effectively amounts to having nothing really new on show.
The big interest around Saab is the press conference that Dagens Nhyeter say will happen tomorrow (Monday). Representatives from the Swedish government are in Detroit at the moment to talk to GM and Ford executives about the futures of Saab and Volvo.
I’m not sure what we should expect to hear from them, but I don’t expect to hear news about a buyer for Saab.
Rick Wagoner has been quoted in Bloomberg today, in an article saying Plans for the sale of the Saab unit are “moving along,” and GM has found interested parties, Wagoner said, without identifying prospective buyers.
Smokescreen, I say.
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From Sunday’s TTELA (the local newspaper in Trollhattan)
….But GM CEO Rick Wagoner should still expect that there will be many Saab-related issues (raised) by visiting Swedish journalists during the show.
How clear the answers he will give turn out to be remains to be seen.
It is clear in any case that speculation is in full swing. Automotive News claims that GM have found no buyers for Saab, and then a GM representative said to the AFP news agency AFP that question is still in its infancy and unanswered.
And Saab’s information director Eric Geers says, in turn, to TTELA that things may happen fairly quickly, but without wanting to specify more than that. Eric Geers notes that a long-term uncertainty surrounding the brand’s future is not what Saab needs.
And it seems the Swedish government representatives are in a jolly mood:
Representative Joran Haggerlund said that with the F150 being the best selling car in the US (and with it winning Truck of the Year, I guess) they could just as well visit the Henry Ford Museum as visit the NAIAS, such is the technological advancement evident in the F150.
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Thanks ctm and Dippen
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17 responses so far ↓
1 Lance Cole (author)
// Jan 12, 2009 at 9:22 am
Volvo concept: Yep bull terrier is spot o. Although from the back, I thought of a cat having a crap in a litter tray
Saab will be state owned at this rate….
2 Dippen
// Jan 12, 2009 at 9:24 am
Swade, i will soon go trough some kind of a emotional roller coaster.
btw some news:
Bo Andersson, GM vice president on Swedish TV about the situation for SAAB:
Here Bo Andersson says that one of the problem for SAAB has always been dollar vs swedish krona-issue.
http://svt.se/svt/play/video.jsp?a=1385985
and another one:
http://svt.se/svt/play/video.jsp?a=1386027
3 zippy
// Jan 12, 2009 at 9:56 am
That Ovlov is gorgeous and so is the bull terrier.
I just want some good news on the Saab front.
4 Kroum
// Jan 12, 2009 at 10:38 am
Credit where credit’s due: the Volvo looks great. Probably the best concept of the ‘09 NAIAS.
Shame I can’t really say the same about the upcoming A7. Audi is slowly but surely losing its edge.
The new M-B B-class has got to be the worst car there, though, Surely the ugliest Benz in ages!
5 joemama
// Jan 12, 2009 at 11:04 am
I’m not following the F-150/museum analogy. Good or bad?
6 ctm
// Jan 12, 2009 at 11:19 am
joemama,
Bad. What he meant was, that they could go to the Henry Ford museum instead of the auto show since most of the technologies in US made cars today are the same as a hundred years ago…
7 Sven van Dijkman
// Jan 12, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Another original SAAB concept car feature (EV-1) now in a GM product: solar panels in the roof. -http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/236882/
8 Alex
// Jan 12, 2009 at 12:50 pm
The Detroit show really seems like it’s been Ford’s time to shine. While GM spirals the toilet and drives home it’s dire circumstances with “meh” releases like the “just like a Volt but even more expensive” Converj, the “9-4X with vaguely Korean styling” SRX and the bloated, slab-sided barge that is the new Lacrosse, Ford has really been shining today.
They have a plug-in hybrid version of the Escape in the flesh for reporters to actually drive (perish the thought!), they show off the stunning new Taurus and S60 concepts which should both take their places as leaders of their segments along with the equally-impressive new GT500, and to top it off, the F-150 is named truck of the year.
Reading through it all I can’t help but feel optimistic about ford while feeling a little pessimistic about GM. Even Chrysler has been showing off some more competitive looking concepts at Detroit than GM has so far.
9 GenJackson
// Jan 12, 2009 at 2:12 pm
I just pulled up pics of 2010 ford taurus looks like Camry and I bet you drives like one minus the camry quality. In sum it does not come close to my 08 89-5 SC aero–5spd. When I get into my saab for some reason I am smiling
10 Tedjs
// Jan 12, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Love the comment about the 2010 and subsequent 2012 Camry. Very amusing.
I will be heading up to ‘motor city’ in about a week to check out the show for myself, so hopefully the show has some fun things to see. GM certainly seems to be bolstering the Chevy line-up more than they have in some time, and that might actually be smart in terms of selling cars to the masses. We will see how they do in terms of getting some of these vehicles to market in a timely fashion.
And I am still not sure the world needed another Buick (LaCrosse), but it does seem to be generating some positive press for GM. Detroit automakers certainly have a rough year ahead of them, so they need all the hits they can get.
11 PT
// Jan 12, 2009 at 3:04 pm
ALthough the bull terrier visuals made me smile, the Volvo looks fine to me. At least it will probably hit the market within my lifetime and considering the recent facelift given to the poor, ageing 9-5, I don’t think we can make too many rude noises to be honest.
12 Swade
// Jan 12, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Nothing rude here, Pete. I’m a dog person!
13 CBD
// Jan 12, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I just wish GM would cut SAAB loose from the sinking ship. The longer SAAB are tied, the further they sink and more stained by GM’s continued poor performance.
14 Nevitz
// Jan 12, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Anyone notice the clam-shell hood & light pipes on the new Buick Lacrosse? Ehhh…
Here is the Buick HI-RES pic.
15 Martin N
// Jan 13, 2009 at 3:39 am
The owners of half-dead bad smelling bastard dogs maybe shouldn’t complain about other people’s quite healthy bull terriers.
16 WooDz
// Jan 13, 2009 at 4:03 am
People shouldn’t look at a bull terrier and think it is something great, when it’s general shape looks just like the Terrier from Jaguar and Ford themselves. Bottom line it’s a Ford Mondeo and so the S60 is far from a show stopper. The bloated company that is Volvo, is about to burst which is why Ford want to offload them before they do.
Yet so many times in our fickle capitalist world, does the better product lose out. Betamax vs. VHS or USB vs. Firewire.
No doubt the same will happen with Saab vs.Volvo.
Better stop now before I really get on my soap box.
17 Martin N
// Jan 13, 2009 at 5:16 am
Woodz, you mean:
IF Saab had a product, they would have the better product.
That is indeed not enought in this fickle capitalist world, sadly enough.
Trying to get you up on that box? Who? Me?