Honda introduced the all-new Odyssey minivan at the NAIAS. It is fresh, but with evolutionary styling, a stronger, but lighter body and a formidable array of new features and options. The minivan market maybe smaller and with fewer players than it once had, but it is still fought over with unrelenting ferocity.
Honda uses lots of descriptors for design elements and features, so forgive us if we use a few in this article. The signature “Solid Wing” grille or face is familiar, but freshened, lower and wider for improved aero. The belt-line “Lightning Bolt” is a bit more elegant and now incorporates hidden sliding door tracks at long last. The body side is more sculptured, but with too many lines and angles for our taste. The lights are LED’s all round.
The interior is a key area of focus, it is after all a people hauler. The instrument panel is dominated by a central, high-mounted infotainment screen. The “Magic Slide” second row seats move front-to-back and side-to-side for easy access. The “Cabin Watch” camera feature allows parents to keep a close eye on what is happening in the second and third rows. The “Cabin Talk” feature is like an in-car public address system that allows easier communication throughout the vehicle. All good stuff!
Not much new from Acura this year, but we can at least lust after the now ‘fully in production’, drop dead gorgeous NSX. There was also an example of a racing version on display for good measure.
Honda’s big announcement at the Detroit show was the new Ridgeline pick-up truck that continues to feature a monocoque construction rather than the body-on-frame construction of most others. The previous model was ungainly and awkward, but this latest version is a big improvement, although its clean lines and ‘crossover front-end’ are not at all rugged looking. This new model has a number of interesting features like a two-way opening tailgate and hidden storage under the load floor.
Acura revealed the ILX, a stunning concept car in a beautiful shade of red. This quite large, pillar-less four door was as dramatic as it was beautiful. Strong feature lines, bold shapes and many interesting details, make this a strong contender for the best concept at the show. Bright trim pieces sweep up across the A-pillars onto the roof towards the centre of the car, flowing seamlessly into the formed rear window. The high mounted stop lamp is like a spear extending over the backlite – quite unique. The taillamp and exhaust outlet shapes and dramatic and complement each other on the Kamm tail. The interior is equally strong with four bucket seats separated by a prominent center console, a rectangular steering wheel, a surprisingly small instrument cluster and the inevitable large central infotainment screen. There is not much chance that this concept will make it into production, but this could signal a breakout for Acura design going forward – something they badly need!
Frankly, the Toyota display was rather boring and very similar to last year. The only vehicle that was new and interesting was the Kikai, which is a crazy cartoon of a car, but it is fun to see what happens when you let designers run free!
On a more serious note the Mirai (which means Future) is here! Toyota will sell 200 of its fuel cell vehicles in Southern California during 2016 at a price of $57,500. Of course they are all spoken for already. Toyota showed two special versions of the Mirai, one of which had an experimental flat panel roof antenna that will provide much improved communication with satellites. The second was a gull wing two-door concept with cool chrome wheel covers.
The FCV plus (previously shown in Tokyo) is not intended for production, but it is a vision the future of fuel cell cars with electric motors at each wheel and wildly futuristic appearance inside and out.
Toyota’s youth brand, Scion showed a very interesting concept called C-HR. This small coupe actually had four doors, the rears being cunningly disguised to maintain the coupe appearance. The car features big (21 inch) wheels, strongly emphasized wheel arches and very interesting front and rear lights – the rears appearing to float above the quarter panel.
Stop the presses! Toyota just announced that the Scion brand will be dropped in August of this year. Apparently the slow sales of the brand can no longer be tolerated and the Scion products will be folded into the Toyota line-up where appropriate.
Lexus debuted two interesting cars at the show. First was the LF-FC, which is a large four-door concept with fuel cell power. The proportions of the vehicle are excellent, with elegant lines, a strongly sculptured bodyside and dramatic lights front and rear. Like the Acura ILX there are no door handles – great for the design, but perhaps not so practical…. The large air intakes, plus the sharply angled headlights and running lights further dramatize the now familiar and very prominent “spindle” grill.
The LC 500 could be seen as a more realistic and practical version on the exciting LFA coupe, but it is actually the realization of the LF-LC concept shown here in Detroit 4 years ago. It will be the flagship of the Lexus brand when introduced in 2017 with lots of power and a beautiful design. Even the obnoxious spindle grille looks somehow better on this svelte design, framed as it is by the intricate front lights and air intakes. The rear lights are not so pleasing, with blank white lenses when unlit and elongated spears going in two random directions. We love the exhausts, however, and the unusually strong feature lines embracing the exhaust outlets and the license plate that sweep towards the center of the vehicle.
The Nissan display was an exercise in contrast. On one side was the IDS concept, which is an autonomous, ‘zero emissions’ EV four door sedan; while on the other was the Titan Warrior pick up concept, the rock crushing opposite to the “tree-hugging” IDS. Like many concepts these days, the IDS features a pillar-less suicide door set up. The design is much more pleasing than the homely Leaf, but it may be a little too extreme for production. The “buck-tooth” grille, as well as the front and rear lights, are evolved from the current Nissan look. There are some new features, like an illuminated Nissan badge at the rear and a messaging system across the base of the windshield! This would allow the driver to say things like “After you” to pedestrians or other drivers. The potential messages have the imagination running wild!
The Warrior truck concept is well executed, with all the right macho elements. It further reinforces Nissan’s determination to gain more market share in this important US segment. With its recently introduced new version of the Titan pick-up – which now comes with a V8 Cummins diesel engine – they could do just that.
The Infinity QX30 crossover had been shown as a concept a year or so ago and more recently announced for the US at the Los Angeles show. It is faithful to the original concept and should be nice addition to the Infinity Range.
Also revealed at the show, was the Q60, a two-door coupe version of the Q50 sedan. Again, it is very close to the concept unveiled at last year’s show and succeeded in being both elegant and sporty.
Rounding out the Japanese exhibitors, Subaru presented the Impreza Sedan Concept. In common with most of the Subaru line, the concept didn’t try to be outrageous or futuristic, but it was a clean well executed design, with some nice fresh touches that should work well for Subaru, assuming that something like this reaches production.
Part IV | Renault, surfing on its Captur mini-crossover success, revealed its new Kadjar. After missing the beginning of the SUV market, Renault wants to make a come back after its lack of success with the Koleos in Europe. Based on the same Qashqai architecture, Kadjar wears a strong new “corporate” grille from Renault Design. The body is more dynamic than the interior, which offers just a simple, classic dashboard. Quality materials are used throughout. The middle market SUV war will be fierce during the next few years and we can only hope that the market will always be this competitive.
Seat seems to be showing a stronger presence these days. With its concept 20V20 presentation, the Spanish cousin of the VW Group wanted to send some rather different messages. First, this nice concept likely gives us a good indication of the evolution we should see from the mark moving towards 2020. Lines are sharp, like it was designed and shaped with a scalpel, making accurate lines, angles and triangles. The overall shape is very dynamic, perhaps a little aggressive at first sight, so the future direction is likely to be a bit more sober and elegant. The second message is that Seat will soon be arriving on the SUV market. This concept is close to the Audi Q5 in size and it seems that the first production model will be a compact SUV in competition with Kaptur5 (Renault) and Juke (Nissan). After that, we should see some bigger versions.
As you can see, Geneva left us only a little hungry. The world market is heading in a strong upward direction, even if Europe seems to be a bit late in following… No doubt there will be a plethora of concept cars, model introductions and new features presented during the Frankfort show from September 17 to 27. We can’t wait!
In order to wait, and to end this report, a little gallery of cars we did not talk about…
Acura made the biggest splash among the Japanese brands with the long awaited production version of the Acura NSX. The car is stunning, as well as being a technological tour de force. Interestingly, the production design was completed in the US by a team led by Michelle Christensen, the engineering/development was done in the US and the manufacturing will be conducted in a new ‘craft centre’ at the Honda plant in Ohio. Full marks to Honda for allowing the vehicle to be developed outside Japan and in its major market. The final version is faithful to the concept model, even though the packaging went through several iterations to accommodate various different powertrain permutations and the dimensions grew in both length and width. The end result is suitably dramatic from all angles — if only we could drive one.
During the press days Honda displayed their fuel cell concept, presumably to match the one also found on the Toyota stand. Neither car is particularly attractive, but they are distinctive and standing out is certainly an appropriate goal for a vehicle powered by this future technology. Now all we need is a hydrogen infrastructure……..
Honda also demonstrated their racing prowess with a display featuring the Honda powered 2014 Indy 500 winner and the 1965 Mexican GP winning F1 car. We look forward to the return of Honda to F1 this season.
Toyota displayed the FT-1 concept car again — this time with gunmetal grey metallic paint. Frankly it looked a lot better than with last year’s red paint job. The big introduction for Toyota in Detroit was the new mid-sized Tacoma truck. No big design breakthroughs here so let’s move on to Lexus. The signature “bobbin” grilles are getting bigger and bigger, but they are still hard to love. If you can get past the grilles, there are some decent looking products available from this brand — the GSF 4-door and the RCF coupe being two great examples. The ground hugging GT3 racing version of the RCF coupe painted in bright white made a dramatic statement and a strong declaration of intent.
Nissan’s big news was also on the truck side of the business with the introduction of an all-new Titan full-sized pick-up. Neither Nissan nor Toyota have been as successful in the large truck market as they expected, but this is probably another step in the right direction for Nissan, especially with a brand new V8 Cummins diesel available under the hood.
The Infiniti Q60 concept was one of the most interesting designs at the show. The Q60 is 2-door coupe (yes, really!) with strong and interesting design cues from front to rear. The front end is dramatic, with sinister ‘hooded’ headlamps, a bold grille with a large illuminated emblem and two large lower air intakes with integrated fog lamps terminating in bold character lines sweeping up towards the headlamps. The side view is equally strong with big wheels, deep sculptured panels and an interesting quarter window termination. The theme continues in the rear with bold shapes around the exhausts an integrated decklid spoiler and taillamps that echo the “hooded eyes” of the front. Let’s hope they build this one!
It is good to see the success of Jaguar/Land Rover under Tata management. Jaguar introduced the XE sedan (a BMW 3-Series fighter) at the show to complete their range of handsome sedans. The XE has the appearance of being a little bigger than the BMW, but in our opinion it is the best looking of the three cars. Land Rover came to the show with the latest version of the Discovery and some new diesel powered models.
All in all the Detroit show was good this year. The atmosphere was upbeat and confident with some stunning designs to grab our attention. The 4 cars that stood out for us were the Ford GT, the Acura NSX, the Buick Avenir and the Infiniti Q60.
Now it is on to Geneva.
Honda, like Toyota, continues to pursue the fuel cell as a future energy source, unfortunately the FCEV concept that they displayed was a bit too extreme for mainstream appeal. Like the failed Honda Insight, there are elements of the car that would probably make it “sale proof”! The front end is interesting with wide splits or vents that extend from the bottom edge of the front fascia all the way to the windshield. Viewed from the side or the rear, however, the car just looks ponderous and heavy. We are sure that the covered rear wheels, long roof and high tail all contribute to a low drag coefficient (although the relatively wide body must be a negative) they add up to a car that is just not appealing – environmentally friendly though it may be.
Honda also introduced the next generation Fit. Aside from the ugly yellow color on one of the cars, the new version is well executed but rather boring. The prior generation made a statement as a ‘tall’ car, the new one may get lost in the crowd.
Acura unveiled the TLX concept, a conservatively styled 4 door, which we understand, is very close to the production version on the TL replacement. The stance is strong, the overall impression is somewhat sporty, the 5 square LED headlamps give it a unique look and, finally, here is a design where the Acura grill actually works.
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