You thought you had seen the last of the 2008 Mazda Furai concept didn't you? We certainly had enough coverage on the lusty concept that didn't make Popular Mechanics' Top 10 New Cars of Detroit list. What with the teaser photos, track video, live reveal shots, and super sneaky close ups - but no, we're not done yet.…
The Cobo Center, home to the Detroit Auto Show, provides approximately $600 million annually to the local economies, with much of that money coming from the show itself. With that in mind, state and local officials are working on a plan to spend $595 million to expand and renovate the center. This change would include…
We can hardly believe our eyes. We all were under the impression after the last set of rumors from Automotive News that we here in the U.S. would be seeing a Zeta-platformed wagon and ute sometime before the end of the decade. We'd even done our darndest trying to track down that rumor ourselves — first with Rick…
In Italian, Collezione Cento means "Collection of One Hundred," and we're guessing you're not one of the hundred getting the Maserati Quattroporte Collezione Cento. And just in case you didn't get the picture, Maserati reminded us in a press conference they could give less than a shit about the "mass wealthy" (head…
We were breaking stories like madmen at Detroit, after our world exclusive drive through Cobo we went to see the 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 to have the world's first tailgate using the awesome new RamBox feature. And who volunteered to down the first bottle? Why that would be Dan Bodene of Chrysler Communications. Drink it…
Since the motoring press is not going to get to get our hands on either the 2009 Dodge Ram or the 2009 Ford F-150 for a while we thought we'd jump the gun and do a comparison based off things we've seen and scraps of info they've told us.
Normally booth babes are virtually invisible at the Detroit Auto Show - all bundled up in pantsuits and acting as "spokesmodels". This year saw some cracks in the wall of political correctness through which a few foreign manufacturers snuck in very lovely ways to make a bunch of dudes look at their cars. The field of…
Though the Fisker Karma Hybrid has a significant backer in VC firm Kleiner-Perkings, much of the Karma prototype we saw was still held together with epoxy. In fact, we weren't even allowed to open the doors ourselves. A specially trained assistant was there to make sure we didn't break the car. All this goes to say…
The Detroit Auto Show was an absolute hootenanny of reveals, confirmed rumors, shattered expectations, and free tea sets. Of course, we handed out grades to automakers. And you, dear readers? Which ones did you think flunked? Which soared? And which aimed squarely for the mediocre middle? Don't hold back. Spare the…
Tucked into a corner of the basement is a 1937 Seagrave Safety Sedan, known amongst fire truck junkies as the Detroit Safety Sedan and it represents one of the more interesting untold stories here at Detroit. When a firefighter falls in the line of duty, there is a longstanding tradition of using a firetruck as the…
As our time at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show draws to a close we're ready to crank up our powerful evaluation device, based on technology available to any third grader, to grade each of the automakers ( and major quasi-subsidiaries) on the most important metric of this, the Super Bowl of auto shows, buzz. Prepare for As,…
I had a chance to talk with David Rojas and Robert Jablonski, the exterior and interior designers of the Hummer HX Concept with one question on the table: What's the link between the HX and the Warthog from Halo? The answer wasn't as clear as I was hoping. I couldn't get either of the twentysomething designers to…
The PR people at VeeDub were more than happy to give us a walk through of the black Volkswagen CC, which looks even better than the silver model. Though it's called the Passat CC, and will be likely thought of as a Passat, the current talk is that they'll drop the Passat moniker and offer it as the next step up for…
We had a little too much fun yesterday, as you can see above. Though the last press day of the Detroit Auto Show is supposed to be a bit slower, no one got the memo. Our staff continued to burn off pretzels running through Cobo Hall chasing stories and, unsuccessfully, the cuter car models. We'd like to share with you…
British cheerleaders set the world record for most people crammed into a Smart car by cramming 14 lassies into the diminutive city car. Being the sporting gents we are, we decided to see how many burly Detroit Auto Show goers could fit, including Ben and our videographer Mark. The result? If you count them up we…
Anyone want to buy a 2009 Corvette ZR1? The official website just went live. [Chevy]
For better or worse, dragons have become something of a meme around here. Well, it looks like they're here to stay, with Spense delivering a comment in the BMW Hearts Diesel piece that seriously had the entire staff in fits here in the Cobo Hall press room. Check it out after the jump.
Concept cars are notorious for rarely making it to the street. But what about the enticing features that designers include in their dreamy visions of our automotive future? We combed through the files we've amassed at the show this week and come up with five features that don't stand a chance in hell of ever…
Here's a tidbit we missed from the 2009 Volkswagen Passat CC live reveal on Sunday. It seems that VW is stepping up to the Lexus challenge and introducing an auto-park feature for the swoopy sedan with the coupe-like roof. eGMcartech is reporting on this interesting development, while we're left hoping it's at least…
Earlier in the day we showed video of China's youngest auto exec competently explaining BYD's Dual mode hybrid F6 to us. And we may have made a joke about him not being able to get a date to the prom before our crazy ass drive through the Detroit Auto Show. But then we saw him on our way to a photo shoot with another…