Car Throttle

Covering the New York International Auto Show was awe inspiring, even though you could feel the tension in the air surrounding the industry in these very dark and turbulent times. If you were a casual observer walking into the front enterance of the Jacob Javitts Convention Center, you couldn't help but marvel at the sights and sounds of the place, from the din of music, and conversation happening everywhere, to the sheer number of flat panel displays hanging seemingly all over the place. All this before you even walk into the assembly hall with each manufacturer showcasing an endless number of models, some on revolving turntables, others with huge, brightly lit signs behind them, and most of them with open doors welcoming you into their sumptuous

As many of you know, I was covering the New York International Auto Show, and it was truly breathtaking to take part in such an event. This was like some kind of dream, because I remember reading about the event in the pages of Car and Driver, Road & Track, and even CAR. This is the type of show the manufacturers debut their concepts, or introduce their brand new production ready models. With these introductions, there is the usual staging extras like a car draped with an appropriately colored silk cover, background lighting, smoke machines, and sometimes musicians. This year, most of the manufacturers had some kind of opulent stage performance. What was surprising however, was the number of manufacturers that didn't. Most of the

This was my first New York International Auto Show that I attended with press credentials, and I tried to take full advantage of it. The following are some of the (over 200) images I was able to capture. The idea of this posting is to show you, the reader, how exciting it is to attend a major consumer auto show, either in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Geneva, Tokyo, or London. The cars, the lights, the girls, and the experience are all spectacular. Without further ado, images from New York....

This posting is a bit late because I'm knackered from running around on the floor of the New Your International Auto Show, but I promised you a couple of significant debuts that happened today, and so here they are: The first major debut was from Subaru, with the new 2010 Outback Wagon. Subaru stated that they were the top brand within the US so far in 2009. So with the introduction of the Legacy and the Outback models, Subaru is in a strong position to weather the current market conditions, with some of the most loyal core buyers in the industry. The Outback will offer two different “boxer” style engines; a 2.5L, fuel injected flat four producing 170HP, and a new 3.6Lflat six producing 256

Well, it's now time to get to work defining the sights and sounds of the NYIAS for 2009. My initial impression was overwhelming, but after I caught my breath, it was also a bit disappointing. Why? Because the number of debuts have been lackluster, because of the general Malaise that the Auto Industry is currently in right now. However, I will try and bring you, the reader, up to speed. One of the first debuts this morning was the Mercedes-Benz ML 450 Hybrid, a car designed for the US and Canadian Markets only. It is a conventional Gas/Electric Hybrid, that produces 335 HP, and 381 lb/ft torque. According to Mercedes, is uses 50% less fuel than their conventional ML series. Also on stage was the debut

Well, I'm here at the New York International Auto Show, broadcasting to you from the Press Room. It's all electric here, and the excitement (at least for me) is exciting. Throughout the day, I will be bringing you some of the highlights of the show. Lets start off with a picture of the Media Center, and it's all set up with wireless internet access, and all sorts of "swag", so that positive press can be generated. I decided to skip the Breakfast introduction so that I could wander around unencumbered on the show floor. This is from the first News Conference was for Mercedes-Benz, and they introduced their new Hybrid for the States and Canada Only. It's the ML450 Gasoline Electric Hybrid. More info to

In Honor of the pending merger between Chrysler and Fiat, I though it was time to showcase other Italianate Chrysler’s that have been built and sold.. The Chrysler TC came about as the result of collaboration between Chrysler and Maserati, an arrangement rooted in the friendship of the charismatic men in charge of the two companies, Lee Iacocca and his friend Alejandro de Tomaso. Lee Iacocca started a friendship with Alejandro de Tomaso while at Ford, which led to the successful De Tomaso Pantera. The collaboration was perhaps ahead of its time, with the low-volume Maserati providing its image and tuning expertise, and the high-volume Chrysler providing its engineering and sales capabilities. The basic idea was to add some glamor to Chrysler, and some profit

For a while there, it looked like Volkswagen was about to make a decision on when to introduce the new Scirocco to the US, though there wasn't any word from corporate yet. That all changed, as Autoblog broke the story on Monday, and it's not good news for the rabid VW enthusiast here in the States. Accordingly, Volkswagen of America's own public relations coordinator, Tom Wegehaupt, gave an on-the-record confirmation that the Scirocco is not destined for these shores. There are fears that this car will cannibalize any future sales of the new GTI, and that the US market will deteriorate further. So it looks like there isn't a suitable business case for this particular model. This seems to be a case of very

In Honor of the pending merger between Chrysler and Fiat, I though it was time to showcase other Italianate Chrysler's that have been built and sold. The brainchild of Eugene Casaroll, the Italian-American hybrid known as the Dual-Ghia was largely based on the Ghia-designed Chrysler Firearrow, a concept car for which he acquired the production rights. Luxurious and extravagant, it had the longest production line in the world—from Detroit to Milan and back—as it utilized an American drivetrain and Italian coachwork. The health of Casaroll, the Dual-Ghia's originator, began to fail and he wanted to concentrate on his shipping business. So Dual Motors Chief Engineer, Paul Farago, teamed up with Ghia to produce the second-generation Dual-Ghia. The car continued to use a Chrysler V8 engine but

In a report from Automotive News, Takeo Fukui, Honda Motor Company President has confirmed that a new hybrid powertrain is being developed for large cars that will negate the need for a clean diesel engine, which was originally planned. Fukui cites the cost of clearing tough emissions regulations in the United States and Japan as the main reason for the change in direction. The more cost-effective solution will be a modified or possibly new hybrid drive system which will instead become the future green drivetrain for big vehicles. Honda has not said when it will begin to offer a hybrid powertrain in its larger vehicles. Meanwhile, the hybrid sales face-off will take place next month when the 2010 Insight (which reached U.S. dealers last month) will