5 Things You Might Have Missed From The Detroit Motor Show
The Kia Soul and Volvo XC90 had a baby
At least that’s what it looks like to us. It’s actually the Kia Telluride concept, which “takes Kia’s design language in a bold new direction and suggests styling of a possible future premium large SUV in the brand’s lineup.” Oh and it also includes “in-cabin health-and-wellness technology and luxury” which - after having a flick through the press release - centres around fold-flat seats with heart-rate monitors. Which I’m sure is exactly what you’ve always been looking for in a car.
The Ford Fusion is now available with up to 325bhp
Detroit saw the debut of the facelifted Ford Fusion, which now comes with a 325bhp, 350lb ft four-wheel drive ‘Sport’ variant. It’s powered by a 2.7-litre twin-turbo V6, and comes with posh adaptive dampers.
The Fusion is sold in the UK as the Mondeo, and it’s usually about two years behind the US version. So, does that mean we’ll get a V6-powered Mondeo ST220 successor in a couple of years’ time? It’s possible, but unlikely - buyers of this sort of car in the UK don’t tend to clamour after V6 engines.
What’ll be more interesting to see is whether or not this is where it ends for the Fusion in performance terms. After all, this is just the ‘Sport’, not an ST or an RS; we know Ford Performance wants to build a total of 12 models by 2020, and who knows, a hotter Fusion could well be one of them.
BMW used Detroit as a stage to announce US prices of the new M2, but presumably everyone present was much too distracted by the gorgeous 2002 turbo the company had dumped on stage.
Why? Because like the 2002, the M2 is a fast and gorgeous Bavarian coupe that’s powered by a turbocharged engine. Pretty special seeing them together, no?
Infiniti revealed a sort-of BMW M4 rival
Remember that V6-powered Infiniti Q50 revealed the other week, with almost enough power to make a BMW M3 concerned? Here’s the coupe version.
Under the skin - and on the inside - the Q60 is all as per the Q50, which means a 400bhp, 350lb ft 3.0-litre V6, rear-wheel drive and electronically controlled adjustable suspension. It’ll go on sale during the second half of 2016.
Buick's gorgeous Avista concept
We like the look of this thing a lot. It sits on GM’s Alpha platform (which also underpins the Cadillac ATS-V and Chevrolet Camaro) and has a 3.0-litre, 394bhp V6 feeding the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox. It’s not the sort of thing we’ve come to expect from Buick, so that’s why we’re rather glad it exists. While there’s no production version planned, it’s understood that something similar will eventually be sprucing up your local Buick showroom. Good news.
More Detroit news:
VLF Force 1
Acura Precision concept
2017 Lincoln Continental
Lexus LC 500
BMW M2 and X4 M40i pricing
Audi h-tron concept
Mercedes E-Class
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
The Q60S is more of an Audi S4/S5 competitor
The engineers for the Mondeo/Fusion must’ve been on acid and then Molested a Fiesta ST. The result is the aftermath.
Will all of these cars still be there for the public show? I’m going the 16th
I saw a pic of a 2002, so I must comment haha
How about taking the Avista, throwing an LS7 in there, redesign that god awful grill, and call it a Grand Sport? Or put an LS3 in it and make a high trim level LS7 version called the GSX.
This could be a point where Buicl returns to the unseen hell raiser they used to be back in the 60s.
And call the v6 turbo GNX :P
That’s a Buick ? good lord above.
Of course it won’t reach production, or at least it won’t look like that
I saw this pic of what looked like an infiniti spy car around 5 months ago and posted it on CT. was that #4?
How can we miss anything when it doesn’t open to the public until the 16th?
Just kidding. I’ll be going on Sunday though, so that should be fun.
Ok, I feel you, but a redesigned Sunfire would be a great add for the compact/sub. But it would definitely have to be a turbo 4 with rear/ all wheel drive. As for the Bonneville, it would definitely have to have at least a super charged LSA, similar to the cts-v, and not look like an Impala. Not hating in the new design, but would definitely have to have a bigger build.
just my opinion though. But I do like your ideas.