North Carolina International Auto Show Highlights

The North Carolina International Auto Show (NCIAS) was held in Raleigh's new downtown convention center .  This shimmering new 500,000 square foot convention center, erected in 2008, housed this year's ever-shrinking Auto Show in Raleigh.

An important thing to note about this event is that it is dealer-sponsored, rather than manufacturer-sponsored, like many bigger shows.  This means that the mix of cars on display is a bit more lop-sided than one of the bigger displays.  I was disheartened to find that no GM dealers in the area bothered to participate.  No ZR1's, CTS-V's, Solstice Coupe, Pontiac G8 GXP's... nothing!  Then again, no local-area Ford dealerships bothered to bring their wares; although Lincoln-Mercury did, which was odd.

It seems like a case of saving a dime only to lose a dollar.  Yes, the domestic manufacturers are facing hard times - perhaps the hardest times our domestic automobile industry has faced yet.  Yes, they are stuffing their pockets with Federally funded loans.  Yes, this means that they need to be more fiscally responsible with their available funds, and that means they have to cut out unnecessary expenses (like local auto shows.)  This responsibility is needed; they have to show the (tax-paying, and thus industry-supporting) US Public that they are doing something about their predicament since we are all involuntarily invested in them.

However, they might be missing the forest for the trees.  I haven't read any attendance numbers for the NCIAS, but my personal observation was that it was packed.  It was hard to walk around without bumping into three people at a time.  There were adults and children alike fighting for seat time in the latest and greatest hardware that manufacturers have to offer, even in this sullen economic climate.

This was a large market of people that GM and Ford were missing out on entirely.  A lot of these are people that wouldn't bother going to a dealership, only to have to deal with an (understandably) desperate salesman.  They climbed through a lot of cars, but what kind of image is this giving our industry when consumers can climb in and around a Camry, Accord, Mazda 6i, and Nissan Altima... But not the supposedly revolutionary new Ford Fusion?  Or the highly rated Chevrolet Malibu?

This aside, the Raleigh auto show was all abustle with tons of hot new iron.  Here are a few highlights.

This is the first chance I've had to get up close and in person with Acura's new bread-and-butter sedan, the TL.  I have to say, visual impressions are quite negative.  Stylistically, this is a significant step back from the previous-generation TL, which had attractive, well-balanced styling and clean details.  This one is visually quite large, and way too busy.  The front grille still mystifies me (it looks like it's got a really tall forehead), the swoopy detailing on the otherwise slab-surfaced side panels is inelegant, and the rear just looks pinched.

That said, the combination of the TL SH-AWD's 307 horsepower V6 and Acura's advanced torque-vectoring All Wheel Drive seems like a nice package, and it's quite lavish inside as one would expect.

I apologize for the extremely poor picture, but it was difficult to get close enough to the TT-S to actually get a picture.  Audi's latest hot-rod version of the evergreen TT is suitably aggressive looking, and with a 270-horsepower four cylinder turbo and Quattro all wheel drive mated to Audi's fantastic S-Tronic DSG, the TT-S is one hot number.  But not quite as hot as...

Audi's R8.  This car is just as fantastic in the flesh as it is in pictures.  As you can see, it was attracting quite a bit of attention.  Well-deserved.

Another first sighting for me is Audi's new small luxury-ute niche stuffer, the Q5.  As you'd expect, it's like a 2/3rds scale Q7.  At least it's not so porpoise-like in it's appearance; the Q5 is an attractive little CUV thing.  Power comes from Audi's direct-injected 90° 3.2L V6 mated to Quattro all-wheel-drive, as you'd expect.  It looks set to compete with the other million small luxury SUV's on the market - Acura RDX, Land Rover LR2, BMW X3, the new Mercedes-Benz GLK350 (shown later in this article), etc. etc.

The 2010 BMW 7-series was on display, which I was quite happy with.  It's significantly less of an eyesore than the old 7-series, which always looked like an unfortunate mismatch of various parts to me.  The surfacing is still interesting - and man, that grille is BIG - but it's much cleaner and better detailed.  I would wager it moves pretty well, too: this one has a direct-injected twin-turbocharged V8 under the hood.  Phwoarrrrr.

Of much greater overall significance to the US market is the 335d, part of a two-pronged diesel attack on the US market, the first one since the E28-generation 524td left our shores at the end of model year 1986.  BMW's made great strides in the last 23 years; that last 524td was  considered state of the art diesel technology at the time, with a 116-horsepower inline-six turbodiesel powerplant.  The 335d (as well as the X5 Xdrive 35d, BMW's other US-market diesel) have a 3.0L twin-sequential turbocharged inline-six diesel, which makes an impressive 265 horsepower and a stump-pulling 425 lb-ft of torque.  It will hit sixty in well under 6 seconds and return 36 miles to the gallon the highway.  Perhaps America can learn to love diesels again, if they're all this sweet!

Can you believe they still make these things?  Yes, this is a 2009 model Chrysler PT Cruiser.  It's actually a "Dream Cruiser Series 5," which has a 2.4L turbocharged 180bhp motor and the 17" wheels from the old SRT-4 among other things.  It's funny, this car is fundamentally unchanged since when they introduced it... 8 years ago.  And some people wonder why Chrysler's circling the drain?

Dodge's Challenger is an unabashed musclebound anachronism in today's market.  Every day I wake up, I thank the automotive deities that cars like this still exist.  6.1L of thundering American V8 in a crisply styled retro package.  Sure, it's about a half-ton overweight, based on the boring mechanicals of the 300 sedan, overpriced and isn't any faster than a regular Mitsubishi Evo in a straight line.  But it's got it's place.  This car was drawing massive crowds still!

Here's an interesting car.  It's ChryCo's two-mode hybrid SUV, here in gussied-up Chrysler Aspen trim.  While it's mechanically uninteresting (big Hemi V8 sorta offsets the fact that it has a small set of batteries and an electric motor, doesn't it?) these cars will be remarkable for their ridiculously tiny production numbers.  Production of the hybrid Durango and Aspen started in October of 2008... then ended in December of 2008, when Chrysler decided it wasn't going to make the Durango and Aspen any more.  Considering they are completely awful vehicles, this isn't a bad thing, but it's an interesting foot note in Chrysler's history at least.

Jaguar's revolutionary XF sedan is still a stunner in the flesh, looking a lot like a four-door Aston Martin Vantage... which is hardly surprising, considering they're styled by the same person.  This supercharged model retails for $64,475 and has a brawny 420 horsepower V8.  The interiors on these cars are just as nice as you've heard; it's a refreshingly modern take on luxury from a brand that has traditionally been quite adverse to modern takes on anything.

It was a slow year when this was the only car that really caught me by surprise.  I guess I haven't been paying enough attention to the Korean economy car market, but can you blame me?  This is called the Kia Soul, and it's basically a more imaginative version of a Scion xB.  Mechanically uninteresting, it uses a 2.0L 16v I4 with 140 horsepower.  It has all the flexible seating, MP3 hookups, and obnoxious bassy stereo you'd expect for a box-shaped car aimed at the Youth Market.  At least it's prettier than the current xB!  Pricing starts at under $14,000 for a base model and goes up above $18,000 for a loaded Sport model, which seems pretty steep for a box-shaped Kia.  Perhaps i'm just a fuddy-duddy old person.  I'm just wondering why the felt the need to paint the inside of the glove box red.

Lincoln's Volvo-derived MKS sedan is quite a looker to me, with the kind of clean, reserved lines that have been absent from Lincolns at least as long as I can remember.  With all-wheel-drive and the EcoBoost turbo V6, the MKS will hopefully grab a bigger market share next year.

M-B's new GLK small ute was there, and I was mostly flummoxed by this one.  It just seems like an alarming number of manufacturers are throwing entries  into what seems like a highly pointless niche to me, but the GLK looks like a nice enough car-truck-thing.  It's a shame it looks like a Honda CR-V that was restyled with a ruler, though.

Maserati's Gran Turismo gets a little bit prettier every time I see one.  When I wake up in the morning, this car is the reason I am determined to one day become filthy stinking rich.  Hey, we all have to have goals.  Also, check out those blue crackle-finish cam covers.  Mmmm.

I can say this - yours truly does fit into the trunk of a Lincoln Towncar!  Long live the Panther platform!  (actually, good riddance.  But that is a big trunk.)

In typical Mitsubishi fashion, the two interesting Mitsubishis at the show - the Lancer Evolution and the new turbocharged Ralliart - were both locked.  Yes, great PR technique - don't let people look at your cars at a car show.  Another forehead-slapper.

Nissan's revamped sports car, now named the 370Z, is one of those cars that disgusts in pictures and enchants in real life.  The details on this car just don't come through in a photograph.  In the flesh, the 370Z is a much better looking car than the 350 that preceeded it.  It's got a shorter wheelbase, it's wider and squatter, and the hips pinch in just before the rear fenders like an old racer from the 60's.  Some of the little things (like the gaudy doorhandles and the fangs in the grille) are hard to wrap one's head around, but this car is still a stunner.

Toyota is becoming just like GM in the 80's -  they're coming out with so many products that are so similar it's hard to determine their intended market positions.  This is a sign of a company that's so big it's lost it's direction.  The Venza is a Camry-based 5-door wagon/crossover type vehicle, that's... well... remarkably similar in size to a Highlander.  Which is remarkably similar in size to a Rav4.  Nothing wrong with this car (it's got quite a nice interior) but it raises the question: who cares?

Hilarious.  No other word for it.  Here's the front fender of the Toyota Yaris "Onyx Edition," which is a shameless tape-and-stickers-and-gaudy-wheels package for Toyota's mind-numbingly dull subcompact.  The reddish-orange fender stripe seems to be a nod to the '96 Corvette Grand Sport, with apparently no intended irony. Ugh. Who buys this stuff?

This just in: Smart Cars are small!  That's Paul, my carshow buddy.  Smile, Paul!

And last, but not least.  What's wrong with this picture?

Well, nothing when viewed out of context.  It's only when you see that it's stuck on this when it starts to make sense:

Yup, a Volkswagen that's actually a Chrysler minivan!  My feet are starting to feel unusually cold...

While the NCIAS was really defined more by what wasn't there than what was, it was still a nice opportunity to take a look at all the latest and greatest.  Here's hoping GM and Ford have the bankroll to make it to the show, come this time next year!  Heck, here's hoping we all have the bankroll to even come to the show next year.

words and pictures: James Mackintosh