NAIAS Detroit Auto Show 2012: Part 6, Honda

The most interesting stuff at the Honda stand was the Accord coupe concept and some new Acura designs. But except for the heart-racing NSX, Honda really didn't speak much to me this time through.

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The Fit EV was lonely in its little protected alcove, and relatively unloved.  It looks mostly like a Fit with some aero tweaks.






The Honda Accord coupe concept was, to be honest, a snooze.  There was some odd bling surrounding the  foglamps/faux "brake cooling vents", or whatever the big plastic grates were supposed to evoke.  But overall, the design seemed busy, a bit disjointed.




The Acura NSX, on the other hand, was lovely.  The front end reminded me of Mazda's recent design language.  Will it look this good when they build it?




Tucked away in a corner was the Acura ILX design concept.  A styling buck, this car was a glossy shell only.  No one seemed to be paying much attention to it.  It is definitely understated, but it does have a more interesting front end design than the current huge-chrome-shield look of Acura.

Honda, wake up.  Unleash the designers, and make some sculpture.  Make cars that are exciting to look at.

NAIAS Detroit Auto Show 2013: Part 5, Chrysler, Fiat, Maserati

Chrysler's more interesting displays at the 2012 NAIAS included their new Dodge Dart in cutaway view, a design concept for a minivan, and a new Maserati SUV concept.  I also coudn't help but notice that Chrysler/Fiat was the most aggressive in flaunting their female auto show presenters physical assets.







Some views of the Chrysler 700 concept.  The design was much too swoopy for a practical minivan, in my opinion.  The strong diagonal line applied to the B pillar area looks like it would cause very poor visibility.


The 700 product specialist was, I think, too glamorous for the vehicle.




The Maseati Kubang, an SUV which will share the Jeep Grand Cherokee/Dodge Durango platform, but not their styling.

Some views of the new Dodge Dart.  While it is a huge improvement over the clunky looking and unrefined Caliber, I don't think the Dart is as good looking as the new offerings from Ford and Chevy.  It is rounded and organic, which reminds me a bit of the old Dodge Neon.


The interior looked pretty good, if you don't mind some of the same rounded organic themes.


Underneath the Dart, a clear shot of one of the aero tricks that we will see on many new vehicles going foward: a plastic shield which helps flow air around the underside of the car.





This young lady got a lot of attention, more for her outfit I think than for the 500 Abarth she was promoting.

NAIAS Detroit Auto Show 2012: Part 4, CUE, Uconnect Take On Sync

Ford got everyone's attention when they rolled out their much loved (and much hated) infotainment system, Sync.  Now, GM and Chrysler are taking on MyFord Touch with their own touchscreen user interfaces.  I got a quick tour of the Cadillac CUE system and Dode Uconnect.

Product specialist Rosemary gave me an interactive tour of Cadillac's upcoming CUE system. It was responsive, with quick reactions to user requests. It has a nice haptic feedback feature, where the screen taps back at you when you touch a selection. This is very useful, because it helps you know that you actually touched something. CUE is also highly customizable. The user can pick his favorite buttons and drag them to the shortcut row, at the top of the screen. You can also choose a number of different display formats for the instrument cluster, which is one huge LCD screen. When you aren't interacting with it, the shortcut bar and bottom bar of icons fade away. If you reach your hand towards the screen, the extra information fades in again, offering the user an uncluttered view most of the time.


Cadillac's CUE system.


Rosemary shows me how the custom IP displays work


The sport setting shows a tachometer to the left, and on the right you can have a minature navigation view in the center of the speedometer.


Another custom view for the IP, this one just shows a large digital speedometer in the middle, with entertainment and navigation items.

 At the Dodge Dart display, I had a chance to play with Chrysler's Uconnect system. Similar to GM, it was responsive and fairly simple to use, but it didn't seem to have as many customization options as CUE. It also didn't have the haptic feedback feature.


Uconnect has a small square central LCD screen on the IP.


Uconnect has a few large icons arranged at the bottom of the screen.

Both Uconnect and CUE are going to give MyFord Touch/Sync strong competition, unless Ford steps up their game.  Ford says that a new and much improved version of MyFord Touch will appear early this year, with better latency, fewer bugs and an easier to read layout.  I hope that this is as promised, because GM and Chrysler are learning from Ford's mistakes.