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Filed under: Government/Legal , BMW , Mercedes-Benz , Volkswagen , UAW/Unions Regardless of their displeasure with the cost, size and quality of Cobo Hall in Detroit, executives from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have committed to at least one more round of exhibits at the annual North American International Auto Show held at the venue each January. The German automakers occupy serious square footage at the show, and the exhibits generate much needed jobs and revenue, so the news was obviously welcomed by show officials. As automakers scale back and exit auto shows due to the economy, or rethink marketing strategies as new markets in India, Russia, and Brazil open up, the big traditional auto shows (such as those in Detroit and Tokyo ) are feeling the pressure. The latest news is that Tokyo's show is now on the verge of cancellation with the departure of Detroit's three automakers. While the Germans returning for NAIAS 2010 is welcomed news, the underlying message is that local...
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show Each year, thousands of journalists arrive in Detroit to see the best and brightest concepts and production vehicles automakers have to offer. It's estimated that the Detroit Auto Show brings in $500 to $600 million dollars annually to the region, which is struggling more than most due to the global recession. For years, the City of Detroit has failed to expand Cobo, and each year there are threats that the NAIAS will be taken away from the Motor City. The state of Michigan has been working with executives from Wayne and Oakland counties and the city of Detroit to upgrade Cobo , but yesterday the Detroit City Council voted down the proposed plan by a five-three tally. The proposed expansion was to add a much needed 166,000-sq. ft. of floorspace at a cost of $288 million. The part of the plan that isn't sitting well with Detroit officials is a stipulation that hands control of the aging facility to a regional authority controlled by the tri-county area...
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show , Trends It looks like we'll have one less day to report on all of the debuts from Detroit next year. According to the Detroit News , the North American International Auto Show 's organizers have decided to cut the number of media preview days from three to two for next year's show. The move will bring the show in-line with other domestic shows that typically only have two days of media press conferences. The 2010 Detroit Auto Show will officially kick off on Monday, rather than on its traditional Sunday launch. There will be about 30 time slots for press conferences during two full days of festivities, eliminating the usual half day on day three. Industry days will continue to be held on Wednesday and Thursday. While this probably means very little to all of you, we're looking forward to sleeping in on Sunday. Hey, if nothing else, we figure to be that much better-rested come Monday so that we can bring you all of the latest news. That said...
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Filed under: Concept Cars , Detroit Auto Show , Etc. , Marketing/Advertising Click above for a high-res gallery of odds & ends from the 2009 Detroit Auto Show Auto shows throw massive amounts of promotions, marketing, branding, communications and event planning brainpower into one little bowl. Everyone is trying to be distinctive, and sometimes they do it with the cars, sometimes with the merchandise, sometimes with lures that are meant to get you to their stand at all. Yet there are only so many positions in which to mount a car and so many ways to put a logo on a jacket, right? Inevitably, that means you come across a few nifty novelties, and you also discover a few more things that fell through the cracks and make you wonder "What is this... doing here?" These are few of those odds and ends we found at last week's 2009 Detroit Auto Show . Gallery: Detroit 2009: The odds, the ends Detroit 2009: The odds, the ends originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14...
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Filed under: Concept Cars , Detroit Auto Show , Coupes , Cadillac , GM Click image above for a gallery of Cadillac Converj live shots General Motors' increasingly empty coffers could consign the Cadillac Converj show car to 'concept only' status. The Detroit Auto Show coupe has been the subject of production rumors since before it rolled onto the stage in Cobo earlier last week, but now Automotive News is reporting that GM may not have enough money to make Converj a reality. AN quotes GM vice chairman Bob Lutz as saying that the Converj is far from a done deal: "Ready to go? Well, first we have to prove to ourselves that we have the money... and then that it's a high enough priority to displace something else, and that we can actually make money on the vehicle, and that there is potential customer interest and so forth. We haven't done any of that work yet." Our take? The angularly gorgeous Cadillac was designed around the same extended-range Voltec architecture...
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show Sure, there were a few brands missing from the 2009 Detroit Auto Show , but we never got the feeling that things were bleak... until we went looking for ten cool wheels. After walking the floor twice, we were able to come up with nine. America's premiere auto show had left us walking in circles, one wheel short, debating whether an ugly wheel with internally-mounted calipers was cool enough to make the list. And it was then that the real tragedy of this show hit us: not the subtracted brand count, but the lack of concept cars. With money reduced to growing on tumbleweeds and not on trees, those big-dollar flights of fancy had been (mostly) grounded. Instead, there were some magnificent production vehicles (the humongous 2010 Ford Taurus FTW!), and hereby we present the best wheels we found among them. Detroit 2009: Hot Wheels originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this...
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Filed under: Concept Cars , Detroit Auto Show , Economy , Geneva Motor Show , Etc. , Hatchbacks , Chevrolet , GM Click above for a high-res gallery of the Chevrolet Beat Groundhog Day edition Earlier this week, when General Motors rolled out the very same 3-door Chevrolet Beat concept that it showed back in 2007 , we were a bit confused . After all, GM's Ed Welburn teased all of America when he pulled back the tarp on a related (but clearly different) subcompact during NBC's Today Show (video here ), only to trot out the same vivid green three-door that has been steadily making the show circuit rounds for some time now. Well, Kicking Tires has unearthed the back story, and evidently the tarp-pulling session with Matt Lauer revealed a foam model of the production Spark five-door. Understandably, GM couldn't very well drive a foam block up the ramp and onto the stage, so it simply left it out of its press conference and substituted the old concept. We thought GM might quietly...
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Filed under: Detroit Auto Show , Sedans/Saloons , Saab , Special/Limited Editions Click above for a high-res gallery of the Saab 9-5 Griffin Edition We really feel for the folks at Saab, and not just because we love the 9-5 SportCombi and that we pined for a Turbo 900 with the Aero package for what seemed like all of the '80s. Yet look ahead 20 years - specifically to the 2009 Detroit Auto Show - and all we have to get excited about is the Saab 9-5 Griffin Edition. Frankly, the press release is more exciting. The grille is spruced up with matte chrome. Besides the fact that it looks like plastic, doesn't a matte finish defeat the purpose of chrome? Inside, as always with Saab, the two-tone seats are terrific places to plop one's rear, and the things covered in leather have the look and feel you want in your quirky luxury sedan. Elsewhere... well, it's the same thing Saab owners have been looking at for years, but with some of the plastic in different places. It isn't...
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