The year of mundane. The economy heading deeper into the tank made all auto shows very subdued compared to their usual. The North American Internationl Auto Show in Detroit, normally the premier show of the year, was supposedly a wasteland as several major makers pulled out, leaving the Los Angeles show the highlight of the season for many.

It wasn't much of a highlight.

Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and others pushed ahead with clean diesel, usually with AdBlue (urea injection) to further clean the exhaust stream. The horsepower wars may be beginning to subside, but GM's Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, the new Chevy Camaro, new Cadilliac CTS-V (556hp supercharged LSA, wee!), not to mention Mercedes' new E63 AMG hitting 517hp were all clear signs that the last few releases in the pipeline were going to be big ones. Seeing what looked like Saturn and Buick's last gasps was a little said, too. (seeing a horrible Pontiac rebadge was not, though)

Other new toys were from Porsche, with the redesigned Boxster and Cayman. Porsche's twin-clutch transmission, aka PDK, as well as direct injection and slight displacement bumps kept things interesting there. News of the new Panamera remainded slim.

Ford had the revised 2010 Mustang, which for all its modest revisions is a substantial improvement over the 2009-- it's actually surprisingly good. Mazda's new Mazda 3 and Mazda 6 for their small and mid-size vehicles were more subtle; they both received significant changes, especially the Mazda 6, but the changed feeling wasn't quite as dramatic as new Mustang. Volvo, by comparison to Ford and Mazda, looked dull. The new "V O L V O" badging was very old school. Rest of the changes, even the new XC60, failed to excite.

Jaguar was more subtle, with bigger engines yet similar exteriors, finally bringing their base engines and R-models into real power (from 420hp to 510hp in the R models). Subaru, Suzuki, and Scion were all quiet (the rebadged Suzuki Equator twin of the Nissan Frontier? snore...), while Toyota had the new Matrix and the Camry wagon, er, Venza crossover. With fuel economy as a hot topic, many makes had more 4-cylinder options and the Venza was no exception, with a base 2.7L 4-cylinder standard. Infiniti and Lexus both had new convertibles (G37 convertible and IS250C), but unless you like 4-seat grand tourers, both were fairly dull.

Even Ferrari was quiet. The new California had been shown last year, and as hot as the 599GTB is, it's not new. Lotus and Lamborghini lacked their usual crowds-- the Gallardo LP560-4 and Murcielago LP670-4 are both hot, but Lambo's booth babes from last year were conspicious by their near-absence. Even the new Evora drew a smaller crowd than expecte, and it was pretty meh. Rolls-Royce, Spyker, and Bentley remain out of the reach of mere mortals.

Nissan was among the most alive with their new 370Z and Cube. The 370Z looks to be an excellent evolution of the 350Z, while the Cube is getting panned hard in reviews vs. the Kia Soul and the Toyota iQ. Funky, innovate, and not bad, yet reviewers seem to find it lacking compared to the competition.

VW's Passat CC is striking really only from the rear, while Hyunadi's Genesis coupe looks quite good. It's pretty heavy, though, but if the price is right the factory 2.0T Track edition could be a bargain for a RWD sports coupe. Acura was a bit more mixed. The previous TL Type S was superb, while the next-generation TL and TSX both appear to have lost some of their dynamic edge.

The show wasn't exactly depressing, but it was lacking a lot of the excitement that previous years had. No really exotic concepts (sorry Mercedes and Saab, just not cutting it), the battle of the Camaro/Challenger/Mustang looked like a rehash of the last one (Camaro wins on performance, Mustang wins on sales)... just be happy we have all these wonderful cars to choose from right now, and they're affordable! Evo X, WRX STi, 335i, CTS-V, Z06, so many to choose from!

All images (c) 2003-2009 Brian J. Won (homepage). vq30de.net and brian1.net are property of Brian J. Won. VQ30DE is Nissan's engine designation for their all-aluminum 3.0L gasoline DOHC engine. No infringement or misuse of the VQ30DE designation is intended.

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