Opening weekend of the NAIAS to the public is always busy, but this one seemed particularly packed. Maybe it was just because I had more exposure to it, being in the city all three days. The charity preview on Friday evening (a black tie affair) brought out a good deal of glitz and glamor. It’s a pretty big deal around here. In fact, it’s the biggest restaurant night of the year in Detroit. I however was not at the charity preview. Instead I went to a party that my good friend Dan was having at his place in midtown. What an awesome building with a fantastic view of the city from the roof.

All that aside, I did go to the auto show on Saturday; the first day it was open to the public. As expected the show was packed with all sorts of people, young and old. Some go to look to see the concepts and technologies that they might be driving in the future, some shop for the next car they’re looking to buy and some go to drool over cars they’ll never have. I personally enjoy the show for the concepts, the technology displays and just the overall atmosphere. I also like talking cars with some of the people working for the various companies, although some are better for this than other. (Guy from Cali who races and was working at the Lincoln/Mercury booth, it was a pleasure talking with you. Guy working for Lexus, it was not.) And yes I might snap a shot or two of a Lamborghini or Ferrari, but I assure you it’s just for completeness. Plus they’re beautiful machines.

I have to say I continue to be impressed with the direction that Ford is managing to take their products. Besides the GT500KR (one of my favorite cars of the show) models like the Verve and even the Flex were very interesting. I hope they do well in the market. The Edge and Fusion drew quite a few visitors; both are pretty sharp cars. I was disappointed they didn’t have one of their EcoBoost direct injection engines on display though. They did have some marketing displays about the technology, and the figures I’m hearing from people in the know make it sound like it’s going to be a huge step forward in engine technology for Ford in terms of fuel efficiency, power output in smaller displacement engines and emissions.

Speaking of beastly engines, I think my favorite car of the show was the new Cadillac CTS-V they were showing off with the Corvette ZR1 engine crammed in it. 550 bhp and 550 ft-lb of torque in a really refined and luxurious package? Sign me up. It’s big 6.2 L supercharged engine is thirsty though I’m sure, so as nice as the CTS-V is I’m more excited about Lincolns coming out with the EcoBoost. The more efficient, smaller engine puts out some serious power, while saving weight, so from a performance standpoint there should be some amazingly quick Fords. Remember all that stuff I said about engine knock? Direct injection is a good way to counter that in lower octane fuels because the fuel is injected straight into the cylinder just later in the compression cycle (just before spark). That means they can run regular gas engines at higher compression ratios, so you get higher efficiencies. And if they ever come out with an EcoBoost tuned for ethanol? We’re talking serious compression ratios and that works even more to counteract the fact that you have to run ethanol richer than normal gas. Think that its pointless to focus on gas engine technology right now? Take a look at this:

“Compared with the current cost of diesel and hybrid technologies, customers can expect to recoup their initial investment in a 4-cylinder EcoBoost engine through fuel savings in approximately 30 months. A diesel will take an average of seven and one-half years, while the cost of a hybrid will take nearly 12 years to recoup – given equivalent miles driven per year and fuel costs,” [Derrick Kuzak] said. (source)

Anyway, back to the show. Diesels definitely do seem to be coming back into fashion, with many of the automakers announcing new diesel powertrains or that they would be bringing their overseas diesels stateside. Despite the fact that I think Ford’s GTDI engine is great, we do need a diversification of options right now, if only to help stimulate innovation across the board and lead to the “next big thing.” BMW in particular was showing off their fancy new clean diesel, and they do a pretty good job at them, so I’m sure it’s a great (if overpriced) engine.

As an aside, the BMW 1 series is a waste of time. For the price it’s too small and underpowered. The only BMW I really think offers something that resembles value is the 335i, and even then it has a base price of around $42,000. You could get a Volvo S40 T5 AWD optioned all out for $10K less than that, and while the 335i is more powerful and luxurious, I’m not sure it’s $10+K (with options) more powerful and luxurious.

GM had a solid lineup across most of their brands. Once upon a time I loathed GM products (for good reason). Now they definitely have more than a few cars that I rather like. In particular the ZR1 Corvette that I mentioned is an amazing looking car. I seriously doubt that I will ever get one myself, but I am looking forward to when they get one of those on Top Gear (especially because they liked the Z06 so much).

Well I think that’s enough for this post. I will have a second one that covers some other aspects of the auto show that I didn’t touch on, like some of the wild concept cars and hilariously bad offerings.