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Understanding the Concept

If the just-concluded North American International Auto Show proved anything, it’s that America still doesn’t get it. While the Frankfurt, Germany show this past fall seemed to focus on the greening of the European auto industry, the big stars of the Detroit show seemed to be the restyled Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram pickups, Chevy’s 600-hp, $100,000 Corvette and Cadillac’s new 500-horsepower CTS-V. Hardly the news we’ve been waiting for as we face higher and higher gas prices.

Nevertheless, the Detroit show was good for a few interesting concept cars. And I don’t mean the way-out-in-left-field vehicles which don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever seeing production. There were some interesting vehicles which, with a bit of tweaking, are this close to what we’ll soon see in showrooms. Such as:

Cadillac’s CTS Coupe. Motor Trend Magazine picked the CTS sedan as its 2008 Car of the Year (Chevy’s Malibu won out as the North American Car of the Year as announced at the Detroit show), and Cadillac surprised everyone by showing a handsome two-door version of the popular small luxury car. If it sees production, the CTS should be even more competitive with BMW and Mercedes, who’ve been selling both two and four-door versions of their cars for years.

Another two-door from General Motors, and one which evokes a familiar name, was Buick’s Riviera. The new Riv was actually unveiled at last year’s show in Shanghai. (Buick is huge in China!) Should the Riviera ever hit Buick showrooms, I doubt it will still have the concept car’s gullwing doors, but expect to see some sort of hybrid powertrain, such as the one now scheduled to begin production in Shanghai sometime this year.

One of the more interesting looking concept vehicles is Suzuki’s X-Head concept truck. It looks to me like something I’d find in my old collection of Matchbox vehicles. Officially a “cross-utility vehicle” as described by Suzuki officials, the X-Head would offer Camper, Fashion and Rescue modules, which would allow owners to sleep in, drive in style, or perform search and safety operations, respectively. If nothing else, it looks cool.

Honda’s showing a couple of concept cars, the CR-Z and the FCX Clarity. Although the names don’t exactly roll off the tongue, the ideas are interesting. The CR-Z (Compact Renaissance Zero) is what Honda calls its next generation lightweight sports car, except this time around it will be equipped with Honda’s gas-electric hybrid powertrain. The FCX Clarity is a zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle that will find itself in the garages of a number of lessees (at $600 per month) beginning this summer in Southern California (about the only place in America at present with enough hydrogen filling stations to carry out the testing).

Next week begins the annual Buffalo Auto Show at the downtown convention center. Although we probably won’t see many of the concepts seen at larger shows, it’s always interesting to be able to compare the different models all under one roof. See you there.