It used to be that concept vehicles were hauled out for auto shows, where they served as bait to lure folks into the display area.
Once the concept admirers were within striking distance, the auto show salesman could try to sell them on the merits of the sheet metal in showrooms.
Chrysler Corp. changed the strategy a couple of years ago when it used the Detroit Auto Show to unveil just about every concept it had hidden in the back room.
But these weren’t pie-in-the-sky dream machines, rather they were thisclose-to-reality concepts taken on the show circuit to get early feedback from the media and consumers as to how well they might be accepted if produced.
To put it mildly, Chrysler stole the show, as evidenced by its Dodge Viper and Plymouth Prowler–concepts that were shipped to the assembly line only months after show debuts.
For 1999, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. have taken the hint and realized the importance of getting an early read on future vehicles. Ford is using the Detroit and Chicago Auto Shows to unveil the 2001 Thunderbird a year ahead of arriving in the showroom.
It’s also giving the public a chance to judge the Lincoln Blackwood concept of the “ultimate sport-utility vehicle” (Cars, Dec. 31) and the Mercury my (yup, lower case) multi-activity vehicle, a cross between car, truck and sport-utility.
GM, for the first time, allowed the media inside its styling studios to witness the work being done on five concepts that will be introduced in Detroit and be on display in Chicago.
GM’s concept lineup includes the Pontiac Aztek, Buick Cielo, Oldsmobile Recon, Chevrolet Nomad and Cadillac Evoq–vehicles that provide clues as to what the automaker has in mind in the next few years. But, GM advised, these are only 5 of 200 concepts it is working on.
Though the names may leave you cold, the concepts provide an interesting glimpse into the near future.
A brief look at each:
PONTIAC AZTEK
For the last few years Pontiac has come up with concepts–the trucklike/coupelike Rageous, the performance-oriented Grand Prix 300 GPX and the convertible Pontiac Sunfire speedster–aimed at attracting youth with a multipurpose car/SUV hybrid. Aztek is the latest attempt at catering to active youthful lifestyles.
Aztek is built off the Pontiac Montana mini-van platform on a long 108-inch wheelbase. Call it a V-6-powered sports sedan van, a four-door, front-wheel-drive hatchback with a tailgate.
In keeping with the Pontiac design theme, Aztek features louvered door panels similar to those on the Grand Am coupe and sedan. Rear seats flip, fold and remove for those who want to carry their mountain bikes in the vehicle.
When it’s time to relax after biking, you can fold down the tailgate and sit on it while you listen to the sound system and its eight speakers embedded in the side walls in back. Hmm. Tailgates get uncomfortable after a while, you say. Not on Aztek because it features a pair of “butt bowls,” or indentations, for your sitting pleasure.
Pontiac says that though an off-roader, Aztek is more of a Clint Eastwood than an Arnold Schwarzenegger, whatever that means.
BUICK CIELO
Cielo (pronounced see-YEL-low) means sky, apropos for a midsize convertible built off the Regal platform.
Cielo has a hardtop that retracts on rails along the sides of the roof to provide for open-air motoring. The roof can be opened/closed by pushing a button or by voice activation. Buick also is working on a rain sensor system so the sensor will activate the roof-closing mechanism when water strikes the windshield.
Other noteworthy features include the return of the Buick ventiports, or portholes, that were the division’s noteworthy styling cue for years, and voice-activated controls for most major accessories, such as radio, heater and air conditioner.
This hardtop convertible also has four doors, with the two in the rear similar to the access doors on Chevy and GMC extended-cab trucks. The rear doors swing out front to rear (what had been called “suicide doors” in the early days of the industry).
Another novel feature finds 11 air bags inside to offer protection in front or side impacts. This includes bags in those roof rails to offer head protection in side impacts. There’s also a head-up display to serve driver and passenger. HUD shows such things as speedometer readings on the lower portion of the windshield so the driver doesn’t have to take his or her eyes off the road.
In the future, HUD will provide such features as Night Vision, which uses infrared heat imaging to alert you to a stalled car or animal in the road, which is the reason HUD is also available for the passenger in this concept.
OLDSMOBILE RECON
Recon is short for reconfigurable interior seating. While GM calls it a compact sport-utility vehicle, insiders say that this is a look at the styling of the next-
generation GM front-wheel-drive mini-vans.
Remember the Dustbuster sloping nose that GM was criticized for? Now comes a short, less sloping, but very tall nose that suggests a battering ram. GM calls it the chiseled look.
Recon is a four-door hatchback, and since a number of concepts industrywide feature hatchbacks, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize they’ll soon make a comeback.
Like Cielo, Recon features center opening (“suicide”) doors, but GM design chief Wayne Cherry hints that those doors are used on the concept to offer showgoers a better view of the cabin and may be replaced by traditional mini-van sliders in the production model. He also said Recon strongly suggests the mini-van look coming soon throughout GM and not just at Olds.
Noteworthy features include voice-activated controls, dual panel sunroof that allows one or both to be slid open over front- or rear-seat occupants or both, a laptop computer docking station with provisions for a TV monitor beneath it in the console, an onboard navigation system in the instrument panel and a variety of rear-seat configurations to increase or reduce passenger/ cargo capacity.
CHEVROLET NOMAD
GM calls this a “21st Century sport wagon that recalls its namesake of a station wagon version of the ’50s Chevy.”
Nomad combines the performance and handling of a sports sedan with function and flexibility of a sport-utility and represents one more version of GM’s hybrid vehicles.
It features a small-block, 5.7-liter V-8, independent rear suspension, traction control, retractable roof and extended load floor. GM refers to it as a “spirited function” vehicle or “sports SUV” and some hint it could serve as a replacement for the Camaro because it is built off the Camaro platform.
“It’s what would happen if you put the Corvette and Blazer in a blender,” one official noted.
The rear-wheel-drive Nomad looks, at first glance, to be a two-door, but features twin power rear-access doors that pull out and slide back like on mini-vans.
The roof is unique. Pull down the rear tailgate, fold the rear seats flat into the floor and slide the roof forward to convert the back end into a version of a pickup truck bed when you need to carry tall items. And you can slide the tailgate under the vehicle, out of the way, if needed.
CADILLAC EVOQ
The concept closest to going into production, perhaps in 2002, Evoq represents a second attempt by GM to bring out a luxury two-seat roadster. The first try, the Cadillac Allante, failed because it tried to mimic Mercedes-Benz in price without the quality.
Cadillac designers said that with Evoq it wants people to think Stealth bomber rather than Lear jet. If you can figure that out, you probably understand what Evoq means.
Evoq is built on a 108.5-inch wheelbase, about the size of an Eldorado coupe. It is powered by a 4.2-liter, 32-valve V-8.
Inside, it is loaded with bells and whistles, including laptop computer docking, OnStar emergency communication/navigation system, Night Vision, and obstacle detection in which an instrument panel warning system will alert the driver when he or she is backing up within striking distance of an object, from pedestrian to a child on a bike to a stray pet or perhaps the bumper of another vehicle.
To reduce the chance of not spotting obstacles, the outside mirrors have been replaced with cameras for viewing on a screen in the cabin.
The hardtop is power retractable and folds, flips and stores under a tonneau cover.
The GM concepts will make the auto-show rounds starting in Detroit this week.
Based on early reaction from the media privy to GM’s design studios, Cielo is a hit, Nomad’s extended station wagon-like roof line is a miss and Recon should be impeached, or at least recalled to the design studios. The whispers among the media were that Evoq “looks cold,” and Aztek would look better in a Hot Wheels carton than a showroom.
Judge for yourself at the auto show.
