The usual global debut of production models and concept cars at the New York International Auto Show took a back seat this year to the Wall Street woes that are casting a shadow over cars sales on Main Street USA and threatening the health of Detroit's auto makers in particular.
But for sheer fun there was the X Prize.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the Big Apple would host the first round of this $10-million (U.S.) competition to build a vehicle that gets 100 miles per gallon.
Sixty-four teams from 10 countries have signed letters of intent to compete. Among them is Tesla, the California-based electric car company whose first product is a high-performance electric roadster.
Ironically, the X Prize competition announcement came in tandem with an auto show at which so-called "green" cars were in relatively short supply — at least in comparison with the environmental themes so evident at the other big auto shows of this season.
That season, of course, began last September at the Frankfurt auto show. New York puts a wrap on the big auto shows until this September in Paris. For the past few months, though, right through to the Geneva auto show in early March, the world's auto makers seemed to be in a competition to out-do one another on the environmental front.
Not in New York.
The global production models having their debuts ranged from the new 2009 Acura TSX to the first upscale coupe from Hyundai, the 2009 Genesis. General Motors used New York to showcase two high-horsepower Pontiacs, the 2009 G8 GXP and the 2010 G8 sport truck. But aside from an electric version of Nissan's Cube that will come to market next year as a limited-production fleet vehicle and then later as a real passenger car, there were few "green" production models or concepts in sight.
Instead, we saw Chrysler round out its 2009 Dodge Challenger lineup. Mercedes used New York to show a face-lifted 2009 Mercedes-Benz M-Class sport utility. Nissan talked about having high hopes for an elegant new 2009 Maxima. And there was also this cute little 2009 Pontiac Solstice coupe.
As for concept cars, three of the more interesting ones were the Kia Koup coupe, Scion Hako coupe and the Suzuki Kizashi 3 sedan. Scion is not sold in Canada and is not likely to be for the foreseeable future.
Despite the glamour and energy of New York, this city remains the financial capital of the United States, if not the world. Therefore, the floor conversation was more about the faltering U.S. economy than shiny new metal.
The recent meltdown at investment bank Bear Stearns dominated at every stand and there was a sense of "what's next?" running through the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center where some million-plus visitors will view the new models until the end of next week.
In fact, just the day before the show's first press day, market forecaster J.D. Power and Associates set the tone by cutting its sales forecast for 2008 in the United States. Most forecasters began the year predicting U.S. auto sales in the range of 15.7 million to 16.1 million. J.D. Power, though, cut its forecast to 14.95 million, the lowest level since 1994.
Chrysler chief executive officer Bob Nardelli, in a keynote address to open the show, did not trifle with that sales prediction. He told reporters that his company, now owned by the private New York investing firm Cerberus Capital Management, entered 2008 expecting the worst and nothing has changed his mind on that.
Nardelli said the auto maker had an "aggressively conservative" business plan, which seemed ominous in its tone. That said, he vowed that, despite the economy in the U.S., Chrysler would return to profitability in the not-too-distant future.
"We did not build in a second-half recovery" into our forecasts, Nardelli said. "If we were wrong and the economy worsens enough, we'll be quick to adjust."
Published reports indicate Chrysler lost $2.9-billion last year on operations and restructuring costs, though because Cerberus is private company, that figure can't be officially confirmed.
