The cars to watch for at Detroit Auto Show

Bloomberg

Last year was a good one for global carmakers. In the week before the North American International Auto Show that will start on Monday in Detroit, Audi, McLaren, Mercedes, Jaguar, and Land Rover, among others, announced record-breaking sales numbers for December and predicted new highs for 2016. Some, like Ford, held steady in certain segments; the company’s F-Series finished its 35th straight year as the bestselling vehicle in the US
American car sales reached 17.55 million units last year. And analysts say car sales in 2018-19 are likely to rise even more, thanks to anticipated tax cuts and national infrastructure policies in 2017.
But while luxury automakers might be smiling during the Detroit show, only a handful will be there. Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and Bentley have special new products to show the thousands of journalists who will congregate there, but Porsche, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Tesla will skip it altogether.
The word from many of them is that they’re saving new launches for the glitzier New York, Geneva, and Los Angeles shows later in the year. The industry has also shifted announcements about electric engineering and tech wizardry to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“We are prioritizing our resources,” is the main refrain. So expect to see bread-and-butter products such as Toyota’s Camry and the Chevy Traverse take center stage next week in Detroit. On the luxury side, Audi will debut a brand-new SUV concept, while BMW Group and Mercedes-Benz will each unveil the next-generation models of foundational sedans—plus one or two electric-powered (at least partially) vehicles. Detroit-based Chevrolet will not bring the much-anticipated Corvette ZR1 sports car, though fans can expect to see it revealed soon enough, in the spring.
Here is a closer analysis of debuts to watch for. The show runs Jan. 8-22 at Detroit’s Cobo Center.

AUDI Q8
Along with the expected US debuts of the A5 and S5 Cabriolet, among others in the Audi 2018 line, here’s a brand-new model from Audi that—apart from the flat roofline—just looks like a bigger version of the SUVs the brand already makes. There are a few other subtle differences: The sides are wider and squarer than the current production Q5 and Q7 models; the stance is positioned more forward than they are, too—closer to what the Audi Ur-Quattro looked like in the 1980s. We know few details about how fast or how expensive this latest big rig will be, but expect it to exceed the Q7 on both counts. A production model is expected later this year.

KIA GT
Kia does almost everything well. Why not a sporty, grand touring sedan, then? The company showed a concept along those lines way back in 2011. Unfortunately, it decided to first greenlight the K900, a massive cruise-liner of a luxury car that pretty much pleased only LeBron James, its pitchman. In truth, sporty fits the brand better than swanky. The production-model GT we’ll see in Detroit will lack some of the novel touches of the concept; gone are the suicide doors, for example. But Kia still employs one of the best designers in the business (Audi alumnus Peter Schreyer), so expect a stunner.

BENTLEY SECRET DEBUT
Bentley is the only hyper-luxury automaker attending the Detroit show in any fashion, though it technically won’t be there. The British brand will instead host the debut of a mystery vehicle in a prominent downtown street on Sunday—at 10 in the morning, in Detroit, in January. Time to bundle up like the Michelin man, himself.

BMW 5-SERIES WORLD DEBUT
BMW will show off its best-selling 5-Series line in Detroit, which will include world debuts of the standard-issue 540i sedan, the performance-tuned M550 sedan, and the 530e iPerformance hybrid sedan, which completes BMW’s full line of plug-in electric hybrid vehicles. The new line will become available starting in February.
Each of the new variants has subtle engine and fuel-efficiency tweaks and comes with refined design details (this is a long standing pillar of BMW, after all) and new tech features, including remote control parking and advanced driver assistance systems, which is a semi-autonomous driving program. There’s a reason the series has sold more than 1 million units since it debuted in 1975: It’s very good.

BMW X2 CONCEPT
Along with the sedan, BMW will reveal yet another take on the all-consuming crossover and light SUV segment: the X2 Concept. The company describes it as “displaying a distinctive design that stands apart from other BMW X models while maintaining the tradition of BMW Group’s coupe-making.” Basically, it looks like a shrunken version of the X3 crossover. The X2 is closer to the ground than the X3, more like a coupe, and it has oversized wheels with a long wheelbase and very forward-slanted stance. It’s all meant to make the car look sporty. BMW has not released any specifics yet about engine variants or performance numbers for this concept.

TOYOTA CAMRY
The Toyota Camry today is like Muhammad Ali was in the late 1970s; it’s still the champion, but the power is fading fast. Last year, Americans bought a Camry every 82 seconds, faster than any other vehicle save a few pickups. But bigger, boxier rivals are closing the gap quickly. The Camry will likely get lapped in 2017 by its sibling, the Rav4, and by Honda’s CRV. For its newest iteration, expect Toyota to dial up the sportiness, both in performance and looks. After all, driving dynamics are the one remaining antidote to SUV fever.
CADILLAC ESCALA
In Detroit, for a second time in just a few months, Cadillac will trot out its Escala, the handsome, four-door sedan that it says signals “the direction we are thinking about for technologies, automation, connectivity, interior design, [and] craftsmanship.”
As previously reported, the car comes with 22-inch rims and “monkey-spoke” wheels, an aluminum grille, LED tail lights, and a clean body line that runs from the front to the rear. If it ever comes to fruition, it could be run on a twin-turbo, eight-cylinder engine, according to Cadillac President Johan De Nysschen.