The cars are cleaner than dinner plates, as flawless as newborns. They're the abstract ideals of vehicles, never sullied by the grime of a road, existing only on plush carpets under halogen lights that make a Hyundai Accent look nearly as desirable as a Bentley Continental GT. Nearly.
That's the magic of a place like the New York International Auto Show, showcasing an auto industry trying to look confident and secure in a time of turmoil.
More than three dozen vehicles are being unveiled at the show - an unusually high number for New York, which isn't as big for the industry as the annual show in Detroit. This year, carmakers are beginning a period of major introductions of products as they compete for attention in an increasingly fragmented marketplace.
Two of the big themes are power - 300 horsepower is becoming common, and Cadillac has a concept car with skin-peeling 1,000 horsepower - and the humble passenger car, with all three US automakers developing sedans aimed at reclaiming ground lost to imports.
At the same time, manufacturers are touting new vehicles with better fuel efficiency, and they're tracking the big turn in the SUV market away from truck-based vehicles and toward more car-like "crossover" vehicles.
All those trends seemingly come together in the car that Ford unveiled Wednesday, the Escape Hybrid, which is a crossover SUV with a gas-electric hybrid engine that's supposed to get 35 miles per gallon in city driving. It's that kind of automotive world now, full of contradictions - from cars that don't fit any single description to unlikely beasts such as a Porsche SUV or sporty Volvo coupes.
While such conundrums may be good for consumer choice, for the industry they indicate "a fiercely competitive global dogfight," according to Ford president and chief operating officer Nick Scheele.
With the push on to field new products, Ford has been caught in an empty-handed lull that finally lifts in 2004 when it gets the Freestyle sport wagon and the redesigned F-150 pickup onto the streets. At the show, it also offered a video glimpse of the Ford Futura, which apparently is destined to replace the Taurus as the company's mid-range popular sedan. Ford plans to introduce 35 new models in the next five years.
... - Washington Post