The Detroit Auto Show

The North American International Auto Show or Detroit Auto Show, sets the pace of the new types of vehicles and the direction for major car companies throughout the new year.

https://youtu.be/s3SIWQD9yhM

The new models and concepts are charged with more tech than ever and cars keep getting more efficient and powerful.

Here are a few highlights:

Ford released the Explorer for 2020, completely redesigned from the ground up, this new Explorer looks sleek, modern, lighter and leaner. It now comes with a 3.0L EcoBoost Engine, which makes it the most powerful Explorer ever to come to production. My favorite part is the new huge 10.1 inch screen that’s portrait mounted, just like a smartphone in vertical mode. It also comes with Ford Co-Pilot 360, which is a driver assist tech that can even parallel park the car for you.

On the truck end, the new Ram Heavy Duty 2500 came to the stage with a roar. This truck is so powerful that it can tow almost three full NFL teams, a total of 142 players! What’s impressive is that this truck out-powers, out-tows and out-hauls every other pick-up in its class. It comes in a gas or diesel version. They have the car frame mounted at the show with the 6.7-liter Cummins Turbo Diesel engine and it’s pretty impressive.

It was also good to finally see the production version of the Kia Telluride SUV. Pretty good looking and keeping those classic square looks. This is Kia’s flagship SUV designed and built in the U.S. for the North American market and you can tell, it has seating for up to 8 passengers.

One of my favorites of all time was the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. It was lowered from the ceiling using cables and it entered the blue LED illuminated stage as the mouths of the automotive press simultaneously opened. The reason? 700 horsepower under the hood! This is a supercharged 5.2-liter V8 that goes 0 to 60 in 3 seconds and change.

I also loved the futuristic Nissan IMS concept. Developed by Nissan’s Intelligent Mobility Division, this autonomous concept mixes performance with self-driving. It has dual electric motors and generates 483 horsepower with a range of 380 miles on a single charge. The futuristic interior features augmented reality that alerts you of safety hazards on the road.

I think the star of the show was the 2020 Toyota Supra. It’s been missed for 21 years and it was just reintroduced to the market. Boasting a 3.0-liter turbo and 335 horsepower, it reaches a top speed of 143 MPH. It’s a perfectly balanced beauty that looks pretty aggressive on the street but you can still take it to the track to have some drifting fun. The first 1,500 Supras will be special edition with red mirror caps, matte black wheels and red details in the interior that look spectacular.

Like every year, there are many new and cool cars shown at the Detroit Auto Show. This year the show was smaller overall since they are transitioning to a summer date in 2020. I can’t wait to visit Detroit in the summer for the first time and without a coat.