Accelerate Mpls

While Detroit has been down in the dumps for a while, this years auto show definitely shows things might be back on track in the D. Of course it had to snow while everyone was in town, but it gave those from the warmer climates a chance to see what us snow belt state peeps live through on a daily basis.

Some of you will remember that last year I wanted to differentiate myself. I started tweeting pictures of cars with the models and tagged them as #EyeCandy. This quickly became a hot topic. A few of my followers mentioned this year that I was not really tweeting any #EyeCandy and asked why not. The simple answer, there wasn’t any. Few booths had the babes that were in attendance last year. Though Chrysler group and Ferrari still pulled through.

But lets get down the to the product. The new Chrysler 300 looks terrific. In reality, many wondered when they saw the pictures if it can recapture the market that the 300 once had in 2005. Upon seeing the car in real life, I am happy to report that it looks much better in person. The interior really does deliver on the promise that the 300 made back in 2005. American luxury. From the great new Pentastar V6, to the growling Hemi V8 in the 300C, this is American luxury in a rear-wheel drive car.

Another car I was anxious to see in real life was the new Chevrolet Sonic. The Sonic is Chevrolet’s new B-Segment car which will take on the likes of the new Ford Fiesta, Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and many others. I have to say, while I think the new Sonic is a home run from a styling perspective, I can see how many will not. It will be either a love it or hate it vehicle. From the exposed barrel headlights to the ridiculously short rear overhang and really long front overhang, the styling is nothing short of eye catching. The interior gauge cluster is also interesting, as they actually put into the production model the Aveo RS concept’s gauge cluster. With a racing like analogue tachometer and a digital speedometer, the gauge cluster is more reminiscent of a race car or motorcycle than that of a sub-compact car. Going on sale later this year I can’t wait to get behind the wheel and see how the driving dynamics compare to the competition.

The new A6 has already won a design award without even leaving the show floor. In my opinion the new A6 takes everything that is right with the new A8 and A4 while dropping everything that is wrong with them. Smashing all the good together to make a great looking Audi. The design language has really come together for this car. The interior is terrific and the exterior is eye catching. The optional LED headlights are very intricately designed when inspecting them up close. You will see the new A6 on the road later this year.

I’m not going to really cover the CTS-V Coupe race car but I wanted to make mention of it. Two words come to mind when you walked past it on the turntable, menacing and awesome. Ok, moving on.

Toyota has finally unveiled a larger Prius. The model is called the Prius V. This is especially confusing to some since the regular Prius has trim level packages that are in roman numerals. Right now if you go buy a Prius in the top trim level you are buying a Prius V. Wait, that can’t make sense. So when you buy a top trim level Prius V will you be buying a Prius V V? This is clearly not well thought out. I wonder if Toyota realizes this yet. Maybe someone should send them a note. Regardless, I heard many people comment on how the Prius V rear end has a lot of Honda Fit in it. I can see that. The front, well it looks like a third generation Prius with a few slight tweaks. You’ll still know it’s a Prius. You will see the people mover Prius at a dealership near you in the Summer.

Ah the Honda Civic Concept. Honda waltzed Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy on stage to talk about the new Civic Concept. Here’s the problem, either Wentz was drunk or he really could care less about being there. He enthusiasm was worse than the new Civic’s styling. He barely stumbled through his words off the teleprompter. Note to Honda: make sure your spokesperson is somewhat excited about your luke warm product.

But getting back to that product, the new Civic Concept looks as if a new Odyssey and the current generation Civic got it on in the back room. That, or a designer of the current Civic got wasted one night, and just took the current Civics lines and tweaked them a little. For a mid-cycle refresh, I am not sure how this will be competitive until 2016 with new competition from Hyundai, Ford and Chevrolet. We will have to wait and see when the new Civic comes out, but I am not holding my breath.

Mercedes had its SLS E-Cell electric car on display. In a word it is blinding. The paint job on this car can literally sear your retinas. Beyond the paint job, it looks fairly identical on the outside to the current SLS. The interior changes a little as most of the gauges and center stack are now LCD screens. This car will go into production, but if you have to ask range or price, you can’t afford it.

I don’t really want to spend much time on the Passat as I’m not sure it deserves it. I’ll reserve final judgement until I drive one. Until then, I’ll say this, Volkswagen is going downmarket to sell more cars. Is that really a good idea? Why alienate all your current customers. People that buy current Passats pay more because they expect to get better quality materials. Cheapening the car for a lower base price is going to hurt your brand image. This is no longer just German engineering, it is German engineering to a price point.

While I skipped Porsches press conference to eat breakfast at my hotel (it was at 6:30 AM), I will say looking at the car in person, it is stunning. Seeing that huge flywheel in the passenger seat, yea. This is how you build a hybrid. It is good to see Porsche looking at new technology for racing. If this car does go into the racing circuit it could change the game. With less fuel stops needed and more power on tap for instant bursts, it could be a whole new era of racing.

At the end of the day I was exhausted. Most journalists were up at 5 AM and didn’t leave the show floor till nearly 8 PM. I ran to nearly every press conference and went through approximately 6,600 milliamps of battery power for my iPhone4. It was a good show with some great product. Not everything was great, but it was a good to see where each automaker is going in 2011.

Full Disclosure- My NAIAS travel and accommodations are being provided by General Motors

The holidays are over and winter is in full swing, that can only mean one thing, it’s time for the Detroit Auto Show! Sunday I’ll be packing my gear and flying out to Detroit to walk under the bright lights and sip on Monster Lo-Carb.

The High Gear Media crew (myself included) will be invading COBO bright and early (5 AM CST) to bring you the latest coverage. We have a Detroit Auto Show hub that will pull in all the latest news, videos, pictures and more from the show floor. We will also be live tweeting and posting to Facebook through out the day. So make darn sure to bookmark our Detroit Auto Show hub and also become a fan and or follow our sites on Twitter, of course some information will also flow here as well. Now where did I put my pony keg of Monster Lo-Carb…

• The Car Connection Facebook and Twitter
• Motor Authority Facebook and Twitter
• Green Car Reports Facebook and Twitter
• All Cars Electric Facebook and Twitter
• High Gear Media Facebook and Twitter
• Social Car News Facebook and Twitter

Full Disclosure- My NAIAS travel and accommodations are being provided by General Motors

It is widely known that General Motors paid for my travel and accommodations for the Detroit Auto Show.  In fact they even asked me in writing to disclose it on anything I write about the show.  This was part of the new full disclosure rules the FTC has imposed on all bloggers beginning at the end of last year.  General Motors was quick to mention that by them paying for my travel and accommodations I was in no way obligated to write about them or anything for that matter.

I was one of over 10 bloggers brought to NAIAS as press by General Motors.  Most manufactures bring certain people but General Motors put a specific emphasis on bringing social media people.  Both General Motors and Ford have been the “poster child” automotive companies in the social media industry.  Sure Honda made a “splash” when they did the striptease of the Crosstour on Facebook.  Most would have called that a colossal failure when the burn it with fire comments started pouring in.  As I mentioned Ford and General Motors in general are really using social media though they are taking vastly different stances with it.  General Motors does have it’s social media team on Twitter but really it is the brands and products that have accounts.

It was very interesting to witness how the “traditional media” reacted to all the social media people being around.  I am fairly certain the game is changing and they are not exactly happy about it.  Traditional media people have yet to figure out how to play nicely with social media types.  The funniest part is many of the traditional media will write their information once back at work yet the article and or pictures will not be published for days/weeks/possibly a month.  Yet they must get that picture before me or anyone else there for social media.  Social media buffs are publishing this stuff live on the spot using our phones and laptops.  We are connected (when we have signal) and are reporting live and on site.

That leads to another issue that has cropped up with the use of social media at an event such as NAIAS.  Live and on sight I was reporting the information as it was literally being spoken.  People on Twitter following me were getting the information as I received it including pictures.  The challenge was that the ten other people sitting around me are tweeting the information out at the same time.  How do I differentiate myself from these other people.  Sure we all took different pictures and different angles, but the information, specifications, general information, is all the same.  Social media types run in similar circles, many people that follow me also follow the people I was with.  Realizing this early on I had to differentiate myself on Twitter while I was there.  I could report what others were sure, but I had to have something else.   I realized how lucky I was to have been afforded this opportunity.  I decided I would try and make it so others that were not there could get whatever they would want.  I tweeted numerous times asking what people wanted to see.  When requests came in I obliged and took the corresponding photos.  Some other blogs actually asked me privately to take photos for them and I did.  Many people asked me to take a look at certain things and report back which of course I did.  Then something else happened.  General Motors set us all up with small round table sessions with some of the executives.  I instantly saw an opportunity and tweeted out who I would be meeting with and when.  I told my followers that if they had any questions for these people to let me know, and I would be happy to ask.  I took video of all the round table sessions and have already up loaded this.  Of course I asked the questions that came in off Twitter.

Fiat Twins

On Monday evening I realized that many pictures I had taken included the models posing with the cars.  I decided to tweet out a bunch of the photos and hash tag them with the keyword #EyeCandy.  This quickly turned into a “series” and people loved it.  The last thing I decided to do was simple.  There were plenty of models posing with cars and at the Fiat stand they had two girls to go along with the two 500′s.  On the second day the two girls in the morning appeared to be twins.  When I over heard someone saying they were I tweeted this.  Soon I heard Jalopnik saying they were not in fact twins.  Seeing that my eye candy series had been such a hit I decided to go and put an end to this debate.  I walked up to the “twins” and simply said there was talk about whether they were in fact twins and asked if they were.  They immediately said they were and I tweeted “BREAKING- The Fiat twins are in fact twins!”  Of course this tweet started a whole new discussion.  I also happened to learn that the twins live in Minneapolis about 15 minutes from where I live.  After having a conversation I left them to continue modeling and went back to the business of walking the show.  All of this gave me personality.  It was something different then just reporting the specifications/information about the cars.  When I got into the Lotus Evora I tweeted about how it felt like a glove when sitting in it.

The Ford area was one of the best consumer booths of the show.  They have everything from interactive computer simulations to transmissions torn apart, just about anything.  The booth itself is utterly huge.  Ford also had some customized Fiesta’s strewn about so people could get an idea about the level of customization these cars will have.

It is clear to me that social media is making an impact both in how manufactures are advertising and how they are handling themselves at autoshows.  It says something to me that the two auto manufactures most involved in social media are Ford and General Motors.  The point of all this is embracing new ways to communicate is something that forward thinking companies are doing and we should all take note.

Phil Colley, Nicole Carriere, Me, Chris Barger (from left to right)

Full Disclosure- My NAIAS travel and accommodations were provided by General Motors