California Dreaming: L.A. Auto Show Highlights

Los Angeles, with its 800-plus miles of freeways, endless broad boulevards, and vast sprawl, is a city built around cars.  For that reason, the city’s auto show – a premier event on the car calendar — is often a bellwether for automotive trends and an event in which product debuts make global headlines.

Because California is a singularly diverse (and enormous) car market, the stars of the L.A. Auto Show tend to represent a broad spectrum of vehicles and ideas – a microcosm of the industry as a whole. Auto Finance News was on hand to take a good look at what manufacturers are thinking – and what the buying public seems most interested in. What follows is a selection of the show’s best and brightest.

Click on any of the photos to see them at a larger size.

Zoom Zoom

Mazda’s press conference was one of the most heavily attended of the show. The Hiroshima-based manufacturer has been essentially independent from former partner Ford for almost half a decade now (Ford retains a 3% share), and in that time has been steadily building a lineup of sophisticated and distinctive cars on unique platforms.

Though many in the crowd had gathered to see the North American debut of the new Miata, unveiled earlier this fall in Japan, Mazda’s other reveal – the CX-3 crossover, seemed to get as much or more attention. Both vehicles are significant for the manufacturer.

The Miata remains the most easily affordable traditional sports car that Americans can buy, and the newest iteration retains the traditional Miata feel – close-coupled, comfortable, nimble, and clean. The new generation seems well-tailored to both the existing fan base and newcomers. It should provide Mazda with customers and genuine track cred for years to come.

Just ten feet away from the Miata, crowds gathered throughout the press days around the CX-3, a compact crossover based on the upcoming redesigned Mazda2, a car that will not debut in America until at least next year. In a room full of car enthusiasts, it’s significant that a small crossover could draw attention away from a brand-new sports car.

The CX-3 is a AWD compact crossover aimed squarely at the Jeep Renegade, Nissan Juke, Kia Soul, and other players in a rapidly expanding segment. Featuring Mazda’s “Kodo/Soul of Motion” styling cues, the slick CX-3 is svelte where many in this segment are vertical and boxy. Inside, the BMW-esque interior themes that debuted on the larger Mazda3, CX-5, and Mazda6 over the last couple of years continues – Spartan and clean, but evocative of a more expensive car.

Like the rest of the Mazda range, it uses the company’s efficient SkyActiv direct-injection tech under the hood, in this case a 2-liter four-cylinder shared with the Mazda3. If the dynamics of the rest of Mazda’s lineup are any barometer, the CX-3 should be one of the best driving vehicles in its class.

The power of Hydrogen

Manufacturers, including Toyota, have tested and even leased hydrogen fuel-cell powered cars before, but Toyota’s Mirai is one of the first that a regular buyer can conventionally purchase and own. That doesn’t mean it will be common – sales will be limited to California and only 200 will be sold in the first year. But committing to sell such a vehicle commercially is not a light undertaking, and the plan is to expand the availability of the car after 2015, first to the northeast and then to other states as more hydrogen infrastructure is created.

The Mirai uses the hybrid technology developed on the Prius but replaces the conventional engine with a fuel cell stack and two hydrogen tanks.

The main sticking point of hydrogen fuel cell cars has been the enormous cost of making them practical and safe. The fuel cells were, in the early days, large enough to fill a cargo van and as pricey as a jet engine. Toyota claims that the cost of the Mirai’s fuel cell is only 5% of that of an earlier effort, the 2008 Highlander-based FCHV-adv, leased in Japan only. The power output is twice that previous vehicle despite a big reduction in size, and the Mirai’s claimed range on a tank of fuel is 400 miles.

The Mirai is still not “cheap” – it starts at nearly $60,000 for a car that’s about the size of a Camry and depends on a slim network of service stations capable of fueling it – but it’s a start.

The fastest horse in the stable

The 2015 Mustang debuted back in the spring at the New York International Auto show (a nod to the Mustang’s introduction at the 1964 New York World’s Fair), and reached dealers a couple of months ago. In an equally fitting tribute, the 2016 Shelby GT350 was introduced in Los Angeles. The original Shelby Mustangs of the mid-1960s were built in Venice, California and later at a facility adjacent to LAX Airport.

Fans expecting something truly special from the Shelby name were not disappointed. Under the hood is a 5.2 liter 500-horsepower V8 with a flat-plane crank. Derived from the stock “Coyote” V8, design modifications allow this engine to rev to a sky-high 8200 rpm – something unheard of in traditional muscle cars. Similarly, the car borrows the new Mustang’s independent rear suspension and adds a continuously controlled magnetic damping system – adjusting how the car responds to corners on the fly and providing taut handling in almost any situation.

Unlike recent hot-rod Mustangs, the GT350 is more about going fast on twisty roads and racetracks than drag strips. All GT350s will sell – probably at a considerable premium. As a Halo car, it provides even more public interest in the new Mustang and also gives what is often seen as a straight-line performance car some additional track cred. Ford’s goal is to make the Mustang a credible alternative not only to cars like the Camaro but also cars like the BMW 4-series – something the GT350’s track prowess can help with even while it keeps the traditional muscle car image alive.

Volvo’s big box

6 years is an eternity in the car business – and it’s been twice that long since Volvo’s original XC90 debuted back in 2002. At that time, Volvo was part of Ford’s “Premier Auto Group” – today it’s owned by Chinese company Geely, which was producing licensed copies of the 1980s Daihatsu Charade back in 2002. The XC90 (and smaller XC60 crossover) have been big sellers for Volvo over the years and with the brand having been less visible since the recession, the new XC90 – the first Volvo developed since Geely’s purchase of the company in 2010, is an important vehicle.

Underneath the skin, the XC90 debuts a new “scalable platform architecture” (SPA) – meaning that much of the chassis and running gear will feature in future models, much as Volvo did with “P2” platform back in the early 2000s – elements of that platform underpinned the S80, V70, S60, XC90, Ford 500/Taurus, and many other cars. Volvo will focus on trimming down the lifecycle of its products – many of which run for 7 years or more historically, a long time against competition that is refreshed every 4 years. The SPA platform, easily varianted out, will help speed up those cycles and keep costs down.

The XC90 itself is a big step up from the outgoing version, and feels far more modern inside – nicer materials and a huge Tesla-like touch-screen console dominate the interior. It’s just as large as the old version, but lighter and more efficient. The old XC90 could be had with a wide range of engines – even a V8 – but the new SUV is powered only by a family of four-cylinders in various forms – diesel, plug-in hybrid, turbocharged – ranging up to 400 hp, a greater output than the old V8 with far better economy.

As with any Volvo, safety is a major emphasis, with two specific new systems augmenting many existing features. One system automatically tensions seatbelts if it senses an imminent high speed or rear-end collision, another can automatically detect vehicles oncoming vehicles in the path of the XC90 and trigger automatic braking.

Honda’s CUV finally arrives

Mazda isn’t the only manufacturer looking to get a slice of the crossover pie. Honda started selling a compact crossover called the Vezel in Japan in 2013 and as shown the car several times in other markets since, but was mum on what the U.S. version would be like.

In L.A. Honda finally took the wraps off of the production machine, called the HR-V (a name previously applied to a similar Honda that was not sold in the U.S.). Like the CX-3, the HR-V is based on a small car, the Honda Fit. You wouldn’t know that by looking, however, as the HR-V looks larger than it is and draws its styling cues from the CR-V. The perception of the vehicle’s size – small but bigger than it looks – is entirely intentional. The HR-V is meant to straddle the market from the small (Kia Soul, Chevy Trax) up to the CR-V and RAV-4.

All U.S. HR-Vs are powered by a 1.8 liter, 138hp four-cylinder engine – a larger than any of the global variants of this car. Like most vehicles in this segment, standard entries are front drive with all-wheel-drive optional. As with the CR-V, a perennial best seller since its introduction in 1997, the HR-V is certain do well.

Maybach returns as a Mercedes

Much of the growth at Mercedes in the last 18 months has stemmed from the introduction of the entry-level CLA and GLA models, which aim for younger first-time Mercedes customers. But in Los Angeles, it was the other end of the lineup that got all the attention.

The saga of the 2002-2012 Maybach wasn’t the happiest story. The model never realized the optimistic 2,000-units-per-year sales goal originally envisioned, and was often criticized as being too similar to the much less expensive 1991-1998 Mercedes S-class to which it was related.

Mercedes has now revived the Maybach name but not as a standalone marque. Instead, the “new Maybach” is directly part of the Mercedes lineup. The opulent Mercedes-Maybach S600 is essentially the top-of-the-line S-class. It’s eight inches longer than the long-wheelbase S-class and has a variety of unique body panels and styling touches to differentiate it from the regular S-classes. It’s also got that Maybach badge on the c-pillar. Like the S-class, the exterior is clean and sober. Inside, however, it’s a different universe.

The Maybach S600 is meant to be ridden in, not driven, and the interior features reclining rear seats with pop-up ottomans, TVs, and hand-made quilted leather upholstery, and numerous other touches typical of a private limousine.

Pricing for the new flagship hasn’t been announced, but is rumoured to be in the $200,000 range – a big number but actually considerably lower than the Maybach 57 and 62 that preceded it.

Photos: Alex Kwanten