Back in September, I attended the launch of the Chevrolet Sonic for another outlet. Despite GM’s insistence that the Sonic was being marketed at “millenials”, I was the sole member of the press that fit that demographic. Despite the cheesy, ham-handed attempt at being in touch with the demographic (a parking garage festooned with contrived, faux-urban graffiti, for example), the Sonic left a favorable impression. It is an honest, practical, fun to drive car that is affordable for young people – well, some of them.

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Here’s another SEMA refugee: the Mazda MX-5 “Spyder”. The current Miata’s choice of normal fabric roof or what-the-f***-are-you-thinking power retractable hardtop is neatly avoided in favor of the kind of stretchy, do-it-yourself job that ensures Porsche 911 “Speedster” owners never actually drive their cars anywhere.

We’ve seen a better Miata Spyder, though… click the jump for a blast into the wacky kit-car past.

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The Roush RS3 Focus debuted at SEMA, but unfortunately TTAC was unable to obtain press passes for said SEMA due to an inability to find any photos of our staffers wearing super-cool sideways baseball caps. We are, therefore, seeing it here for the first time. We also saw a Mustang that just might have to be your humble author’s next ride, assuming my attempt at becoming one of the first 86 Scion FR-S owners fails…

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AMC got a (brief) new lease on life in the early 1980s when the French government, via Renault, invested in the staggering Wisconsin car company. Meanwhile, huge purchases of DJ-5s by the US Postal Service also helped prop up the once-proud automaker. The Postal Jeep was a common sight on American roads (and junkyards) for a decade or so after the USPS phased it out, but its bouncy-box-on-wheels ride and two-wheel-drive configuration doomed most examples to The Crusher. Here’s one that I spotted in a Denver self-serve yard last week. (Read More…)

The most ridiculous, but oddly exciting, exercise in brand extension since Jennie Garth’s “Body In Progress” video made a public debut today. Zerin and Byron from Speed:Sport:Life were there to shoot and talk trucks upscale activity vehicles.

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TTAC is lately to the party with the MKZ, and it’s my fault; I was delayed looking for parking outside Cobo this morning. Luckily, the Speed:Sport:Life crew was there to make up the gap. Zerin Dube took the photos, and the snark is courtesy of Byron Hurd:

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TTAC readers asked us, “How small is the Encore?” This six-foot-two talking head should offer some scale. It’s a very small vehicle. For more on-floor photos, and a few tidbits from the press conference, click the jump.

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The Toyota NS4 is said to preview a future Prius – but not really. Although the family resemblance is there, and the NS4 is unequivocally a plug-in hybrid, the NS4 is the same size as a Prius, but is explicitly separate from the rest of the Prius range, according to Toyota corporate mouthpieces.

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The Toyota Prius c made its North American debut today at NAIAS, boasting a 53 mpg city rating, said to be the highest of any vehicle that isn’t a plug-in hybrid. The Prius c will also supposedly return 46 mpg on the highway, for a combined 50 mpg.

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Get this straight: with the exception of perpetual NSX foreplay, Honda doesn’t do “concepts”. Their concept cars are usually production vehicles with tinted windows. So it is with the new Accord Coupe “Concept”. The current Accord has come in for more criticism than any Accord in history… so what’s changed?

Edited to include more shots that show the evolutionary link between the current Coupe and the new one.

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The overly drawn-out striptease of the Buick Encore is over, and we stand by our suspicions that the Encore was designed expressly for the Chinese market. Expect substantial floorplan-related agony on the part of Buick dealers who get stuck with this thing.

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Steven writes:

Sajeev and Steve,

Ok guys need some advice, I am the owner of an 2001 Volvo XC wagon with 166,000 on it, I have owned it about 2 years and drive about 40k a year all over the North East for work. It is paid off but in the last 6 months I have put about 4 K in it, new tires, new brakes all around water pump, T belt, new moon roof (do not ask), the previous owner replaced the tranny at 110k and put a new cat convertor at 100k. (Read More…)

We all ran by them this morning on the way to the Fusion introduction. Two signs. One sign said, “FORD PRESS EVENT”. The sign below it said “SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS”. The arrow pointed a different way. Who are “social media influencers”, anyway?

What was the “Volt Lounge”, and why were so many prominent auto-related Twitterati spending time there today instead of walking the NAIAS show floor?

The photo above is a plane that reportedly left Detroit tonight. Why did Audi reportedly feel the need to fly dozens of bloggers from NAIAS to CES, at their expense?

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Photos courtesy of Cars In Depth. Click here for a complete gallery of photos.

Before I get into the details of Acura’s press conference at the NAIAS, as the Acura presser was unfolding I couldn’t help but compare the affect at Honda’s luxury brand to the mood at Lexus. Both Honda and Toyota have had to dea; with supply chain and production disruptions caused first by the Tsunami that struck northern Japan and then complicated by large scale flooding in Thailand. More to the point, both companies were introducing new sports cars at the Detroit show. Acura announced the revival of the NSX model name and Lexus showed a sleak concept sports car called the LF-LC. Both cars are intended to change the image of their companies, but the sense that I got at Acura was “we’ve made exciting cars before and we’re going to get our mojo back”, while the vibe at Lexus was “See? We really don’t make boring cars”.

Acura used the NAIAS to introduce three new models that executives says will be the first stages of a two year process that will result in a complete makeover for the Acura lineup, a revival of Acura if you will. The goal of that makeover is a 40% increase in sales to 180,000 units in 2012, driven by what Acura says is their threefold mission statement: Value, sustainability and “time is luxury”, Acura’s characterization of aids that ease the driving task.

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Chrysler’s so sure their electric minivan has the power to stomp the competition, they had Ndamukong Suh sit in the thing.

No, I’m serious.

That’s Ndamukong Suh.

The minivan is the Chrysler 700C. What’s different about it, besides the Dustbuster-meets-Nissan-Quest looks?

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