Review: 2007 North American International Auto Show

Between being slammed with work, and a bout of the flu, it’s taken us a bit to get this post together of our trip to Detroit for the auto show. Plenty is available already elsewhere on the net. But we’ve brought back a gallery of photo’s from the show floor and some shots of our favorite collateral collected from the brands on display.

On the whole, it was a good show. GM came out swinging with a huge new stand design. Toyota also really stepped up with it’s new fullsize pickup. It was actually odd to hear country music blaring throughout the Toyota stand. VW again put together what I say was the best of show display. Saab had the coolest bit of tech gear, semi transparent video displays that hung like curtains. The first of what will likely be many Chinese companies exhibited at Cobo this year. Changfeng Motors showed a half dozen vehicles ranging from a small sport utility to a diamond shaped concept car.

On the other hand, there were some misses. Fords continual struggle manifested itself in a display that felt disorganized. The Airstream concept looked cool in person but there was little else with the blue oval badge that was interesting. Chrysler too seemed a little flat this year. The newest interation of their minivan is bland from a styling persective.

It was also difficult to chart any single emerging trend from the show. The Hyundai Hellion offered the best glimpse to a potential new type of vehicle. It’s not a mini SUV nor a compact car per say, somewhere in between.

Again, while alternatives to internal combustion engine based vehicles were present at the show, there didn’t seem to be anyone seriously leveraging a green agenda.

We’ve got two flickr galleries available, the first contains photo’s from the show floor, the second documents some of our favorite brand collateral we picked up. We’ll have more auto show coverage coming up in April when the manufacturers set up in NYC.

PSFK 2007 NAIAS Gallery

PSFK 2007 NAIAS Brand Collateral Gallery