LA 2007: Autoblog picks the top 5 world debuts (VIDEO)
The 2007 LA Auto Show has come and passed, and the show acted as a North American catch-up for all the world-wide unveilings from Frankfurt in September. We saw the production F430 Scuderia, the Reventon, the Up!, and many other vehicles that first caught the public eye in Germany two months earlier. LA had its share of world debuts, like the all-new Sequoia, the Nissan Murano, and the Lincoln MKS. We looked over all the world debuts and came up with a video of our top five new introductions of the 2007 LA Auto show. We tried to figure into our decision both industry significance and enthusiast impact. Click play on the video above to check out where the new vehicles ranked, and hit the jump to chime in with your list as well.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bryan @ Nov 16th 2007 8:32PM
How is something that opens to the public today "come and passed" ?
Typesbad @ Nov 16th 2007 8:48PM
Call it Journal-centric thinking. The press days have passed with all the PR pagentry, wine and cheese tables, and Press Kits (Cadillac's included a 2-gig flash drive!) now but a fond memory for the fortunate few. ("few" being used loosely)
Typesbad @ Nov 16th 2007 8:42PM
Boy, I sure can't disagree with you more on the new Murano even making the list. The good news on the car is that the IP has been vastly improved. But in terms of the exterior, the side is pretty much unchanged, the rear just got much more bland, and the front manages to be even more confused and awkward than the original. Altima excepted, Nissan seems to be having a terrible time with its front end styling these days.
The introduction of the Infiniti EX35, particularly with its wild camera set up would seem to be a more logical candidate. (No it, its not a platform mate of the Rogue, though Nissan's 2nd case of simultaneously introducing similarly sized, yet unrelated crossover models again invites such confusion)
That the STi, Evo X and the GT-R all made NA debuts yet none are mentioned here baffles me unless there is some rule of eligibility I'm aware of that knocks them out.
The fact that there will actually be a production version of the Space Up! Blue (diesel powered) places it much higher on my list for consideration than say, that ridiculous Tahoe mild-brid. On the latter, wouldn't have made sense to add the hybrid machinery to one of the two smaller V-8 in the GM truck stable?
The Mini Clubman is another candidate for the list.
joe @ Nov 16th 2007 9:56PM
I agree with you, but the critical aspect is that the title of the article is world debuts, and the cars we are thinking of are mainly North American debuts. My top five would have easily included:
. GT-R
. M3
. Evo
. Sti (at least now we now it will be a hatchback instead of the sedan some had hoped for and the choice between Evo and Sti is quite simple)
. Hyundai Genesis Coupe
But, as they limited it to world debuts, that would only leave the Hyundai.
I guess LA still gets stuck without all the really cool sporty car world debuts, and gets stuck with the enviro-friendly and truckish world debuts.
johnny.barker @ Nov 16th 2007 10:26PM
The Tahoe Hybrid isn't a "mild-hybrid". It's actually has a full parallel hybrid system that is arguably more advanced than even Toyota's system. They probably used the 6.0L to compensate for the extra weight.
Also the 6.0L has considerably more low end torque than the 5.3l, this would allow it to remain in 4cyl mode longer without firing up all 8cyl.
uhyeah @ Nov 16th 2007 9:15PM
It's Hyun-day as in Sunday. Not Hyun-die
RDL @ Nov 16th 2007 10:57PM
::: The correct Korean pronunciation, [çʌn.dɛ], has 2 syllables and sounds like 'hyun-deh' where 'hyun' rhymes with 'shun'. The exact transliteration into English from Korean (under the current system, revisions take place from time to time) should be "Hyeondae" rather than "Hyundai". :::
From:
http://car-hyundai.blogspot.com/
joseph chung @ Nov 16th 2007 9:22PM
i can't believe people still can't pronounce hyundai.
Chris Shunk @ Nov 16th 2007 10:00PM
Please remember that our top 5 only included the worldwide intros. There were so many North American introductions we would have had to make an Autoblog 15. And yes, "come and gone" meant media coverage. That the public show started today only matters to those in the LA area.
I'll make sure to ask the good folks at Hyundai how to best pronounce their name. Anybody have their own top 5?