We often think of the 1950's as being the heyday for Detroit's fortunes, but even in the early-to-mid Sixties, it remained something of a modern marvel, thanks largely to its world-leading auto industry. This archival video was apparently commissioned as part of a failed bid for the 1968 Summer Olympics (which went to Mexico City instead). Reportedly filmed in 1965, Detroit – City on the Move shows the area in full bloom – a startling contrast to the shell of an empire that remains just 44 years later.

With the harmonies of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as a backdrop, Mayor Jerome Cavanagh takes us through footage of downtown streets bustling with some of the city's two million residents, shots of a startlingly clean and new Cobo Hall (including scenes of the Detroit Auto Show itself), the crisp campuses of the (then) Big Three, and of the city's once-mighty cultural draws. It even has footage of the late John F. Kennedy talking up its virtues as part of the Olympic bid.

Interestingly (and perhaps tellingly), this sanitized look at Detroit all but glosses over mounting troubles with blustery talks of 'rebirth,' it utterly omits mention of the hitmakers at Motown Records, and in retrospect, it fails to adequately address growing racial tensions in the city (Detroit's infamous riots would lay siege just two years later in 1967).

Admittedly, such promotional films show a city in its best light by design, but even still, there's no getting around the fact that the World's Automotive Capitol ain't what it used to be. This video, part of the Prelinger Archives, gives us a glimpse into what Detroit used to be, and perhaps more than anything, what it sought to be. It's an amazing yet sobering look into mid-Sixties America, and it's worth a look. Take a trip back in time by clicking on the jump.

[Source: Archive.org]

The North American International Auto Show is the biggest event to hit the state of Michigan in any given year, but the location of the event has come under fire due to the advanced state of disrepair of Detroit's Cobo Hall. Earlier in the year, the state of Michigan and representatives from Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties approved up to $299 million to repair and expand Cobo in exchange for the facility being turned over to a regional authority run by all three counties.

Even though the city of Detroit would be relieved of $15-20 million per year in repairs and a $20 million cash payment, the city council turned down the Cobo expansion deal. The defeat of the proposal left the future of the show in the state of Michigan in doubt, so Oakland County executive L Brooks Patterson offered up the Rock Financial Showplace as a future site of the auto show.

According to The Detroit Free Press, that idea is one step closer to reality as a state senate panel has approved up to $135 million to expand the much newer convention center to accommodate future auto shows. The money for the proposal would come from hotel and cigarette taxes, and the money officially goes to the Novi, MI facility if a deal on Cobo isn't reached by July 1.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

Mercury's born-again Sable sedan is dead again – or, more accurately, it will be come so on Thursday. According to The Detroit News, Ford's gussied-up Taurus (itself a gussied-up Five Hundred) will expire later this week, leaving Mercury with just four models: the Milan, Mariner, Mountaineer, and Grand Marquis.

And while the Taurus is getting a brand-spanking new replacement model for 2010, a Sable stablemate is apparently not in the cards, in large measure because Ford reportedly chose to spend more money on developing and marketing its Taurus replacement.

Ford's middle-tier brand is expected to lose both the Mountaineer and Grand Marquis within the next couple of model years, and the only new product mooted for the waterfall-grille brand is a new small car that has yet-to-be confirmed.

Eerily, the Blue Oval recently tested the small car waters for its Lincoln luxury brand with its Concept C showcar that debuted at the Detroit Auto Show in January. The presence of the tidy Euro-look hatchback once again set tongues wagging that Ford may be pondering whether or not to axe the Mercury marque altogether. For its part, Blue Oval officials dismiss such plans, but there is no denying that Mercury's stable is getting smaller, and at the moment, little product appears to be in the replacement pipeline.

According to the DetNews, Ford sold just 1,158 Sables in April, a drop of nearly 40% year-over-year versus 2008.



[Source: The Detroit News]

In car-related news that will further disappoint an already reeling city, the chairman of Detroit's North American International Auto Show has gone on record that he is exploring ways to move the event out of the city.

The very public battle to expand the show's home, Motown's Cobo Center appears to have failed for good, after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Detroit City Council, in effect killing plans for a $288 million expansion, a plan voted down by council members in February. For his part, city mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. is evidently declining to go to the state Supreme Court to force the issue.

So now, the search is on to take the show to a new venue, likely beyond Detroit's city limits, and potentially beyond the bounds of Southeast Michigan, as well. Automotive News quotes auto show co-chair Douglass Fox as saying:

At this point we need to consider any viable option that might be out there for us... There have been leaders -- (Oakland County Executive) L. Brooks Patterson comes to mind – who have made those overtures. We need to explore those options.

Fox and his team are expected to move quickly, but given the scope of the planning required for a major international auto show, it is perhaps likely that the NAIAS will still be hosted by Cobo next January. Beyond that, though, the city of Detroit looks set to witness yet another auto-related casualty.

[Source: Automotive News - subs. req]

We can't blame Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson one bit for thinking the North American International Auto Show might be better served by moving locations away from Detroit's troubled Cobo Center. The building itself has been in disrepair for years, with a leaky roof and a poor electrical system generally cited as its most urgent needs. When an agreement was finally reached that would have fixed most of Cobo's many woes and expanded it with an additional 166,000 square-feet of floorspace, we all let out a collective sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, in what our own John McElroy called "a stupefying move at the 11th hour," the Detroit City Council voted down the proposed plan by a five-to-three tally, saying that the $20 million the city would be paid to give up power over the dilapidated building wasn't enough. Naturally, this action drew ire from a number of important sources, not the least of which being the automakers who are growing increasingly fed up about the horrid state of affairs at the Detroit Auto Show.

Here's where Patterson comes into play: "If this thing goes down, I'm done," Patterson has told The Detroit News. "I'm not going to go back to Detroit to try to resurrect the deal. Five years is enough." Unfortunately, Patterson's plan to move the annual event to another location in the Detroit area has a few potential snags of its own. The next largest nearby venue is the Pontiac Silverdome, which is about two-thirds the size and has been empty since the Detroit Lions left the stadium in 2002.

And what does the embattled Detroit City Council have to say about Patterson's proclamations? "He's bullying us as usual... he just wants everything on his own terms" says councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins.

This is one sordid affair that seems likely to drag on for years with no end in sight.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Regardless of their displeasure with the cost, size and quality of Cobo Hall in Detroit, executives from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have committed to at least one more round of exhibits at the annual North American International Auto Show held at the venue each January. The German automakers occupy serious square footage at the show, and the exhibits generate much needed jobs and revenue, so the news was obviously welcomed by show officials.

As automakers scale back and exit auto shows due to the economy, or rethink marketing strategies as new markets in India, Russia, and Brazil open up, the big traditional auto shows (such as those in Detroit and Tokyo) are feeling the pressure. The latest news is that Tokyo's show is now on the verge of cancellation with the departure of Detroit's three automakers. While the Germans returning for NAIAS 2010 is welcomed news, the underlying message is that local officials (and the Detroit city council) are going to have to work even harder to save the show for 2011.

[Source: Freep.com]

Each year, thousands of journalists arrive in Detroit to see the best and brightest concepts and production vehicles automakers have to offer. It's estimated that the Detroit Auto Show brings in $500 to $600 million dollars annually to the region, which is struggling more than most due to the global recession. For years, the City of Detroit has failed to expand Cobo, and each year there are threats that the NAIAS will be taken away from the Motor City. The state of Michigan has been working with executives from Wayne and Oakland counties and the city of Detroit to upgrade Cobo, but yesterday the Detroit City Council voted down the proposed plan by a five-three tally. The proposed expansion was to add a much needed 166,000-sq. ft. of floorspace at a cost of $288 million.

The part of the plan that isn't sitting well with Detroit officials is a stipulation that hands control of the aging facility to a regional authority controlled by the tri-county area and representatives from the city and state. The city would receive $20 million dollars in funds to cede power of Cobo, but the council feels they aren't getting fair value for the venue. The city, which has been knee-deep in debt for years, operates Cobo at an annual loss of between $13 and $15 million. Due to disrepair, analysts say the building is worth a negative $284 million dollars.

We love the Detroit show, but the fact is that Cobo is a bit of a dump. The escalators don't always work, the cars are crammed into the limited floor space, and last year a fork lift collapsed into the Cobo floor. Automakers have been making their concerns known, with several pulling out of Detroit this year and a few more revealing no new products. NAIAS organizers say that Cobo must be repaired in 2010 or the city could lose its International designation. Exactly what the struggling city and region don't need right now.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]

It looks like we'll have one less day to report on all of the debuts from Detroit next year. According to the Detroit News, the North American International Auto Show's organizers have decided to cut the number of media preview days from three to two for next year's show. The move will bring the show in-line with other domestic shows that typically only have two days of media press conferences.

The 2010 Detroit Auto Show will officially kick off on Monday, rather than on its traditional Sunday launch. There will be about 30 time slots for press conferences during two full days of festivities, eliminating the usual half day on day three. Industry days will continue to be held on Wednesday and Thursday. While this probably means very little to all of you, we're looking forward to sleeping in on Sunday. Hey, if nothing else, we figure to be that much better-rested come Monday so that we can bring you all of the latest news. That said, we don't imagine local hotel and parking lot owners are terribly excited about this development.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Auto shows throw massive amounts of promotions, marketing, branding, communications and event planning brainpower into one little bowl. Everyone is trying to be distinctive, and sometimes they do it with the cars, sometimes with the merchandise, sometimes with lures that are meant to get you to their stand at all. Yet there are only so many positions in which to mount a car and so many ways to put a logo on a jacket, right? Inevitably, that means you come across a few nifty novelties, and you also discover a few more things that fell through the cracks and make you wonder "What is this... doing here?" These are few of those odds and ends we found at last week's 2009 Detroit Auto Show.

General Motors' increasingly empty coffers could consign the Cadillac Converj show car to 'concept only' status. The Detroit Auto Show coupe has been the subject of production rumors since before it rolled onto the stage in Cobo earlier last week, but now Automotive News is reporting that GM may not have enough money to make Converj a reality.

AN quotes GM vice chairman Bob Lutz as saying that the Converj is far from a done deal:

"Ready to go? Well, first we have to prove to ourselves that we have the money... and then that it's a high enough priority to displace something else, and that we can actually make money on the vehicle, and that there is potential customer interest and so forth. We haven't done any of that work yet."

Our take? The angularly gorgeous Cadillac was designed around the same extended-range Voltec architecture as Chevrolet's forthcoming Volt, itself a spectacularly expensive research and development effort. GM is clearly committed to making the Volt a production reality, and if it ever has hopes of making money on its plug-in hybrid technology, a higher-priced, higher-margin product like from an upper-crust brand like Cadillac would seem like one of the best ways to defray R&D costs. In short, GM may still have to conduct due diligence on the Converj's business case, but if there's any money at all left in the company's bank accounts, we still think the future for the showstopper is a bright one. Given the 2011 date attached to the Volt, we would expect the Caddy to roll into showrooms for 2012.

Let's just hope it arrives in showrooms wearing a new name.


[Source: Automotive News: subs. req.]