Honda, Volvo take top awards at the Detroit auto show

The show opens to the public on January 16 and 800,000 people are expected to attend by the time it closes on January 24. The message to attendees was clear: Ford doesn’t intend to let California firms like Apple, Google, and Tesla take its business away. I placed my bet on American manufacturing. But most seem to be grasping with the same set of existential questions-namely the matter of when and how the auto industry will be disrupted, not if.

This is the second year in a row that Buick kicked off the Detroit show with a pre-official opening party, and delighting the press and show-goers with a striking and surprising concept. We’ve cut the Detroit-area unemployment rate by more than half. Honda and Nissan will unveil pickup trucks and Volvo and Hyundai will show new sedans.

Entering his a year ago in office, President Barack Obama is finally going to check out the Detroit auto show. Because I believe that every American should be proud of what our most iconic industry has done.

The Obama administration agreed to prop up the automakers – provided they were steered through bankruptcy to restructure their operations – even though it was not popular nationwide. Although just a design study at this point, GM executives say Avista will influence how future Buicks look, saying Avista “rekindles” Buick’s “historic performance roots”.

Almost 17.5 million American autos were sold, topping the 17.35 million mark in 2000.

That downturn accelerated much-needed restructuring at the Detroit Three carmakers, which are now producing far more attractive vehicles with significantly lower operating costs.

Kevin DeSouza, a researcher for the Brookings Institute, said piecemeal introduction of autonomous technologies over the past few years – lane departure warning systems, speed-adjusting cruise control and automatic brakes – have made more comprehensive systems possible in what seems like a very short time.

Fiat Chrysler’s newest model is the 2017 Town & Country. “I imagine they’re pulling out all the stops”, Nerad said.

The MIAS offers show goers the chance to test drive some of their favourites – selected by voting and narrowed down to this year’s choice of 13 vehicles.

Aside from tripling its fleet of autonomous vehicles, which Ford says is now the largest of any automaker, the company said it is opening a new wearable technology lab in Dearborn, launching a new lease-sharing program through Ford Credit, and has created a new data platform to analyze mobility patterns and find greater efficiency in urban traffic, for example. Daimler chief Dieter Zetsche took a not-so-subtle dig at his rival Sunday night, telling reporters at a lavish party unveiling the new Mercedes E-Class luxury sedan that in contrast to “some German automakers” Santa “left a lot of candy in our stockings” in 2015.