2010 Detroit Auto Show: Highlights and perspectives

• Electric cars have captured the public's imagination, and rightly so, but electrics bring apprehension, as well. Our sense is that the public's willingness to buy one is tempered by the cars' driving range, uncertainty about battery technology, and, of course, the continuing availability of relatively cheap gasoline. Most electric cars so far have been hacked from existing cars and converted to EVs. For example, the Tesla roadster started life as a Lotus Elise, and the Mini E lost its rear seat in its conversion.

• Two electric cars on the show floor were significant, however. The Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S were designed as electric cars from the outset. They house their battery pack under the floor, between the axles for optimal weight distribution. Both seat five passengers and have the potential of appealing to a customer base that's beyond the fringe. Both of these cars are designed to be compatible with "hot swaps"--the fast replacement of used batteries with recharged ones. This is the system developed by the Israeli/Californian startup Better Place.

• Only four or five years ago European makers pooh-poohed hybrids. "Why have two engines in one car?" mused the German executives. "They're expensive and waste space. The answer is diesel." Whether or not diesels ever take off in this country--as they have in Europe --there are now two hybrids from BMW, two by Mercedes, a hybrid concept from Volkswagen, and upcoming hybrid versions of the Audi Q5 and redesigned VW Touareg. It's not so much an about-face as a business-oriented realization that the hybrid carries a certain marketing cachet, not to mention future more stringent CAFE standards.

• A few years ago hard-top convertibles were all the rage, but now they seem to have lost some appeal. They seemed like such a good idea: A quiet, sturdy, coupe-like car with the top up and open-top motoring available at the press of a button. Our experience indicates that hard-tops aren't necessarily quieter, though, and they sometimes wreck a car's styling proportions, as seen in the overly large rump of the Lexus IS convertible. Typically, you can't open the top when the car is moving. Cloth-tops like the Audi A5 we are now testing and Mercedes-Benz E-Class convertible, shown in Detroit, may be reversing the trend. They look stylish and well-proportioned, and their tops can be operated on the move at up to 25 mph, enhancing the spontaneity of open-top motoring.

• Conspicuously absent from the show were Nissan/Infiniti and Porsche. Infiniti missed an opportunity to launch its redesigned M, (pictures of it have already been published), and BMW for some reason opted not to show the redesigned 5 Series, for which both information and images have been released. Both are due to go on sale this spring.

• Even more strikingly, Chrysler chose to be completely silent on its home turf and not show extensive freshenings of the 300 and Dodge Charger which are in the can. A periodic progress report would be the right thing to do since our tax money is at work here.

This year Detroit hasn't been the showboat it used to be. No glitz, no pyrotechnics, no loud music, no disproportionate focus on muscle cars, huge pickups and frivolous retro creations. It was a sane, down-to-earth, consumer-oriented show. And if you're in the Detroit area, you can stop by and see it for yourself.

—Gabe Shenhar

See our complete 2010 Detroit Auto Show coverage.