Dream Cars Meet Harsh Reality

WHEN times get tough, auto designers get wild. Or at least they used to.

During previous economic downturns, either for the nation at large or for individual companies, flaunting exotic concept cars at auto shows has been a way for automakers to show defiance in the face of adversity and to assert hope for the future. Bold dream cars are visual pep talks, helping to build morale.

But this year, dark economic clouds seem to have cast a shadow even over the designers displaying their ideas at the Detroit auto show. Concept cars are expensive to build and budgets are tight. Furthermore, automakers gathered here last week under the stern eye of the government — and a public that has put its own money on the line to help them. So no company, and certainly not the hometown teams seeking a helping hand from taxpayers, wanted to be perceived as wasting money on show-biz glitz or sci-fi fantasy.

“We now have a special bond with the American public,” said James E. Press, vice chairman of Chrysler, as he presented his company’s concept cars. Since Chrysler has received some federal money and is hoping for more, it surprised no one that the smallest of the Detroit Three, which in previous years staged elaborate theatrics at the show — crashing Jeeps through windows and herding cattle through the streets — kept its introductions somber and low-key.

The concept cars this year were mostly versions of production models that will be in salesrooms in a couple of years — if their companies survive.

“You see fewer blue-sky concepts this year,” said Bryan Nesbitt, General Motors’ vice president for North American design. “You can no longer just throw a wild concept out there. You have to have a story.”

A concept that lacks a context is simply confusing. For instance, in 2004 Chrysler showed the ME Four-Twelve, a midengine supercar with a V-12 engine. Though it excited horsepower-hungry showgoers, it had no place in the company’s business plan and didn’t mesh with the image that the Chrysler brand was trying to project.

Mazda has drawn attention in recent years for some of the most provocative concept cars, but it did not display any concepts at all this year. Laurens van den Acker, general manager of Mazda’s design division, said that was because the company was now busy applying to production cars the themes it had developed in design studies.

Despite the auto industry’s current troubles — dark humor at the show included puns about Kar-trina, Carmageddon and Carpocalypse Now — the Detroit Three may now have their best designs in years. There is more conviction and identity in the lines of cars from G.M., Ford and Chrysler.
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