Categories: Concept Cars

We've been following news of Detroit-bound debuts and concept cars, and it looks like we have a lot more work ahead of us. The auto show released a statement that it's expecting a total of 50 new car and concept debuts when it opens next month. The 2014 auto year will kick off with a strong start.

For the average Joe and Jane, December is a time for hurried holiday preparations and family. For the auto industry, it's a time for finishing the sales year while looking ahead to the next. Automakers have been teasing new cars and concepts for next month's North American International Auto Show right and left. Instead of trying to keep up with the barrage one by one, we're rounding 'em up a few at a time. Here we have a trio of interesting, sporty Asian cars: a Kia 2+2 concept, a race-inspired Infiniti concept and a new Lexus F performance car. 

Audi will use the upcoming 2014 North American International Auto Show to showcase a new two-door sports crossover design. It appears to be more of a styling exercise than a production-car preview, but the car does have appeal and versatility, so the future will tell.

Subaru has gone on quite a concept spree this November. It showed the LEVORG concept and a couple others in Tokyo, and now it introduced the Legacy concept at the LA Auto Show. The Legacy Concept celebrates both past and present, recognizing the model's 25th anniversary while providing a glimpse at a future styling direction.

Most car manufacturers are doing research to develop those futuristic cars that can drive themselves. We have a few already that monitor the road even while the driver is in control and they have the ability to take over in an emergency. Last week at the auto show in Los Angeles, Toyota gave us a step in between. It’s not a fully autonomous car but it does provide much more interaction than anything currently on the road. And it can interact with more than just the driver.

A new hybrid was recently shown at the Tokyo Motor Show in Japan. This one comes from Volkswagen and they call it the Twin Up!. It is the next offering in the XL1 line and is a plug-in hybrid version of the Up! already on the market.

Next week, both the Tokyo and LA Auto Shows kick off. As such, we may as well just call this week "New Car/Concept Preview Week." One of the most radical concepts of either show is sure to be the BladeGlider concept from Nissan, a triangular 1 + 2 electric sports car that "shifts the engineering paradigm."

Do you remember sitting in class and working on “ditto” worksheets? If you’re somewhere in the neighborhood of 40, I’m sure you remember those purple printed pages with the distinctive chemical aroma. It took the teacher about 10 minutes to copy enough pages for a typical class of students. My, how technology has progressed! Faxing, making copies or printing from your computer is commonplace and can be done in seconds. The next big thing in printing and copying is done in 3D. From clothing to body parts, the possibilities are limitless.

Subaru has released a teaser of the all-new LEVORG concept, which will debut at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show. This concept car is no flashy one-and-done, but a preview of a new production model that the company will launch next year on the Japanese market. Subaru hasn't mentioned whether the car will come to other markets, but from the first look, we're hoping it does.

So, you’re waiting at a stop light and you glance into the car next to you. The guy in the other car is obviously angry. He’s got a grimace that goes on for days and the veins in his forehead are visibly pounding even from your vantage point. When the light turns green you drive slightly more defensively until he turns off the road. What if your car could read your mood? What if your car could read your mood and broadcast this information to other drivers? What if it changed color in response? It sounds like something from a movie but this is just the start of what a new vehicle from Toyota can do.

These days the news is filled with stories about alternative fuels. Whether it’s biodiesel, ethanol, electricity, or what-have-you, it seems that someone, somewhere has built a car that will run on it. But, long before the modern environmental movement, steam-driven vehicles were common sights on American roads.