Phil Patton
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Detroit Auto Show 2010 - Trends and Overview
This year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit was overshadowed by another exposition: the Consumer Electronics Show, America's biggest rollout of high tech products, held in Las Vegas just days before. It was at CES that Ford CEO Alan Mulally gave the keynote address, not at Detroit, and the ...
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BMW Guggenheim Lab
With many surveys suggesting the world's automobile buyers are growing younger and more urban, saavy automobile companies are rushing to show their concern with cities, the future - and the future of cities. In New York City recently, black Audi A8s recently ferried 'influencers' to the Lower East Side area ...
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Show Review: Eyes on Design 2012
It was 25 years ago that the heads of design at the Detroit Three - Jack Telnack of Ford, Chuck Jordan of General Motors and Tom Gayle of Chrysler - joined together to set up a show focused on design.
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Book Review: Car Guys vs Bean Counters
"Were I emperor of the United States, I would call for a 25 cent per gallon per year increase in pump fuel taxes until the prevailing global level is reached, about $6 or $7 a gallon. This is what all of Europe pays. Far from destroying the automobile business and ...
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Book Review: Car Guys vs Bean Counters
Designers are the surprise heroes of a new book by former General Motors vice chairman Robert Lutz, called Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business.
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Show Review: New York Auto Show 2012
Still reveling in the successful reception of its Fusion in Detroit, Ford responded to the Impala by showing the SHO (Super High Output) Taurus, the erstwhile family car with a new Fusion style grille. That grille also evokes Astons and the shape of Superman's logo.
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Show Review: New York Auto Show 2012
During the New York auto show press days in early April, it was announced that the Volkswagen Up had been named World Car of the Year. But the Up was not on display at the show and if you polled attendees during the public days it is unlikely that five ...
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Spotlight: The Future of GM
Summer in Detroit usually means vacation time, as factories close to retool for the new model year. The only signs of activity traditionally revolve around press previews of new cars in August. But in this year of crisis, which saw Chrysler and General Motors sink into bankruptcy and, with United ...
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Cars, Culture and the City
And New York was the center of show business: the automobile was celebrated with song and dance and spectacle at General Motors annual Motorama shows of the 1950s and with two World's fairs, in 1939 and in 1965.
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Cars, Culture and the City
When you think of American cities associated with the car it is Los Angeles of course that leaps first to mind, thanks mostly to Hollywood, and Detroit second. But New York turns out to have been vital in the history of car design, as I found researching an exhibition Cars, ...
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New York Auto Show 2011 - Trends & Overview
The company also offered an SRT8 version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee in New York. During the SUV fad, the Grand Cherokee was for several years the best selling model in New York City. The new version aims to merge macho with Range Rover refinement and will be sold in ...
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Show Review: EyesOn Design 2011
EyesOn Design, held each Father's Day in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Shores, likely draws more car designers and fans of car design than any show outside of Pebble Beach or Villa d'Este.
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EyesOn Design 2010
In addition, there was a tent displaying a variety of sketches and models that served as a reminder of the growing interest in collecting designer drawings. Pioneered by Frederic Sharf and Bill Porter, the GM designer who was present as a judge, the collecting of auto drawing is attracting others. ...
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EyesOn Design 2010
A young person with an autograph book and pen made the rounds at this year's EyesOn Design show in Michigan, collecting the signatures of selected designers on its creamy pages.
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Revival of the Minivan
The latest revision, directed by Ralph Gilles for the 2008 model year, gave the vehicle a more truck-like front end, to woo buyers away from SUVs. The wider grille and larger headlights lent a touch of elegance and formality. The forms were as simple and strong as that of Gilles's ...
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Revival of the Minivan
A couple of years ago I met a young designer at Chrysler's studios in Auburn Hills, Michigan. He had grown up in a minivan, he told me, and he felt the special love-hate relationship for it that is associated with places from childhood. "No one wants their parents' car," he ...
