2010 Washington Auto Show Report

In an iPod, WWW, HTML and G3 world, it is no surprise that technology has finally latched onto the automotive public's psyche. This year's show, held annually at the Washington Convention Center, was a double entendre of acronyms and automobiles, both in design features and models on display.

Perhaps the most important symbolism of this year's event are the initials "DC" as in electrical "direct current"--the electrical basis of all modern technological tools such as DVD players, HD TV, PCs, and cell phones. With an ever growing green movement, electric and hybrid vehicles are, while not quite the fashion rage that the muscle car and mini skirt were of forty years past, are quickly coming into focus as a technology that may be coming to a driveway near you soon.

Leading the charge at this year's event were, surprisingly and happily, America's own General Motors and Ford Motor Company. Each manufacturer had prominent displays of their "green" offerings, with Ford getting the "A" grade for field-trip like show-n-tell displays of transmissions, cut away engines, and CPU controlled, circuit board equipped battery arrays. Certainly, it was afar cry from the Ray-O-Vac batteries with curly copper wires that were considered Mr. Wizard gee-wow-like in the black and white 50's, further enhanced by the well thought out explanations of the features of Lithium Ion (Li-lon) and Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery cells that are the basis for the current generation of electric cars.

In fact, Ford and GM had the best overall show displays, followed by Audi, Volkswagen and Toyota. The fit and finish of the GM products in particular was extraordinary in many regards, especially with Cadillac and Buick. The Cadillac Converj concept car was stunningly beautiful, and the fit and finish of many of the newest GM models above and beyond. Of note, the tasteful use of fine, inlaid wood, thoughtful and ingenious ergonomic features (e.g. flip up and up video monitors for rear seat passengers in Cadillac DTS) and well integrated front and rear camera systems, navigation, and entertainment in several manufacturers have set a new world standard in auto manufacturing execution. Tasteful implementation of wood, both authentic and simulated, was astoundingly good in most manufacturers, and was one overall theme when doing side by side comparisons between the vendors in this year's show.

Of note, many cars had double door seals for better noise isolation, thereby cementing the tactile door slamming experience. Overall fit and finish is actually up across the board with a few exceptions, but perhaps the most interesting observation was what one could call "old school" (OS) versus "new school" (NS) designs.

The OS vehicles showed their age with cheaper interior molded plastic with sharp map pocket edges, clunky door and trunk hinge mechanisms, boring gauge and center stack clusters, and little things like visible front seat tracks, traditional needle and bulb lit instruments and boring color schemes and combinations. The NS cars overall had a single, cohesive design theme and exuded clever design features like rear center rest fill up drink holders (DTC Cadillac) bright white LED parking and driven light surrounds (Audi), overhead glass canopy roofs with passenger controlled shades (Jaguar XJ) and LOTS of innovative aviation quality glass cockpit lit instrumentation. Only one model Mercedes and the XJ featured Thin Film Transfer (TFT) video displays for speedo and tach, but no doubt that is the next "it" thing for manufacturers.

The biggest surprises were in the generally flat products from Honda, Acura, Toyota, and Nissan. In all cases, with a couple of exceptions (Prius, and Civic Hybrid) the cars seemed to be very OS in both features, fit and finish. Perhaps these manufacturers have lost that hungry competitive edge that brought them so much success over the years, but in the mean time, VW, Audi, the aforementioned NS vehicles from GM and Ford--and Jaguar--are leading the way with cutting edge new products.

An interesting OS/NS comparison was surprisingly found at the Jaguar display, where a fine, but used last generation XJ was on display next to the newest 2011 XJ. The aforementioned differences in dashboards, hinges, and general ergonomics was startling--such is the uptick that the new XJ brings to the game, a theme first introduced with the game changing, breakthrough, Jaguar XF last year.

The Next Big Thing?

A prominent section of the convention center's lower south showroom was devoted to technologies prompted by the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) a consortium, which was holding their annual conference at this years show. The association includes manufacturers as diverse as several auto companies, battery and electric companies, Universities, and even Google.

Although not a part of this group, the singular most intriguing and perhaps promising display at this year's 2010 Washington Auto Show was of a radical new automotive piston power plant developed by Scuderi of West Springfield, Massachusetts. The Scuderi is a split cycle engine with tandem cylinders--one cylinder that compresses an air mixture that feeds it into the second power stroke cylinder. Therefore, unlike a standard four stroke engine where the piston only "works" on every other crank cycle, the Scuderi engine has more frequent power strokes, much like a two-stroke engine. It features pneumatic, air generated valves, a unique crossover pipe between cylinders (to transfer the air pressure to the power cylinder,) and a custom Bosch designed fuel injection system, with a firing stroke that occurs after top dead center. The engine can run on a variety of traditional and non traditional fuels including hydrogen and natural gas, as well as biofuels.

The end result is a far more efficient power plant, which in testing as a proof of concept prototype, promises lower emissions, better economy, greater efficiency, lower moving parts, and superior noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) statistics over the best generation of conventional internal convention engines. In a lengthy conversation with Bill Wrinn, Director of Marketing, and another company officer, they shared that over $40 million dollars of investment has been made thus far, with matching funds coming from private investors shortly. So far, twenty manufacturers have expressed a keen interest in the power plant, and if the company can deliver their product into a production model engine bay and perform under real world driving conditions, we may see the biggest step forward in automobiles since the automatic transmission and computer controlled engine management systems.

The Road Ahead

No doubt, technologies such as the Scuderi engine, and perhaps breakthrough battery technologies will be what drives us all literally in the future. In the mean time, there is a LOT of good product out there. Happily for the Jaguar faithful, we can rest at least for now in a product line that is #1 in reliability, leading edge in design, and remains gorgeous and ever still desirable. Along the "green" front, Jaguar is leading the way in Europe with the recent announcement of a multi million dollar investment in electric propulsion systems--on par and exceeding many other European auto manufacturers. So the race is on for the green vehicles of the future.

Even so, grace, space and pace--and all that gorgeous style that Jaguar is so well known for--continues forward into this age. As one observer on the Jaguar stand casually remarked while gazing upon an XK convertible, "This is the most beautiful car in the show." Bravo...but we already knew that.