Motor Crazy: detroit auto show

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Convertibles, MINI

Click above for a high-res image gallery of the new MINI Cooper Convertible

We'll be straight with you. We missed the MINI press conference. We know, we know... the horror. Anyway, you didn't exactly need to be Kojak to figure out what happened. The 2009 MINI Convertible drove out of a simulated ice block with a couple made up all frozen-like in the front seats. As for the car, well, it's pretty self explanatory. Available in March, it finally ditches the last-gen engines for the NA and turbocharged 1.6L fours available in the hardtop Cooper and Cooper S. Other changes? The trunk's roomier, the interior gets brought up-to-date, and the rollbar becomes a pop-up unit, significantly improving rearward visibility and giving the Cooper a much cleaner top-down profile. Finally, cute-gimmickry overload is fully achieved with the addition of the "Openometer," an add-on gauge that tracks the amount of time spent motoring with the top down. Adorable, right? Chicks are gonna dig it.

Gallery: Detroit 2009: MINI Cooper Convertible Live

Gallery: 2009 MINI Cooper Convertible

Detroit 2009: MINI Cooper Convertible chills out originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

| |

The 2010 Buick LaCrosse is on its way and these latest spy shots of a mostly uncovered Lacrosse show it could be just the car Buick needs.

We first showed you our rendered speculation, thanks to KORSdesign, back in October and judging by the looks of it, we were spot on. The new Buick LaCrosse shown in these spy shots has lost most of the camo it wore in previous images, giving us a pretty clear view of the sumptuous body side surfaces and shoulder design. The shoulder design is a throwback to Buicks of yesteryear, but the younger crowd will compare it to Bentley’s Continental GT and it seems GM’s engineers have played the connection up with a front mask that resembles the Bentley’s headlights and grille.

While mostly covered, the headlamps and tail lights will heavily resemble those used on the 2008 Buick Invicta Concept and can be seen in our illustrated rendition.

The 2010 Buick LaCrosse is the first car developed in the U.S. for GM’s new global front-wheel drive Epsilon II platform and will begin production in February 2009. Expect to see the LaCrosse at country clubs near you by mid-2009, but if you can’t wait, we’ll bring you live images from the Detroit Auto Show floor next month.
(Hat Tip to Scott!)