12:12PM Once again we find ourselves wintering in Detroit on a fine January Sunday. The big thing for us today is Honda's reveal of the 2009 Honda Pilot Prototype, but that's not for another hour and a half, so we decided to head up to the media center in hopes of finding a spot to hook up our laptops. On the way into Cobo Center, we had to work our way around a herd of 150 Longhorn Steer. Apparently Dodge thought it would be a good idea to link their new pickups to manly stuff like Longhorn Steer. And cowpies. So far, the only photos I've snapped were of those Steer. I promise I'll get lots more photos of actual cars, now that we've partially settled here. If we're lucky, we'll have some sort of connectivity down on the show floor so we can bring semi-live updates from the Honda press conference. Watch for the photos and press release after 1:45 PM EST.
Oh, if you haven't already heard, the Chevy Malibu took the Car of the Year honors (as expected), beating out the 2008 Honda Accord. The Mazda CX-9 won the Truck of the Year award, beating out 12 others.




10:14 PM Well, we're done with Day 1 of the show and are cooling down after a long day of intros and cruising the show floor. The '09 Pilot seems to be relatively well received with a bit of discussions seeming to circulate around the front end. Otherwise, the upscale interior seems to be drawing a bit of attention; it will be interesting to see how the production version translates from the prototype.

While the bulk of our attention was focused on the Pilot today, we'll be devoting most of our time to other manufacturers tomorrow. A few things that caught our eye this afternoon were the Audi R8 V-12 TDI, Nissan GT-R, and the Lexus LF-A Roadster.

Profits among the Bentley, VW, Lambo, and Audi groups must be pretty good considering the posh party they hosted this evening, complete with jumbo shrimp cocktail, sushi, drinks, and more. Just what we needed to end day 1. Back to our photo and video processing before turning in. More tomorrow, stay tuned. -rl

Last edited by JeffX on January 13, 2008 22:25