2015 LA Auto Show special edition​ (CNET On Cars, Episode 78)​

The best of LA Auto Show 2015. A beloved Italian comes back, Cadillac replaces their best selling model, and presto chango inside a fascinating new Volvo. It's time to check the tech. [SOUND] We see cars differently. Nice. We love them on the road, and under the hood, but also check the tech, and Are known for telling it like it is. Ugly is included at no extra cost. The good,, the bad, the bottom line. This is Cnet, on cars. Welcome to Cnet on cars, I'm Brian Cooley and this is of course a show all about high tech Cars and modern driving. Special episode, this time we're coming to you from the Los Angeles Auto Show 2015. If you're seeing this soon enough, this show will turn out to be your guide once you get here. If you're coming to the show. If you're unable to go, this is gonna be your highlight reel. I'm gonna Still this thing all the way down to the six cars, I think are essential here on this vast show floor. Starting off with one that I think is the bell of the ball, the crowd pleaser of this entire show this year. The fiat 124 bringing back a legendary name, but on a very different platform. In fact not even fiat. As Emy Hall shows us. [MUSIC] Hey everyone it's Emy Hall with [UNKNOWN] here at the 2015, Los Angeles auto show and 2017 promises to be a very cool year for those of us that love rear wheel drive convertibles, that's right I am talking about the 2017 Fiat's 124 Spider. Fiat recognized a good thing when they saw it in the new fourth generation Mazda MX-5, but here they've given us a 1.4 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder, which is good for 160 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. Now those of you that are keeping score, yes that is more than the MX-5, but it's just right about in line with the Fiat Abarth. Power is going to the rear wheels via a six speed manual transmission or a six speed automatic and unfortunately this is not the same six speed that's in the MX5. So we can't wait to get our hands on it, to see if Fiat has been able to give us the same crisp, short throws that we've come to expect in a small convertible roadster. Now onlookers ar surely not gonna confuse the 124 Spyder for the MX5, as the sheet metal is quite different. It really is throwback more to the original 1966 version. The headlights definitely have a more rounded appearance to them as well as the horizontal oval grill in the center and the rear just got a modern take on the rectangular, simple tail lights from the 1960s. Of course it's what's under the sheet metal that makes this car fun to drive. The Fiat's got the same multilength setup in the rear as well as a double wishbone suspension in the front as the MX5, and it has an electric powered steering system setup. And Fiat chose to keep it simple using the same manual stop top as the MX5. The interior of the 124 Spyder is pretty much a carbon copy of the MX5, save for a couple of Fiat badging. It uses the same seven-inch touchscreen, with blind-spot monitoring and rear-cross traffic alert. No pricing has been announced yet, but we expect to see this little baby in showrooms in the summer of 2016, so mark your calendars. Remarkable collaboration there, with literally the Mazda Miata platform underpinning this dramatically different, at least in market position, model from a completely different car making brand, Fiat. Now, the best selling car of Fiat's day back in the 80's was the 124. The best selling Cadillac today is the Cadillac SRX. And yet, it just sent it packing, replacing it with the new X P 5. [MUSIC] Here at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Cadillac just unveiled the 2017 X P 5. This is the first of four upcoming crossover SUV models that Cadillac will use to kind of revamp its line up Vista has a lot of the styling you see on its current 2-band sedan cars, the ATS and CTS, and the coming CT6. With electric power steering and an adaptive suspension, the driver will be able to choose different modes at the push of a button. In sport to comfort. This car has a 3.6 liter direct injected V6 engine that produces 310 horsepower. Now, that's made it to and eight speed automatic transmission. There will also be a really interesting all wheel drive system in this car that can actually push 100% of the torque between the front and rear axle and also do torque vectoring across the rear axle for better handling. For driver assistance features we get a depth of cruise control which can bring the car to a full stop and we also have a new rear view mirror system which actually uses a camera and a display instead of just a standard mirror, giving the driver a much better view behind them. Now for cabin electronics, we get Cadillacs cue infotainment system. In the past that hasn't worked so well, but they say in this model it will get a faster processor which should make the response a lot better and we also have support for Apple Car Play and Android Auto, so you can use your smartphone if you like. The 2017 Cadillac ST 5 goes on sale in the spring of next year and marks a really new era in Cadillac model lineup. [SOUND] Okay, we're just getting started. I've got four more rock star cars for you here at the show floor in Los Angeles. Before we get back into those, we've got an update for you on a recent smarter driver episode we did. That in just a few weeks since then has become front burner issue in Washington where this robotic technology is moving to the mainstream quickly. The smarter driver is going to hear all about the latest when CNET on cars returns. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO] [MUSIC] [SOUND] We recently took you through automatic emergency braking. Technology that allows the newest cars to handle part or all of the braking task when they sense that you and your reactions, distractions, or just frozen panic Aren't going to cut it. [SOUND] Now, there's a major update. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just announced it has made automatic emergency braking a formal component of the recommended factors to get a car a five-star safety rating. Highly coveted in the business. This will start with cars in the 2018 model year. Beyond that, this announcement moves AEB way down the road to one day perhaps being required or at least defacto standard equipment. To that end, the Feds have just launched an online tutorial to educate the average car buyer about this technology, what it's called, what it is. This decision is also the biggest step yet to make a building block of tomorrows self driving cars part of todays main stream safety ratings. And as we last reported ten auto makers who sell more than half the cars Cars and light trucks in the U.S. have already pledged to make AEB at least available across their lines. [SOUND] By the way, if you see a truck closing on you in your rearview mirror right now, you'll be relieved to hear the American Trucking Association is also urging regulators to require AEB on new big rigs soon, even if part of their motivation may lie in achieving concessions elsewhere in trucking regulation. Automated emergency breaking, it's clearly the darling of the new breed of automated driver assists, and it pays to double-check what other technologies will clear that bar soon. [MUSIC] I'm Brian Cooley, welcome back to CNET on cars special episode, rounding up the best picks, I think, her at the Los Angeles auto show. Now, nobody really shed a lot of tears about the exit of the ninth generation Honda Civic. It Wasn't exactly a home run. The current tenth generation? Much better. And even much better than that is the just released tenth generation Civic Coupe. Emme Hall takes a look for us. [MUSIC] Hey everyone, it's Emme Hall for CNET and I'm here at the 2015 Los Angeles auto show. And behind me is the 2016 Honda Civic Coupe. Now, everything from the front of the [UNKNOWN] forward is just the same as the sedan. What really starts the magic happening is behind. I"ve got this very [UNKNOWN] almost a fastback kind of look, which ends in just a little tiny slick for a rear spoiler, and these brake lights here in the rear extend all the way across the rear spoiler, in a very distinctive rear face Standard [.] 2016 Honda Civic coupe is the standard 2 liter which is good for a 158 horsepower or a 138 pound feet of torque. Now that is mated to a standard 6 speed manual transmission or the continuously variable transmission and that is good for 31 miles per gallon out on the highway and you can also get a more peppy 1.5 liter turbo charged 4 cylinder. It's got more horsepower and more torque, but unfortunately, that's only available with the CVT. Inside you have the same navigation unit that's found in the Accord, and that does support Apple Car Play, as well as your Android phone. Newly available features include LED headlights, remote start, and heated front seat. Pricing has yet to be announced, but the 2016 Honda Civic Coup will be on sale later in the fall. I'm Emmy Hall for CNET here at the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show. [MUSIC] Now staying in the same basic category of car, let's shift from the Honda Civic to the Hyundai Elantra, a car that got a big refresh and relaunch here at Los Angeles. And in the process did what so many cars do Come from relatively humble roots to start moving uptown. Antuan takes a look for us. [MUSIC] The sixth bestselling car in the world prepares to enter its sixth generation at 2015 LA Auto Show. Hyundai says that it's sold about 10 million Elantras since the nameplate's inception. And this new 2017 model looks poised to sell about a couple million more. Now the new 2017 Hyundai Elantra basically takes everything we liked about the fifth generation model and makes it a little bit better in every way. It's lighter. And [UNKNOWN] is about twice as much high-tensile steel four times more aeronautics-grade adhesive in its construction. So it weighs lot less. It's also larger. It's only a little bit bigger on the outside, but on the inside Hyundai's managed to squeeze a lot more interior space into the Elantra. So much so that this compact car is now technically classified as a midsize sedan. It's also a lot smarter. Inside the cabin we've got either a seven or an eight inch version of Hyundai's infotainment system, depending on whether you get navigation or not, but we've also got the latest generation of Hyundai's Blue Link infotainment system. That's gonna allow you to do a lot of cool things like monitor your teen's driving for speed alerts or curfew. Or if you've got an Apple Watch or an Android Wear device you can actually start your car and unlock your door. From your wrist. It's all very cool. [MUSIC] Now under the hood, we've got a new two-liter, four-cylinder engine that makes 147 horsepower, and 132 pound feet of torque. It uses a lean Atkinson cycle, which allows it to get what Hyundai estimates to be about 33 miles per gallon, combined, but that's not as green as it's gonna get for the new Elantra. In Spring 2016 Hyundai will also debut an eco version of the Elantra that's gonna use a smaller 1.4 liter turbo charge engine that the automaker says will do 40 miles per gallon or better on the highway. What's more is that it's gonna be even torque-ier than this motor right here, putting out about 156 lbs/ft, so it should still be pretty fun to drive. And for those who want even fun to drive. Hyundai said that it's going to be putting out a new Elantra Sport model later on that year. It's going to be the most powerful version of the name plate yet. I'm hoping for two liter turbo, but we could see Hyundai's 1.6 liter turbo in that vehicle. Hyundai's gonna have more details surrounding the launch, pricing, and availability of the 2017 Elantra during the 2016 car show season. So stay tuned to see that for more details as they come out. [NOISE] OK, out of this whole vast LA Auto Show I've just got two more picks on my short list and we're gonna get to those as soon as Seen That On Cars returns with our LA Auto Show Special [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO] [MUSIC] Welcome back. CNET ONCARS Special Edition. Doing things a little bit different this time cuz we're coming to you from the LA Auto Show with my list of six. My six picks That I think are the essential ones to see here at the show this year, including the newly revised 2017 Mercedes SL. The SL has always been a fascinating almost a category of one if you will, there's nothing quite like it, and as we looked at it here this year it really said, I am the S Class that is fun to drive, giving up almost nothing in check and engineering. Lets take a look. [MUSIC] So when they've made changes in this 2017, they didn't do radical surgery though they did do some surgery to the face. It used to be kind of ugly beautiful. Now it's just plain beautiful. As Mercedes does these days they have a five mode dynamic select control for the drive train personality. And those drive trains are many. SL450, V6, SL550 V8, SL63 AMG V8 and the big boy, the SL65 AMG V12 621 horse. By the way, the 0 to 60 time between them only varies by a second from top to bottom. The pedestrian SLs if you can call them that, get a nine speed automatic. The ANG flavors get s seven speed automatic. Now the SLs always been a high tech engineering showcase for Mercedes, not their biggest car but they shoehorn almost the most tech into it. Note this though they're touting how Apple car play is gonna be available in a package not worried about Android Auto Arrived in the U.S. spring 2015. We get pricing a lot closer to then on all the vans. [MUSIC] Okay I think I saved the most intriguing thing for last. It's not even a car. It's just the inner of one, the cabin of one as reimagined by Volvo. The look at the self driving car beyond it moving down the road. To what will be moving inside the car as it takes over. Their Concept 26 vision of tomorrow's interior. Antoine Goodwin takes a look for us. We were expecting Volvo to unveil a new concept car or a new model at the LA auto show, and well they brought us part of one. This is their Concept 26. And what's very cool about it is that it's a concept cockpit that shows us what's going to happen when the cars start driving themselves, what is our role as a driver going to be. It's got 3 different modes. The first mode that we see right here is the drive mode. It's your traditional hands on the steering wheel, upright seating position. From here, you'll be in control of the car. You'll do all the driving. We've got the vertical Sensus infotainment system right here in the center console. It's just like your typical SPA platform Volvo vehicle right now. Now, on the steering wheel, we've got two paddles that allow you to enter the autopilot mode. So, you pull those two paddles, the car goes into its autonomous mode, and the seat slides back. The [UNKNOWN] system is on the center console so it moves with the driver so you don't really have to reach for it. And as you see right here, this large 25 inch color display flips out. Because the car is in autonomous mode, you're now free to do some work or browse some media. The seating position is a little bit more laid back and relaxed and you're moved away from the steering wheel and it sort of retracts Into the instrument cluster. The third mode is going to be the relax mode and that's going to be when you just want to kick back and let the car do its own thing while you relax. The seat goes into a very very laid back seating position. We've got this little ottoman that slides out and the 25 inch display hides itself. From here you can relax while the car drives itself when you're ready to take control you just grab those paddles and the car gives you back control. Now what happens if you're kicking it and relaxing and something happens? Well, the autonomous system should be smart enough that it will be able to pull the vehicle over to a safe stopping location until you can get the seat back into the upright position and take control of the car. Now this is conceptually based on Volvo's SPA platform so theoretically, it could be in vehicles as soon as they're ready for the autonomous driving to catch up to the technology we see right here. [MUSIC] Hope you enjoyed this little special detour we took with cnet on cars this time, bringing you a snapshot of the LA auto show. If there's a piece that we're missing that you really wanted to see, don't worry. We got it. Go to cars.cnet.com where the largest cnet team ever deployed to an auto show really nailed this one. It's all waiting for you there. Now of course, we're back into our little clubhouse just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in our next episode getting back to all those features that you know and love and keep those emails coming, it's OnCars@cnet.com. I'll see you next time we check the deck when we get back off the road. [MUSIC]