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Why the 2015 Detroit Auto Show will be the best since The Crisis

The Detroit Auto Show clearly has its swagger back, and the 2015 edition will be a veritable feast for the enthusiast senses. We're talking serious performance, and it will be exhibited in a variety of forms. Sports cars. Supercars. Muscle-bound luxury cars. They're all set for splashy debuts in January in the Motor City. It's another signpost that companies have recovered from the global economic crisis that gripped the industry from 2008-09. For a while, automakers played it safe at Detroit and other shows. Environmentally friendly cars were important, especially for General Motors and Chrysler that were living on loans from Uncle Sam. Ford, Toyota and other companies generally focused on their best-selling or core models. With a few notable exceptions, recent auto shows have been a bit more buttoned-down than in the past. Boring probably isn't the right word, but austerity has been reality. That's changing. Car companies are making money. Sales are up. Aside from the many nagging recalls – and they are notable – the industry now has the time and energy to make performance cars a priority. That will be offered in hard evidence in Detroit. A year from now when we look back at this auto show, we'll sum it up with one word: Horsepower. But make no mistake, this isn't frivolous. Sports and luxury cars are expensive. They're profitable. They boost images and highlight strengths. With that in mind, here are five significant performance-oriented reveals to watch for when the show kicks off in less than two weeks. 2016 Acura NSX Acura's reborn NSX is a strong bet to earn plenty of votes for our Editors' Choice awards. It's one of the most anticipated – and strung-out – reveals of the year. Think back: we actually saw an NSX concept at the 2012 Detroit show, and Acura has spent the last three years teasing the car in a variety of ways. The slow burn, however, means we know a lot about the NSX. It's will use a mid-mounted twin-turbo hybrid powertrain and run with all-wheel drive. It will also wear an innovative zirconium e-coat paint, a new paint process that Honda says is more environmentally friendly. Honda has also said it will build the new NSX in Ohio, where a large part of the car's development work has been done. The original NSX was produced from 1990-2005 and helped establish Acura's performance credentials in the United States. It was a landmark car and a shot across the bow of Ferrari, Lamborghini and others.

2014 Acura RLX

Earlier in the year, I reviewed a powder-blue Volkswagen Beetle Convertible, and I witnessed a group of high-school-aged girls ogling the car as it sat in my driveway. In my head, I found it to be a funny-yet-fitting scene that I didn't think of again until a 2014 Acura RLX showed up in my driveway. This time around, an elderly neighborhood couple stopped to give the big Acura sedan a closer look. The RLX is trying to shed past stereotypes of its predecessor, the Acura RL, just like the Beetle. Hoping to avoid becoming the de facto "grandpa car," Acura has completely reworked - and renamed - its flagship sedan.
As the bookend to the new entry-level ILX, the addition of the 2014 RLX might give Acura its strongest sedan lineup ever as the automaker looks to break the cycle of being a middle-of-the-road luxury brand. Stepping up to the big-boy table isn't going to be easy, though, as the competition keeps getting tougher. Forget cars like the Mercedes E-Class and BMW 5 Series, the Acura RLX is going to have its hands full with the likes of the Cadillac XTS, Lexus GS and Hyundai Genesis, not to mention a strong consortium of lower-priced, mid-luxury sedans like the Hyundai Azera, Toyota Avalon and Chevy Impala. The one thing all of these cars have in common is a reputation for being an old man cruiser.
I spent a week with the new RLX to see if it could shake the stigma of its outdated predecessor or if it would just leave me searching for the nearest early bird specials.

Honda discontinuing Euro Accord, no replacement in sight

Honda has built two Accords for many years. There's the one we're familiar with here in the United States, and then there's the Accord sold in markets like Europe and Australia, known here in the US as the Acura TSX. But just like Acura did with the TSX, the Euro-market Accord has been discontinued.
The news comes from The Motor Report in Australia, which is reporting that the Accord Euro will be discontinued in 2015. Sold Down Under alongside the US-market model, the discontinuation of the Aussie car indicates an end to Honda's midsize sedan efforts in Europe, where there is no obvious replacement for the four-door and wagon models.
According to TMR, Honda Australia Director Stephen Collins indicated that focus will be placed instead on the US market "wide-body" model, as it's known. That said, this decision doesn't sound like it's sitting too well in Oz.