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Editors' Choice: Top Five 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show Debuts

Consider the 2015-16 auto show season officially kicked off. The Frankfurt Motor Show offered a great look at the newest crop of production cars and conceptual machines, and brought some old favorites back into the spotlight for a closer look. (The Alfa Romeo Giulia, for example, debuted in June, but this was the first time most of us saw it.) Now that the dust has settled and we're all on flights back to the US, our editors cast their votes for their personal favorites from the Frankfurt show. These are the cars we truly loved seeing the most. But unlike other shows, there was no one runaway winner – all of the Top Five received positive praise from our team. We won't spoil the results, though. Scroll down to see what we liked most from this year's Frankfurt expo. 5th Place – MERCEDES-BENZ IAA CONCEPT View 12 Photos MIKE AUSTIN: The clean lines on this concept have me excited for a more elegant beauty to future Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Next to the Concept IAA, the lovely S-Class Coupe looks like an overstyled barge. DAVID GLUCKMAN: Yeah, the extendable rear is neat and all, but I'm more interested in the front-end styling of this one. It looks like the Tron version of a 300SL, in a good way. I'm hopeful it portends the future of Mercedes design. STEVEN EWING: I was super impressed when Mercedes said that, with the rear end extended, this concept has a drag coefficient of just 0.19. That's crazy aerodynamic. I'm not head-over-heels about the styling, but I think the lessons learned from this concept are really important, and will play a huge role in the future of Mercedes' products. 4th Place – ALFA ROMEO GIULIA View 15 Photos SEYTH MIERSMA: I can hardly express how in love with this car I am. The styling feels creative, modern, and evocative, without going over the top. The proposed performance is spectacular. And the Alfa badge speaks to a legacy of romantic motoring. DAVID GLUCKMAN: Pretty Italian car makes big promises and will probably deliver on about three quarters of them. I think that will still be enough for me. JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I'm really intrigued by the Giulia. It looks great, sounds awesome, and I'm expecting it to have a load more character than its German rivals. I hope I'm not disappointed. 3rd Place – JAGUAR F-PACE View 15 Photos GREG MIGLIORE: It's the first SUV for Jaguar, and I think they nailed the design, capability, and electronics. It's the right car at the right time.

Alfa SUV on pace for 2016 launch

While other parts of FCA's five-year plan are reportedly being shifted around, the timeline for Alfa Romeo is holding firm. The Italian brand is now hard at work on its crossover, which arrives after the Giulia sedan. Everything is on schedule for a mid-2016 debut too, according to Automotive News, and US sales would reportedly come late that year or in early 2017. Codenamed Project 949, Alfa's crossover shares its underpinnings with the Giulia and is sized to take on premium entries in the segment, like the BMW X3, Automotive News reports. The model is the Italian brand's first production CUV. The plan for a crossover has been percolating for years, as evidenced by the 12--year-old Kamal concept (pictured above). The Giulia and CUV are two of the eight new models Alfa wants to launch by 2018. In the five-year plan, Alfa execs also discussed two compacts, another crossover, a second midsize sedan, a fullsize sedan, and a specialty product. While not all of these might come to the US, the brand has set a goal to see a dramatic global sales jump to 400,000 units. "We are taking a very hard look at the sequencing of the products that we are launching to make sure that we get the biggest bang for the buck from the utilization of the architecture in terms of volumes," FCA boss Sergio Marchionne said, according to Automotive News. Related Video:

Scrapyard Gem: 2011 Alfa Romeo Giulietta

Alfa Romeo first applied the Giulietta name to its cars in 1954, producing that legendary generation through 1965. The name was revived on a wild-looking sedan for the 1977-1985 period, just before Fiat bought the company, and then returned on a compact hatchback for the 2011 model year. Today's Junkyard Scrapyard Find is one of those first-year third-gen Giuliettas, found in a self-service yard in Yorkshire, England. Copart-owned U-Pull-It has two stores in Great Britain, one in England and the other in Scotland. I have documented quite a few not-available-on-our-side-of-the-water vehicles found during my trip over there, including a 2005 Smart ForFour, a 2002 BMW 320td, a 2005 Vauxhall Tigra TwinTop, a 2008 Mitsubishi i, a 2007 Mitsubishi Colt, a 2006 Peugeot 307 CC, a 2006 Hyundai Matrix, a 2006 Ford StreetKa, a 2000 Honda HR-V, a 1994 Rover 620 Si, a 2010 Peugeot Bipper, a 2009 Alfa Romeo Brera S, a 2010 Citroen C4 Picasso, a 2005 MG ZT 190 and a 1963 Bentley S3. This generation of Giulietta stayed in production through 2020, after which it was replaced by a Jeep Compass-related crossover that you can buy in the United States today. This car's closest U.S.-market relative was the 2013-2016 Dodge Dart, which was built on a widened version of the Giulietta platform; the 2015-2017 Chrysler 200 lived on a longer-wheelbase variation. The current Chrysler Pacifica still rides on a descendant of that chassis. Alfa Romeo managed to get the Giulietta into a starring role in Fast & Furious 6, back in 2013. There was talk in the early 2010s that the new Giulietta might be sold in the United States, but those tales turned out to lead nowhere. Instead, the 4C ended up being the first new Alfa Romeo available here since the last Spider Veloces and 164s were sold as 1995 models. I couldn't get the bonnet open on this car, quickly losing patience thanks to fingers frozen solid by Yorkshire January weather, so we'll just have to speculate about the engine beneath. Giulietta shoppers in the U.K. market could get the '11 with one of eight engine choices, ranging from the base 1.4 MultiAir straight-four petrol-burner and its 120 horsepower all the way up to a screaming 1.75-liter straight-four with 235 horses. Fiat Multijet diesels in 1.6- and 2.0-liter form were available as well. This one has the base six-speed manual, which Dart buyers could get bolted into their cars (few did so).