At this year's Los Angeles Auto Show, the big wave of world premieres is missing, but a few interesting vehicles have made it to the West Coast of the United States.
With nearly 18 million inhabitants, the Los Angeles metropolitan area is one of the largest in the world. The "Auto Show" in the Convention Center (until 9, December), however, is one of the more manageable fairs - at least in addition to greats like the Paris Motor Show or the IAA in Frankfurt. If many novelties were not covered in the morning, you could check off the visit in a relatively short time. But there are a few reasons to spend a little more time at the fairground.
Especially sports cars play a big role on the west coast this year. Even if exotics like Lamborghini, Ferrari or Aston Martin are completely missing. First and foremost, with the 911 of the 992 generation, Porsche is showing how to carefully develop an icon while not shirking the future. The 992 comes with a very modern infotainment system including a large touch screen and can be equipped with significantly more assistance systems than before. If the normal 911 is too common, you can order one of the 200 GT2 RS Clubsport, which the Stuttgart guys in LA have come up with, if they have the necessary change. The Clubsport comes without street legal and is a race car, which does not have to bend any rules - gigantic rear wing included.
With a focus on the racetrack, Mercedes also introduces the AMG GT-R Pro, a sharpened version of the two-door sports car, which should be particularly comfortable with Trackdays. It will be much more relaxed in the trade show premiere of BMW: The convertible 8er series is in Los Angeles for the first time in front of a large audience and is next to the coupe, the second of three featured body styles of the 8er. The final puzzle piece in the form of the Grand Coupé awaits 2019 in Geneva.
At Audi too, the journalists present had expected a sports version - for example in the form of the S7 or the SQ8. Instead, the Ingolstadt-based company pulled the cloth from the very successful study e-tron GT, the direct relative of the Porsche Taycan. The four-door electric sports car is optically a win in any case and, thanks to 434 kW / 590 hp, should hardly lose ground on the Taycan. It is still unclear when the electric GT will go into series production with a range of over 400 kilometers, but probably not until 2021.
Significantly unglamorous, it goes on the booth of VW. Here, in addition to the ID Buzz already shown at the IAA Commercial Vehicles (in a new motorsports-oriented foliation), only the farewell version of the Beetle convertible can be seen, which has already made Wolfsburg disappear in Germany.
But even if German manufacturers can celebrate a few major premieres this year in Los Angeles, one must not forget the brands from America and Asia. Jeep has revealed the long awaited pick-up variant of the Wrangler with the fierce name "Gladiator", Lincoln the SUV "Aviator" in the luggage. Both are not coming to Europe. Ford and GM hold back with premieres and show only already known as the Mustang Bullit or the Corvette ZR1 of Chevrolet. Also at the booths: lots of pick-ups, which continue to enjoy great popularity in the US.
Anyone interested in Japanese vehicles will not miss the Nissan stand in Los Angeles. Here you can see the Maxima next to the new Murano. Mazda has also unveiled the new Mazda3 the night before, which can be seen in Los Angeles with five doors as well as a sedan and shines with a successful design. At Kia you can see the new soul, which optically is more pleasing than before and is only offered electrically driven. The SUV wave rides Toyota with the new Rav4, which adapts to the design language of the CH-R and is drawn significantly sharper than before. Whimsical: A Toyota Tundra with a complete pizza hat production on its back - from the oven to the automatic pizza cutter.
In spite of all sports cars and high-capacity trucks, Rivian is also represented in Los Angeles alongside Tesla. The newcomer shows a classic seven-seater SUV and an angular pick-up - both with electric motor. In addition to impressive performance values up to 522 kW / 710 PS, the Americans also want to score with a long range of a maximum of 640 kilometers.
If you want to summarize what you see at the most important car show on the west coast, you cannot avoid noticing that the great flood of premieres has not occurred here. In addition, the mountain of electrical studies is slowly flattening, Audi and Rivian are the exception here. In keeping with the lifestyle of the megacity, “easy going” is more popular at the trade fair this year, without wanting to make any major changes. Unless you like the wild tuning conversions that are hiding in the basement of the fair. There is everything here: from the widebody Lamborghini to the Escalade, which is 90 centimeters higher. You just have to dare.