You’ve no doubt read Alex’s coverage of the Cadillac XTS, Mazda CX-5 and others on TTAC all day, but there’s a lot that goes on at auto shows besides just new car introductions. I’m here to fill in the gaps.

Best Concept: Volvo Concept You

Volvo’s Concept You looked just as sleek and stunning on the show floor. The down-turned taillights echo the Horbury shoulders of recent Volvos, but this is new ground for Volvo. No powerplant was mentioned, and I didn’t have a chance to try out the novel FreshAir subwoofer developed in conjunction with Alpine.

Volvo’s Concept You was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September.

Best New Hassle-Saver: Ford Escape’s foot-activated tailgate

Ford introduced the new C-platform Escape with EcoBoost engines and a novel foot-level motion sensor for to open the power tailgate. With full hands, this feature works great–except when you don’t have the key fob, it doesn’t work, as a bunch of sore-legged auto journos found out when repeated kicks to the area didn’t achieve any opening. A thoughtful Ford rep set us straight.

Best Press Conference: Kia Motors

When Honda talks about “the power of dreams” and other companies trump up their achievements, the weary auto show journalist appreciates Kia’s Pardon the Interuption topical countdown. “Fifteen items in fifteen minutes” was promised, and the upfront overview and self-discipline of a countdown in full view made it easy to overlook the fact that Kia didn’t really have that much new to say.

Best Celebrity Joining the Press Conference: Blake Griffin–Kia Motors.

Griffin arrives in a basketball-themed car by West Coast Customs. They made NBA lockout jokes and his shoe size. Griffin also shows his acting chops in an Optima commercial in which he does lunges while feeding a deer and lecturing two campers about Optima’s safety record.

This was better than Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol actress Paula Patton’s interview with BMW CEO Ludwig Willisch. Willisch seem uncomfortable with Patton’s considerable beauty, while Patton seem uncomfortable with following a script as she giggled her way through a puff interview that strayed far from lines displayed on the teleprompters. In fact, maybe Willisch was uncomfortable with improvisation. Anyway, it would win Best Awkward Moment except for…

Best Awkward Moment: David Moore, TTAC.com

While trying to get a shot of Patrick Dempsey with Mazda NA CEO Jim O’Sullivan during the Mazda CX-5 introduction, I was assaulted–assaulted!-by a videographer who objected to my placement near his equipment. And when I say assaulted, I mean grabbed–firmly– on my shoulder and pulled away. No charges were filed, but I did get the picture. You can thank me in the comments.

Best Useful Feature: Infiniti JX

Infiniti’s new seven-passenger SUV has a second-row that allows access to the third-row without collapsing either seat back or seat cushion. So what? Those with children will immediately realize that this allows third-row access without removing and reinstalling a child safety seat, thus preventing passengers from the “rear-hatch entry/egress of shame.”

Best Unimportant Feature: Center console ashtray lid, Aston Martin V12 Vantage.

You get at lot for your $200k. Sexy looks, British heritage, and a screaming 500-hp V12. Not least important, the high-quality alloy ashtray lid that closes with the thunk of a Fiat 800 t-boning a Benz. I told a Honda employee with me in the car that it was my favorite feature. He laughed because he knew Honda could never produce such a lovely thing.

Most Delicious Emissions: Nissan NV2500/CoolHaus

An institution among the Los Angeles food truck cognoscenti, CoolHaus serves gourmet ice cream sandwiches. Nissan used its very, uh, functional-looking NV2500 cargo van to give out the sweet treats.

Best New Car Intro: BMW M5

The 4.4 twin-turbo V8 bellowed in fury, then rolled slowly onto the stage as BMW PR reps formed a human wall against people getting in it’s five mile-per-hour fury. It was as fitting an introduction as the gaggle of Chevy Sparks darting onto the stage like pastel hyperactive lemmings.

Best Use of a Backpack as a Desk: Alex L. Dykes

If you think it’s easy running from one press conference to another, think again. Intrepid journalist Alex L. Dykes tirelessly covered the most significant introductions for you while furiously typing and coordinating with photographer Rob. When is the time to type? Anytime you’ve got a backpack that can double as a desk, my friend.

Disclosure: A press pass was received in exchange for access to the event. Ford furnished a hot dog and a soda. BMW also provided a soda. The author also received a few USB drives from Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac.

Volkswagen personnel at the LA Auto Show is intently studying reactions to a Beetle with possibly 270 hp. After all, it was public reaction at the 1994 NAIAS that brought the New Beetle to life. Originally, it was meant as a lark, but enthusiasts pounded the table until the car was made. It suffered the fate of cars powered by enthusiasts: An initial pop, then declining numbers. On display in LA is what they call the “Beetle R Concept.”

Careful: This is NOT the 2012 Beetle Turbo as tested by Jack Baruth. If they ever build the Rrrrrr model (and the ooohs and aaahs in LAhhhhh will influence that), it will come with an impressive added oomph. Nothing is known about the motorization of the brawny bug, but Volkswagen’s press department offers-up enough material for educated guesses:

“At Volkswagen, the letter ‘R’ as an added identifier promises top-notch performance. Currently, this claim is being validated with turbo pressure by the Golf R with 199 kW / 270 PS of power and the Scirocco R (currently only in Europe) with 195 kW / 265 PS. As an ‘R’, the Beetle could demonstrate a performance potential similar to that of the Golf R and Scirocco R.”

Well duh, all three are based on the same platform. All it needed were extra air intakes for the blower and a rear spoiler that is “significantly larger than the one on Beetle production models with up to 200 PS in power” to generate the required “ideal downforce values.”

Police in Texas have the right to stop motorists if a license plate recognition camera system suspects the vehicle’s owner lacks automobile insurance. In an unpublished ruling last Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Texas Court of Appeals refused the attempt by Kenneth Ray Short to have a March 2010 traffic stop declared illegal.

Officer Daniel McGrew’s patrol car had been equipped with an automated license plate recognition system (ALPR, also known as ANPR in the UK) that photographed and recorded the identity of every passing vehicle. When Short drove past, an instantaneous computerized database search returned a result that Short’s insurance coverage was “unconfirmed for 45 days or more and expired.” Sometimes, when the system returns just that the plate is “unconfirmed” it means the Department of Insurance database is unable to say whether or not the vehicle is insured, and it is the police department’s policy not to stop such vehicles. In this case, the system claimed Short’s car had not been insured since December 6, 2009, so McGrew conducted a traffic stop.

Short appealed, citing an appellate decision last year that found a traffic stop could not be based on a report that insurance information for a vehicle was unavailable. The three-judge panel disagreed with Short because the information returned was far more complete and Officer McGrew testified that he believed the system was “very accurate.”

“It is our opinion that the trial court could reasonably conclude that a reasonably objective officer could form a reasonable suspicion based on the evidence provided from the database inquiry in this case, and from that information, the officer could have formed a reasonable belief that the car Short was driving was not covered by an insurance policy,” Justice Hollis Horton wrote. “Because the trial court, on the facts before it, could reasonably choose to believe Officer McGrew’s testimony and decide to deny Short’s motion to suppress evidence, we overrule Short’s sole issue on appeal.”

Short was convicted of possessing less than three ounces of marijuana. The Texas Department of Insurance set up the TexasSure Vehicle Insurance Verification database in June 2008. Companies like InsureNet had hired lobbyists hoping to convince the legislature to use a version of the database to issue automated uninsured motorist tickets, generating millions in revenue.

A copy of the unpublished decision is available in a 115k PDF file at the source link below.

Source:  Short v. Texas (Court of Appeals, State of Texas, 8/10/2011)

[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]

In a decision that has wide-ranging implications for photo enforcement, speeding tickets and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) charges, the US Supreme Court yesterday reconfirmed the Sixth Amendment right to confront one’s accuser applies to analysts who claim to have certified evidence from a machine. The 5-4 decision concluded that “stand-in” expert witnesses are not a substitute for the individuals who actually conducted the tests. The decision broadens the applicability of the landmark Melendez-Diaz ruling from 2009, which has already led to appellate division cases in four California counties to throw out red light camera evidence.

The high court examined the case of Donald Bullcoming whose vehicle rear-ended a truck belonging to Dennis Jackson in Farmington, New Mexico on August 14, 2005. Jackson went to exchange insurance information with Bullcoming and noticed that the man smelled of alcohol. Bullcoming fled the scene on foot before police arrived, but Officer Marty Snowbarger caught up to him and arrested him for DUI. After a breath test was refused, Snowbarger obtained a warrant to take Bullcoming’s blood. Forensic analyst Curtis Caylor’s test of this sample showed a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.21, a result that served as the primary evidence against Bullcoming at trial.

The blood testing process is performed by a gas chromatograph machine but remains subject to human error. The court noted a “fairly complex” Colorado lab mistake systematically produced high BAC readings for 206 defendants. Caylor did not testify at trial because he had been put on unpaid leave from his job for an unspecified reason. Instead, Gerasimos Razatos testified regarding the results which he had neither observed nor reviewed.

The high court examined the question of whether a lab report could be introduced as evidence by an “expert” who did not actually conduct the tests in question. The prosecution argued that the gas chromatograph machine was the accuser in the case and that Caylor simply wrote down the result without exercising independent judgment. For that reason, Razatos was an equivalent substitute. The court disagreed.

“Suppose a police report recorded an objective fact — Bullcoming’s counsel posited the address above the front door of a house or the read-out of a radar gun,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the majority. “Could an officer other than the one who saw the number on the house or gun present the information in court — so long as that officer was equipped to testify about any technology the observing officer deployed and the police department’s standard operating procedures? As our precedent makes plain, the answer is emphatically ‘No.’”

The court majority noted that using a surrogate witness would conceal any lapses or lies on the part of the certifying analyst. It also noted that the burden on the prosecution from the requirement of live testimony could have been cured by having Razatos retest the blood sample, which was preserved in accordance with New Mexico law.

“As a rule, if an out-of-court statement is testimonial in nature, it may not be introduced against the accused at trial unless the witness who made the statement is unavailable and the accused has had a prior opportunity to confront that witness,” Ginsburg concluded.

The decision represented a rare coalition of the most liberal and most conservative members of the court. Ginsburg and President Obama’s nominees to the court, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, were joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

A copy of the decision is available in a 275k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Bullcoming v. New Mexico (US Supreme Court, 6/23/2011)

[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]

The LA Auto Show was our first opportunity to get out hands on the new Saab 9-4x. Since the 9-4x is mostly a re-skinned Cadillac SRX, the Saab should offer similar driving dynamics, especially from the turbo V6 model. The interior is certainly a step in the right direction for this downtrodden Swede, but does seem like long-term exposure might make one weary of the acres of black plastic inside. While all the materials feel fairly premium, I’m not sure I care for the style of the center console where there are a heap of small buttons and a small nav screen in a sea of flat black plastic. Models without the Nav system get a much smaller screen with more plastic and some small buttons. Aside from this quibble the interior and interior are well sorted. Still, it will remain to be seen if the 9-4x can score any success in American markets with the extremely well executed Q5 and XC60 already in play not to mention the redesigned X3 on its way to our shores.

A new day or a false dawn? Check out Dodge’s freshly-refreshed lineup and let us know which way you’re leaning…

Honda had been the first automaker that had the Insight to sell a hybrid in the U.S. But what about pure battery-powered ones? After a lot of hesitation, Honda will throw an all-electric Fit on the U.S. market, says Bloomberg. The plug-in will arrive in 2012, which might as well be pronounced “year of the EV.”

The car will be standard EV fare: Lithium-ion-powered, range about 100 miles between charges – on a good day. A price has not been announced. Expected volume? It “will be small” said  Honda President Takanobu Ito at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Like the colleagues at Toyota, Honda doesn’t view the EV as a runaway hit. Amazingly, also like Toyota, Honda sees hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars such as its Clarity sedan as the “ultimate” solution.

Karl Brauer, senior analyst for industry researcher Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California, already has indentified the target group for the electric Fit: The car should “work well for fleets with predetermined routes like mail trucks and delivery trucks, especially because of the reconfigurable interior.”

More and more, there is a consensus building that the biggest small market for electric vehicles should be in 9-5 jobs at governments and companies that use the cars on carefully mapped out routes that do not stray too far form the charger back at the dock. That’s not what Musk and Fisker had in mind.

Louise Roe was on hand this morning at the Jag/Landie booth, continuing the LA trend of hiring fashion professionals to flog cars. When did models become the vision of all things automotive? Especially when you’re showing something as unabashedly alluring as CX-75 turbine-electric concept car. Why invite the awkward comparisons? Anyway, as supercar concepts come, the CX-75 is about as cool as they come. Not only can it claim to be a “Jet-Hybrid,” it looks like it could seduce an F-16 too. Drool.

On the Landie side, the Evoque poked its head out to confirm that both three and five door versions will be both available in the USA. For those that have never seen the Evoque up close, it is deceptively short. Compared with Land Rovers of the past, this is truly Mini Countryman competition. And if the production models can match the interior quality of these pre-production models, Land Rover might just be on to something. The Evoque’s interior is truly worthy of the Range Rover name with stitched dashes and excellent switch gear. Whether the EcoBoost (but don’t call it that) four-cylinder and Volvo-platform underpinnings are up to the task is another question.

Today, on the last day of media access to the LA Auto show, the mystic powers that be continued VAGs green run by selecting the Audi A3 TDi as the 2010 Green Car of the Year (The Jetta TDi won last year). In the running this year were the Audi A3 TDI, Honda Insight, Mercury Milan Hybrid, Toyota Prius and Volkswagen Golf TDI. According to the LA Auto Show,

The Green Car of the Year® award is a program that honors environmental leadership in the automobile field and recognizes vehicles that are readily available to consumers during the award year. Green Car Journal/ editors perform an exhaustive review of vehicle models to identify the five finalists. The winner is ultimately decided by jurors such as Jay Leno, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Carroll Shelby, Matt Petersen of Global Green USA and the Sierra Club’s Carl Pope, along with Green Car Journal editors.

Interesting then that this same bunch of car czars chose the Chevy Tahoe two years ago for getting 1 MPG better than the gasoline version. Anyone feeling some Volt love in 2011?

We all hoped/thought that Tron was a relic left to the distant 80′s acid trips, but Audi has decided to bring it back again. Shown at the Frankfurt motor show their e-tron concept looks strangely close to production to me. Supposedly debuting two years from now as a 2012 production model buyers willing to fork out huge sums of cash will be treated to more than 3,300 ft-lbs of torque and 313hp, for no doubt very limited distances between charges.

Want a slightly different flavor of Fiesta? The Mazda2 should fit the bill.

Ford’s worst kept secret lately has been the new for North America Fiesta. Those who were hoping for a direct translation of the Euro-spec Fiesta might be a bit disappointed. The Fiesta shares a mere 60 percent of its parts in common with its European cousin, but thankfully gets a few improvements like Sync system and a new sedan variant. Er, if you consider those improvements. Inside the Fiesta’s plastics are typically frugal but overall no worse than the ubiquitous Corolla. Trunk room is fairly miniature sized but rear headroom even in the sedan is fairly good even with a 6’6 driver in the front seat.

Hyundai is continuing their roll in North America with their latest Sonata, and they know it. In (now) typical Hyundai fashion they stuck it to Toyota and Honda, touting not only their increase in sales in 2009, but their industry-besting CAFE numbers as well. Hyundai is claiming 35mpg highway for their new Sonata with the 2.4L GDI engine, and say the turbo GDI expected mid-2010 will get the same 35mpg on the highway. According to the President of Hyundai North America, the Sonata will be in showrooms in January 2010 and should list for under $20,000 with the usual bevy of standard equipment you expect in a Korean car. Check out TTAC’s review of a Korean-spec 2011 Sonata here.

Chevrolet just pulled the wraps off the US market Cruze, not that there are any secrets left at GM these days where auto shows are concerned. Plus the Cruze has been available around the world for months already. The big news is that the interior is actually – not pulling any punches – world class. Previously only the French were able to make a cloth covered dash worth looking at, but GM has actually managed to make a press fleet-ready car with one. As long as you pick the top trim level, anyway.

VW’s biggest news from LA today is the Up! Lite, no doubt designed by some uptight Germans intent on bring a strange looking, Germanically efficient vehicle to the shores of America (or Poland). Obviously a result of VW’s development of a 100+MPG 1+1 seater car, the 70 mpg Up! Lite makes up for its homely looks with in-town efficiency. But then its main competition, the Toyota iQ and Smart FortTwo aren’t exactly lookers themselves. Under the hood lurks a 0.8L TDI engine and a 10kw electric motor making for leisurely acceleration despite the featherweight kerb figures.

TTAC was invited to Cadillac’s CTS Coupe wine-and-dine event yesterday, held in that prime habitat of the modern Cadillac: the hood. OK, so it was a trendy club located in an LA slum… same diff. The CTS coupe took center stage with the new SRX, CTS wagon, CTS-V and Escalade filling out the lineup. Where were the ugly-stepsisters the DTS and STS? Not invited said a Cadiilac rep. Upon first (long distance) glance the CTS Coupe looks entertaining, but it’s only when you get up close that the true weight of this beast hits you: this is one BIG coupe. Which is funny, considering the CTS Sportwagon next to it looks remarkably small for a wagon. But there’s the rub, Caddy is trying to do everything possible with the CTS with the minimum of effort (read: cost). The proportions of the CTS belie it’s uselessness: the rear seats have the leg room and width to coddle two linebackers but sadly only enough headroom for an oompa-loompa. The art and science design team gave the CTS coupe the most defined rump of the Cadillac lineup, a dramatic chevron which culminates in a steeply triangular rear bumper and trunk lid. And yes folks that’s a trunk lid, not a useful hatchback as we might have preferred. All in all, this is one square jawed Caddy, in the mold of the classic personal luxury coupe.

At this week’s LA Auto Show Honda’s vice president of corporate planning and logistics told Marketwatch that Honda is considering expanding production of its popular Fit to the United States. “We have about 19 days worth of supply, which is much too low,” said Honda VP Dan Bonawitz. “We can’t fill all our dealer orders.” Honda is “exploring all options” to ramp-up Fit supply, Bonawitz said.

This new-for-America 2.0 liter model has finally discovered something that the red, white and blue version of the car has long been missing: power. Ponies have been bumped upward to 140hp. According to VW, you get 236 lb ft of torque, an MSRP starting at $21,990, and a low carbon footprint. According to the EPA, you can expect fuel economy of 30 city/ 41 highway if you choose a six-speed manual; shave 1 mpg from both figures if you’d rather remain shiftless.

The new Boxster and Cayman gained slightly modified sheetmetal and power over their predecessors, to the tune of 10 and 20 horsepower respectively. Porsche’s “basic” Boxster now develops 255hp. It’s more expensive sibling, the Cayman, puts out 265hp. S-wise, the Boxster S ascends to 310hp, while the Cayman S gets 320hp (up by 15 and 25 bhp respectively). Porsche attributes the increased performance to the new Direct Fuel Injection system, standard on both S models.

Coupled with Porsche’s Doppelkupplungsgetriebe or PDK (that’s double-clutch to you and me), both new models reduce fuel consumption by more than 11 percent and as much as 16 percent. The Cayman S now delivers 26mpg (Cayman S).  A new suspension, bigger wheels and better braking, from the latest generation of the Porsche Stability Management, complete the mechanical upgrades.

In case you missed it, here’s the most important part of the story: Porsche now offers a mid-level, mid-engined model whose performance numbers match those of the marques flagship 911 (even it is only the base model Carrera). Who knows what the unleashed engineers could develop next? How about a Cayman Turbo?”