Detroit Auto Show 2017: 5 Sexy Cars, SUVs, 'Magic' Minivan, VW Bus

DETROIT, MI — Monday and Tuesday are media days at the big North American International Auto Show. It's a huge deal. Almost everyone calls it the Detroit Auto Show, and it's one of biggest marquee events in the Motor City and the industry. It continues through Jan. 22 at the Cobo Center.

The big announcement Monday was of the Chevrolet Bolt electric car, Honda Ridgeline pickup and Chrysler Pacifica minivan as 2017 North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year, respectively.

The coming days will include a lot of car and policy talk — autonomous cars, whether President-elect Donald Trump is a regulatory friend or a foe who will slap them with huge tariffs for manufacturing in Mexico, that sort of thing.

For now though, the focus is on bells, whistles and Americans’ soft spot for the automobile.

Here are five big reveals from the Detroit Auto Show Monday:

1. The 2017 Toyota Camry is too sexy for its struts. It’s mostly made in America, which alone is enough to make it sexy at a time when the president-elect routinely threatens automakers with a “big border tax” on cars and parts imported from Mexico. Customers get a choice between “sexy and really sexy,” Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said of the redesigned eighth-generation Camry.

2. The Infiniti QX50 concept crossover strikes a “perfect balance between lust and logic,” said Infiniti design director Alfonso Albaisa. The QX50 has something special under the hood, too: an intelligent engine that “can make a choice between performance and fuel-efficiency,” said Roland Krueger, the Hong Kong-based president of Infiniti.

3. Retro is sexy, and so is fuel economy. The Volkswagen I.D. Buzz concept vehicle reboots the VW microbus from the 1960s hippie heydey. The range is about 270 miles per charge, which is competitive with Tesla and about 30 miles greater than the Chevy Bolt, the car of the year.

4. The Ford Bronco is also sexy, in a rugged, off-roading kind of way. Ford Motor Co. is bringing back the Bronco, as well as the Ranger pickup. “There's clearly customer demand for it,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman of the Dearborn-based automaker. "It is the right time, I'm very excited by it... It will be a true, tough Bronco. A real off-road vehicle."

5. The Honda Odyssey minivan has never been sexy, but there’s magic in this year’s redesign — specifically in a new “Magic Slide” second-row seat that makes it easier to configure them for child safety seats and provides easier access to the third-row seats. It’s also tech-ier and sportier, and it has a camera and a display screen that helps parents know when one child is pinching or pulling the hair of the other.

All photos via North American International Auto Show