The American auto market goes global

Nissan revealed the next generation of its Maxima entry-luxury sedan, a product from a Japanese manufacturer that is unique to the U.S. market.

But these were essentially the only real news at the New York Show, which was criticized by many of the journalists in attendance as the worst in a decade for newsworthy global product announcements. The reason for this weakness is attributable to Nardelli’s globality. The Geneva auto show took place just two weeks ago and several cars such as the Volvo XC60 crossover vehicle which would have been natural to debut in New York were instead introduced in Geneva.

Responding to the observation that this year’s Geneva show was uncommonly relevant to the U.S. market Angus MacKenzie, Motor Trend magazine’s editor-in-chief, asked, “Could it be that the U.S. market is becoming more relevant to the world?”

So it is, and so rather than the show season for new U.S. products starting in Detroit in January it effectively started four months earlier in Frankfurt.

Buick exhibited its Riviera concept which it debuted at last year’s Beijing auto show as a concept aimed for the Chinese market where Buick is a dominant player. Thanks to globality, however, photos of the beautiful luxury coupe reached the U.S., where home market customers have clamored to see the car in person and possibly have the chance to buy one eventually.

Smart, a brand of tiny cars made by Germany’s Daimler AG, was on hand to show off its existing models even thought the company has effectively sold out its planned number of cars to import for the next two years.

Roger Penske, CEO of Smart’s exclusive distributor United Auto Group, said that the company has been pleasantly surprised at the high level of equipment buyers are specifying for their Smart cars.

“This is not a customer who is buying the car because it’s cheap,” he said. “People are also interested in its user-friendliness and fuel economy,” he added.

Smart’s strength isn’t just limited to the Big Apple and Hollywood, either. Pittsburgh has racked up big sales for the company too, Penske reported. “Places like that are dying for cars,” he said.

With the end of the auto show season, now automakers can concentrate on building and selling the new models they’ve introduced at the shows. And of course they can begin preparing for the start of the next show season in Paris in September, where in addition to weirdly-styled French cars that won’t come to the U.S. anytime soon we can expect to see the ones that will reach our shores.

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