Of the many global auto shows each year, the North American International Auto Show in Detroit still ranks as the granddaddy, a winter festival in the Motor City for new vehicle models and their creators.
The media preview for the 2015 edition of NAIAS begins Monday, featuring about 40 vehicle introductions, including a handful of entirely new designs and a larger number of variants of existing models. Every automaker is critically dependent on generating fresh interest in its vehicles and its brands; so "new" is a word batted about quite a bit.
The U.S. auto industry is capping a five-year run of sales increases with several forecasters predicting a sixth straight year in 2015. Much will depend on consumer confidence, the availability of credit, employment-- and the reaction of carbuyers to some of the offerings at NAIAS.
The following are five significant new models that could prove exceptionally important for their manufacturers. Some details have leaked out, but many of the most interesting descriptions of improvements and enhancements will be disclosed only at the models' debut.
