Cars of the future

"There seem to be different kinds of concept cars," says Joe Wiesenfelder, auto reviewer for Cars.com, just back from the 2005 Detroit Auto Show. "There are the futuristic ones that might find their way into production some day ... They don't look like anything you'd see on the street. Then, there's the more realistic production-intent concept."

The production-intent concept is one that an automaker is likely to produce in the next model year, he said, but the automaker doesn't "want to call it the 2006 whatever" because the company might want to tweak the car or even throw out the design that's being previewed.

Which one is the real car of the future depends on your point of view. The production-intent concept is one that people very likely will be driving in the near future, Wiesenfelder says, but the far-out concepts may see production some day or may provide innovations that will be used even if that particular model is never produced.

The Chrysler PT Cruiser and the Dodge Viper were once just concept cars. "That automakers took these fanciful designs and turned them into real production models is still remarkable," he says.

So what's in store?

Saturn Aura Click image for larger view

On the production-intent side at the 2005 auto show was the Saturn Aura. "It's Saturn's new midsize sedan for 2006," Wiesenfelder says, on a par with the Chevy Malibu.

On the other end of the spectrum was the Jeep Hurricane, which can crab-walk and spin on its axis, he says.

"It looks like a giant radio-controlled dune buggy, with giant wheels and tires, and a Hemi V8 in the front and one in the back," he says.

"Jeep's gotten a bit of a black eye because of the Hummer using its military background to position itself as the ultimate off-road vehicle," Wiesenfelder says. "They're trying to get some of the attention that Hummer took away. Well, the Hurricane caught people's attention."

The vehicle can go sideways because each wheel can be steered independently, a nice feature for off-roading. In fact, this feature can be used to turn the vehicle around on its axis, with no steering radius.

Jeep Hurricane Click image for larger view

The practical application? Imagine driving up a narrow path with a steep rock wall on one side and a sheer drop on the other and you come to a spot where you can no longer move forward. In other vehicles, you have to back down the path because there's no room to turn around. The Hurricane always has room to turn around.

However, "Jeep wouldn't build something quite like this," Wiesenfelder says. "But there's some interesting features in there that might be on production models some day."

Although gas-fueled power is all the rage in many of the concept "supercars," such as the 1,000-horsepower Sixteen that Cadillac introduced in 2003, today's hybrid cars are just a hint of the future, says Bob Golfen, auto reviewer at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix.

"The hybrids use a small gas engine with an electric motor," Golfen says. These cars boast better fuel efficiency, lower emissions and increasingly better performance.

In fact, the Toyota Prius and Honda's Insight have been successful enough that nine new models of gas-electric hybrids are expected this year, including a hybrid Toyota Highlander and the Lexus RX500H (the H stands for "hybrid") SUV, as well as a Ford Escape hybrid and a comparable Mercury model, Golfen says.

A hybrid Honda Accord is expected to be "a performance car," Golfen says. "It uses the electric motor almost like a turbocharger," getting much higher horsepower out of the engine than the 76 horsepower in the Insight, he says. (Turbochargers increase the power of an engine without significantly increasing its weight.)

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