Automakers deepened their benches at the 2017 New York auto show with a long line of performance and luxury offerings.
Sadly, this year's show lacked big surprises—who couldn't see the 2018 Jeep Trackhawk in the tea leaves? Conversely, this year's show also lacked any big flops—unless you're counting the suspicious no-show of any electrified Land Rover, Range Rover, or Jaguar product.
In the land of equals, some were more equal than others. Here's a short list of what we liked at the show and what we would have liked to see.
Hits
2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk
Yesterday's news could even see the Jeep Trackhawk coming. The eventual marriage of the Hellcat engine with Jeep's most popular model was a long time coming, and one that we knew would arrive this year at the show. Still, seeing the Trackhawk blitz a dyno on stage and hearing its throaty roar in person excited our editors who couldn't stop drooling over the fastest Jeep ever. Hey, what's the Ram 1500 up to these days?
2017 Nissan GT-R Track Edition, 2017 New York auto show
2. 2017 Nissan GT-R Track Edition
By definition, the 2017 Nissan GT-R Track Edition is just a variant of a car released last year—and a refresh at that. Nissan didn't show us anything groundbreaking in the GT-R Track Edition, but what we saw was an inch-perfect interpretation of what the GT-R needed now: a middle entry to split the base 565-horsepower Premium and ultra-hard 600-hp Nismo versions of the car. It may be a page out of the Chevy Corvette playbook, but we think it's the right call. And like the Grand Sport, we're betting the Track Edition is just brilliant.
2018 Mercedes-AMG GLC63 and GLC63 Coupe
Mercedes has a good reputation for bringing SUVs with bad intentions into the portfolio and the 2018 Mercedes-AMG GLC63 is the latest, meanest yet. The 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 planted into the snout of the GLC-Class follows a lead that the ML63 and R63 set—big motors stuffed into bizarre bodies. That the GLC63 can run up to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds isn't what impresses us most, it's the rear axle from the E63 sedan planted in back of the GLC63 that should be sublime.
2018 Lincoln Navigator, 2017 New York auto show
Editors were mixed on the new flagship SUV's face, but we universally agreed that the 2018 Lincoln Navigator's interior made up for it—and more. The sumptuous confines of the big truck's back seat should be enough to sway many buyers into the Lincoln fold, and the luxury automaker needs to make a big impression to rejuvenate the brand. Did we mention that the new Navigator has a grille big enough for its own area code? That should help make that big impression.
2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, 2017 New York auto show
5. 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon
How do you top the Hellcat? Start with the best name for a coupe in the business. An 840-hp street-legal coupe backed by a factory warranty is more exciting to us than Power Wheels to a 5-year-old. It's hard to believe that the Demon is rated to wheelie in stock configuration by nearly 3 feet and to pull nearly 2 g at takeoff. It's even harder to believe that buyers will be fully emotionally matured adults. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) This is one for the history books, folks.
Misses
2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, 2017 New York auto show
Yep, the biggest star of the New York auto show may burn the fastest and leave a black hole for Dodge. Does the world need a drag-rated street machine? Who would choose to live with a car like this? And what's next for the Challenger/Charger, which is quickly approaching the end of its practical life with no real replacement in sight for a flagging automaker? These are big questions for an automaker that has done a very good job of distracting critics with its mega-horsepower numbers.
2018 Lexus LS 500 F-Sport, 2017 New York auto show
Lexus has long offered a "sporty" variant of its flagship sedan, but we've always wondered why? The updated sedan barely broke cover last year and Lexus seems keen to run out the usual suspects of model variants on its good looking LS. That behavior is par for the course, but we can't help but ask for something different. The looks of the LS and LC were such exciting design departures for the once-banal brand that we we held out hope for a rethink of trim variants. (See Inscription, Volvo.)
2018 Infiniti QX80 Monograph concept, 2017 New York auto show
The only concept on our list is one that we were hoping would have signaled a better start for Infiniti's updated SUV range. From the outside, it's clear that the QX80 Monograph concept is far from ready and the big luxury SUV from Infiniti needed an update yesterday. Their design study is a little muddled, by our eye. We can see a future in some elements, but the strong resemblance to the current QX80 that's on sale today is living in the past. We hope that Infiniti pushes further ahead soon.
2018 Buick Enclave Avenir, 2017 New York auto show
The new Enclave may go a long way in helping better define a busy Buick brand, but it also underscores our current frustrations with the premium automaker. Buick used the Enclave to launch its "Avenir" sub-brand—a carbon copy of Denali for GMC. In French "avenir" means "future," but Buick's future was more exciting when it was called Avista and Avenir—and we mean the concept cars. Both of those have no future in the brand and that's a shame.
