NAIAS Highlights

By Budd Stanley, photos courtesy of Ford, Volvo, Nissan, Honda and VW

Showcasing the best 4WD’s to show up in Detroit

The NAIAS (North American international Auto Show) highlights some of the auto industries hottest new vehicles. Last year produced a bumper crop of off-road focused 4WD’s, and while there was only a couple real production ready 4WD’s on show for the 2016 edition, there was still lots of off-road eye candy to be found.

If the NAIAS is any indicator of the state of the 4WD market, and it usually is, it is looking like a fairly bright future for years to come for those who want vehicles that send power to all four wheels. There were a couple very cool off-road concepts that received many “ooohs” and “ahhhhhs,” but lets start with the machines coming to showroom near you.

North American Truck/Utility of the Year

As always, the NAIAS starts with two rather important awards, the official 2016 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year Awards. Fifty-three automotive journalists from the United States and Canada voted from a list of five finalist vehicles, based on factors including innovation, comfort, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value for the dollar.

The finalists for the Truck/Utility award included the Honda Pilot, Nissan Titan XD and the Volvo XC90. While we were silently hopeful that the more traditional 4WD – the Nissan Titan XD – would bring home the award, there was just no faulting the design, performance and technical innovations of the Volvo XC90, earning the Swedish brand the top spot with nearly two-thirds of the votes. We wonder how well it does off-road?

Ford Raptor

Ford surprised us at the 2015 NAIAS with the next generation Raptor, and there is little to report about the highly anticipated 2017 desert racer. However, Ford did roll another Raptor out on stage this year, letting us know that there will be a full SuperCrew version to go along with its SuperCab sibling.

Major upgrades to the 2017 Raptor (from its 2014 equivalent) include the F-150’s new aluminum body that will drop the dry weight by 227 kg (500 lb), and the big change - Ford is kicking the 6.2L V-8 to the curb, in exchange for a special, high-output, 3.5L EcoBoost V-6. Ford is holding the new engine figures pretty close to their chest, but we’re thinking it will have a lot in common with the unit powering the next generation Ford GT, which means we could be looking at close to 600 hp. That's quite a bit more than the outgoing 6.2L.

Making sense of all that power will be a gearbox with many, many gears. Not six , not eight, not nine, but ten separate cogs that can be engaged via paddle shifters on the steering wheel. We also hear that the bespoke Fox Racing Shocks will be larger and will produce even greater travel compared to the last generation. Can anyone say 4WD supercar?

What you see here is the production version of the 2017 Ford Raptor that will be hitting trails in the late fall of 2016, hopefully we get our chance to wring its neck slightly sooner than that.

Honda Ridgeline

Yeah, the name Honda does not get a whole lot of recognition in these pages, but with the appearance of the second generation Ridgeline, we couldn’t help but take a look at what Honda plans to do to make the Ridgeline more popular with traditional truck buyers.

One obvious change is the more traditional truck design, doing away with the sloping D-pillar and bed rails. Storage will be increased both inside and out, with a rear bed that is 4-in longer than the outgoing Ridgeline and will be the widest of any mid-size pickup at 1,219 mm (4 ft). Honda also claim it will also be able to haul 726 kg (1,600 lb). There is even an “industry's first in-bed audio system” that will offer an integrated eight-speaker sound system in the bed tied directly to the in-cab, high-output radio. Should be popular among tailgaters.

Honda was really sticking to its guns when they tried very hard to sell the whole unibody pickup theory, stating better driving dynamics, ride quality, interior space and comfort, and segment leading fuel efficiency. Although we never heard any solid numbers regarding fuel efficiency.

The new Ridgeline will continue to offer its unique, In-Bed Trunk at the rear of the bed that houses the spare tire, tools and gobs of storage space. Likewise, the Ridgeline will continue to offer its segment-exclusive dual-action open/close tailgate to access the bed, providing drop-down and swing-out options.

Powering the new Ridgeline will be an all-aluminum 3.5L i-VTEC direct-injection SOHC V-6 engine similar to that found in the Honda Pilot. The Pilot boasts 280 hp at 6,000 rpm and 262 lb-ft at 4,700 rpm. The Ridgeline will also receive a new six-speed transmission and the torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive system called i-VTM4. The "all-weather" all-wheel-drive system will feature Intelligent Terrain Management that uses Normal, Sand, Snow and Mud modes to increase traction.

Expect the 2017 Ridgeline to hit dealerships later this summer.

Nissan Titan Warrior Concept

From production vehicles we now jump into the dream world of concept cars, or in this case, trucks. We are living in a golden age of hardcore off-road focused limited editions coming from manufacturers. The slightly less impressive Toyota Tundra TRD PRO-Series and GMC Sierra All Terrain X will soon join the Raptor, Power Wagon and Rebel as steroid pumped up off-road specialists the customer can buy from the dealership.

However, we’re missing one of the obvious truck makers – Nissan. While the Titan XD PRO-4X is a decent off-roader, it’s just not the trail-pounding monster that Ford and Ram are putting out.

Enter the Nissan Titan Warrior concept, the warrior designed to slay those “trail-pounding monsters” that have already gone to market. Although at this time it is merely a design exercise, meant to showcase the Titan’s alternate personality.

What you see before you is a Titan XD that has been pushed to the boundaries. The Warrior has a 3-in taller stance thanks to a custom suspension that incorporates thicker and wider upper and lower control arms. All four corners are outfitted with high-performance remote reservoir shock absorbers and 37-in Pro Comp Xtreme mud-terrain tires wrapped around 18-inch aluminum wheels.

This isn’t just a sum of bolt on parts. Nissan has put a lot of work into the design as a whole, delving even deeper into the Titan mask influence that helped design the XD. The entire front fascia has been redesigned making use of LED lighting, both in the headlights and up in pods mounted to the roof. Massive fender flares help hide the 37-in Pro Comps and the whole package gets a healthy dose of underbody protection.

If we had our way, we couldn’t tell Nissan to build this fast enough. Unfortunately, as we mentioned, this is just a concept, however concepts have been known to sometimes become reality.

VW Tiguan GTE Active Concept

We’re not quite sure what is happening to us, whether we’ve been drinking too many daiquiri’s or getting sucked into watching too many doctor dramas by our wives, but the trend of ruggedizing Cute Utes is starting to grow on us. We love to laugh at the masses of cute little soccer mom mobiles that manufacturers are pumping out by the millions, that don’t even require AWD. But what if you put some meaty mud terrains on one, perhaps an expedition basket or dare we say a metal winch bumper?

At NAIAS, VW answered that question for us. Yeah, it doesn’t have the metal winch bumper, but the Tiguan GTE Concept most definitely turned our heads and grabbed our attention. Does anyone out there remember the VW Golf Country? What we have here is the modern day equivalent. VW has taken a vehicle that has no place being anywhere near a dirt road and pumped it up with some minor but effective trail enhancements.

What they did was take the next generation Tiguan and fit some 245/70R16 (call it 30-in) BFG’s under the fenders giving it an added 2-in of ground clearance. With the help of some unique bumpers, VW managed to up the approach angle to 25.6-degrees and a departure angle of 26.1-degrees (very nice, getting into Range Rover Evoque territory) . Bumpers are also integrated with skid plating that covers the entire underbody of the Tiguan. VW’s 4MOTION all-wheel-drive system has also been updated to handle the extra punishment required when taking a CUV off-road. Like the Nissan Warrior, the Tiguan GTE features LED light pods molded into the roof to help light the trail. Guess that is also a trend starting to take hold.

I don’t know, are we getting soft? Because it looks really cool.