New York Auto Show: Vote for Chevy

On April 4 at the 2007 New York Auto Show in Jacob Javitz Center GM unveiled three small, edgy concepts from Chevrolet. Stage dancers, blonde triplets, and a dubious MC were all part of the mix in what can only be described as a media menagerie for Chevy Groove, Beat, and Trax.

All three cars, designed by the South Korean Daeawoo division are based on GM's global mini car platform and intended to target primarily young urban car buyers. Despite the promotional blitz of overcompensating marketing phrases like the "urban grunge", micro cars themselves are quite appealing. Each with its own unique personality, Groove, Beat, and Trax show a clear break from the traditional "Chevy look". People can also vote for their favorite Chevy concept at vote4chevrolet.com. The website is a direct pipeline to potential buyers and will go a long way to determining which of the concepts will be put to production first.

General Motors' head of global design Ed Welburn presented the trio by saying that small cars can too be "cool, bold, stylish, and fun". Of course these statements are self-evident to most Europeans, who have always paid much more at the pump than Americans. Even Robert Lutz, the vice chairman of GM acknowledged that "83 percent of sales outside of North America were cars, not trucks". What Lutz forgot to mention was that these cars are mostly compacts that GM has been selling abroad with great success for a couple of decades - high quality, agile micro cars that are just like the new Chevy threesome.