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CNN Live Sunday

North American Auto Show Highlights Concept Cars

Aired January 04, 2004 - 18:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: Well the 2004 North American Auto show is underway in Detroit. The worlds major automakers are scheduled to debut more than 60 production and concept vehicles including some from Chrysler, GM, and Toyota. Joining us from the show is our own Jeff Flock. Are you having fun out there or what?
JEFF FLOCK, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: It's always a fun time, and I'm not even a car person Sophia. But this will definitely get you the bug. You know, I've got something here that you've never seen before. This is a Honda truck. Well it's not really a truck. It's sort of a cross between a sport utility vehicle and a truck, and all sorts of other things. I'm going to show you this through the eyes of the man that designed it in just a moment.

But I want to show you some of those other introductions today. A very busy day as you pointed out. More than 15 productions. Let's start fast and furious. That is with a -- what they call a super sports car. Made by the folks at Chrysler. It is the ME412 (ph). Why is the 12? Well it's a 12-cylinder engine. It's essentially a car built around an engine, 248 miles an hour is how fast it goes. If you really need to go that fast. An 850 horsepower engine, amazing.

Toyota has a truck. Talk about the folks at Honda with a truck, the folks at Toyota with one too, called the FTX. It is hefty, big, massive kind of truck. And they say it's also possibly -- you know the folks at Toyota have the car of the year in the Toyota Prius, that is a hybrid. Both electric motor as well as gasoline engine in it. They want to make this Toyota FTX truck also a hybrid. That's a concept vehicle.

And lastly, the Chevy Nomad. Does this look familiar to you perhaps? It was the concept car back in the 1950's. And they're going to try it out again. It's a cross between a sedan, a wagon, and a sport utility vehicle. Speaking of crosses between things, Dave Merick (ph) who is the designer of Honda has always got something exciting. Could you decide what you were making here? What is this?

DAVE MERICK (ph), HONDA: Yes, sure. It's an S.U.T.

FLOCK: S.U.T.?

MERICK (ph): It is an S.U.T. Sport Utility Truck. It is a truck though mind you. It is a truck.

(CROSSTALK)

MERICK: So what we've done is, actually we've taken the best of Honda, and really researched the truck market. Who's going to buy this, what are they going to do?

FLOCK: Because you've never made a truck before?

MERICK: Well we've made S.U.V.'s.

FLOCK: S.U.V.'s.

MERICK: So consider it a truck, but their not really a truck.

FLOCK: Got you.

MERICK: So I think what we did is we took what Honda know how, which is a unibody, and you've noticed the exterior and style like a billet (ph).

Flock: Yes.

MERICK: So we took like this giant piece of aluminum and machined it. And what it does is the fact that it's unibody, you have no break between the cab and the bed.

FLOCK: It's all one solid...

MERICK: It's one solid piece.

FLOCK: And this thing looks like kind of a futuristic factory in here.

MERICK: It actually was designed with a fireman in mind.

FLOCK: Really? That's was your ideal ...

MERICK: That was our ideal buyer -- was a fireman with a family, has kids, who does a lot of activities on the weekends. So this is kind of the control area for the fireman. And then the kids are back here.

(CROSSTALK)

FLOCK: But room for kids.

MERICK: And there's total room for it. If you look back here, it's -- the unibody -- it (UNINTELLIBLE) to the flat floor. You have total usage back there. The seats fold up.

FLOCK: Yes, I'm looking in the bed here, and I'm even seeing -- what is that, speakers?

MERICK: Speakers, (UNINTELLIBLE) you know, the idea of this whole vehicle was actually to centergize (ph) Honda. So we have lots of other products. You know we do a motorcycle, we do S.U.V....

FLOCK: So you could put your motorcycle back here.

MERICK: We have Jet Ski, you have you're A.T.V. Everything goes back here. But you do a lot of activity back here. You know, it's washable (ph), but you want to be entertained. You've got night- lights, you've got the speakers, you've got everything.

FLOCK: You've got it all.

MERICK: There you go.

FLOCK: Always the pleasure.

MERICK: Thank you very much.

FLOCK: And once again Sophia, as we said, more than 50 different vehicles like this one out here. This will be going on today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. So stay tuned. If you didn't see something you like this hour, we'll be back with something you will no doubt.

MERICK: I'm sure they saw something they like.

CHOI: All right, I'm looking forward to the sports cars, so you'll have to show us that the next time.

FLOCK: Oh, you're a Mazaradi (ph) girl, no doubt.

CHOI: Jeff thanks. And we're coming right back.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 4, 2004 - 18:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: Well the 2004 North American Auto show is underway in Detroit. The worlds major automakers are scheduled to debut more than 60 production and concept vehicles including some from Chrysler, GM, and Toyota. Joining us from the show is our own Jeff Flock. Are you having fun out there or what?
JEFF FLOCK, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: It's always a fun time, and I'm not even a car person Sophia. But this will definitely get you the bug. You know, I've got something here that you've never seen before. This is a Honda truck. Well it's not really a truck. It's sort of a cross between a sport utility vehicle and a truck, and all sorts of other things. I'm going to show you this through the eyes of the man that designed it in just a moment.

But I want to show you some of those other introductions today. A very busy day as you pointed out. More than 15 productions. Let's start fast and furious. That is with a -- what they call a super sports car. Made by the folks at Chrysler. It is the ME412 (ph). Why is the 12? Well it's a 12-cylinder engine. It's essentially a car built around an engine, 248 miles an hour is how fast it goes. If you really need to go that fast. An 850 horsepower engine, amazing.

Toyota has a truck. Talk about the folks at Honda with a truck, the folks at Toyota with one too, called the FTX. It is hefty, big, massive kind of truck. And they say it's also possibly -- you know the folks at Toyota have the car of the year in the Toyota Prius, that is a hybrid. Both electric motor as well as gasoline engine in it. They want to make this Toyota FTX truck also a hybrid. That's a concept vehicle.

And lastly, the Chevy Nomad. Does this look familiar to you perhaps? It was the concept car back in the 1950's. And they're going to try it out again. It's a cross between a sedan, a wagon, and a sport utility vehicle. Speaking of crosses between things, Dave Merick (ph) who is the designer of Honda has always got something exciting. Could you decide what you were making here? What is this?

DAVE MERICK (ph), HONDA: Yes, sure. It's an S.U.T.

FLOCK: S.U.T.?

MERICK (ph): It is an S.U.T. Sport Utility Truck. It is a truck though mind you. It is a truck.

(CROSSTALK)

MERICK: So what we've done is, actually we've taken the best of Honda, and really researched the truck market. Who's going to buy this, what are they going to do?

FLOCK: Because you've never made a truck before?

MERICK: Well we've made S.U.V.'s.

FLOCK: S.U.V.'s.

MERICK: So consider it a truck, but their not really a truck.

FLOCK: Got you.

MERICK: So I think what we did is we took what Honda know how, which is a unibody, and you've noticed the exterior and style like a billet (ph).

Flock: Yes.

MERICK: So we took like this giant piece of aluminum and machined it. And what it does is the fact that it's unibody, you have no break between the cab and the bed.

FLOCK: It's all one solid...

MERICK: It's one solid piece.

FLOCK: And this thing looks like kind of a futuristic factory in here.

MERICK: It actually was designed with a fireman in mind.

FLOCK: Really? That's was your ideal ...

MERICK: That was our ideal buyer -- was a fireman with a family, has kids, who does a lot of activities on the weekends. So this is kind of the control area for the fireman. And then the kids are back here.

(CROSSTALK)

FLOCK: But room for kids.

MERICK: And there's total room for it. If you look back here, it's -- the unibody -- it (UNINTELLIBLE) to the flat floor. You have total usage back there. The seats fold up.

FLOCK: Yes, I'm looking in the bed here, and I'm even seeing -- what is that, speakers?

MERICK: Speakers, (UNINTELLIBLE) you know, the idea of this whole vehicle was actually to centergize (ph) Honda. So we have lots of other products. You know we do a motorcycle, we do S.U.V....

FLOCK: So you could put your motorcycle back here.

MERICK: We have Jet Ski, you have you're A.T.V. Everything goes back here. But you do a lot of activity back here. You know, it's washable (ph), but you want to be entertained. You've got night- lights, you've got the speakers, you've got everything.

FLOCK: You've got it all.

MERICK: There you go.

FLOCK: Always the pleasure.

MERICK: Thank you very much.

FLOCK: And once again Sophia, as we said, more than 50 different vehicles like this one out here. This will be going on today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. So stay tuned. If you didn't see something you like this hour, we'll be back with something you will no doubt.

MERICK: I'm sure they saw something they like.

CHOI: All right, I'm looking forward to the sports cars, so you'll have to show us that the next time.

FLOCK: Oh, you're a Mazaradi (ph) girl, no doubt.

CHOI: Jeff thanks. And we're coming right back.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com