With Los Angeles moving to the front of the order in this year’s domestic auto show calendar, it was thought New York might lose a bit of its luster as a result. But on the strength of numerous strong concept and production introductions, Gotham more than held its own.

CHEVROLET MINICAR TRIO CONCEPTS

In recent years, General Motors has taken a good amount of flack for failing to develop competitive global small cars. The hue and cry has grown louder of late in light of rising fuel prices and growing environmental concerns, to say nothing of an ever-increasing number of quality offerings from Asia. It appears the General has taken this criticism to heart, however. GM took advantage of New York City’s bully pulpit to present a trio of Chevrolet minicar concepts, the Beat, Trax, and Groove, each with its own take on the genre.

While GM is asking people to help it decide which of the three cars to build by voting on a dedicated website (www. vote4chevrolet.com), we can’t help but wonder if the company’s mind is already made up. After all, the Beat (seen here in green) appears to be a development of the styling language advanced in Chevrolet’s WTCC Ultra touring car concept, a pugnacious minicar that debuted at Paris last September. It also looks to be further along in development, as it was the only one of the three that was presented with an interior—the others simply had smoked windows.

If our supposition is correct, we won’t be upset, as the Beat is easily the sportiest of the three vehicles—and not just aesthetically. The front-drive three-door incorporates a 1.2-liter turbocharged engine (the largest powerplant of the group), and it’s the only one that takes advantage of forced induction.

On the other hand, the Trax (copper) looks pretty compelling, too, with its urban soft-roader styling and friendly round-light face. Powered by a 1.0-liter gasoline engine, if sold in the U.S. it would represent a segment of one, which is often a powerful position from which to operate.

GM’s third concept, the Groove (black) is a chunky five-door that is reminiscent of a downsized Scion xD, or perhaps a shrunken HHR. This Chevy gets its front-drive Groove on courtesy of a 1.0-liter diesel, and its boxy, bulldog styling seems to be going over well with web-spotters. As of this writing, this concept has garnered the most votes on the company’s website, maintaining a narrow lead over the Beat.

INFINITI EX CONCEPT

We spent a good amount of time crawling in and around this comely concept, which Infiniti says will see production as a 2008 model. And while it may look similar to Infiniti’s voluptuous FX soft-roaders, we’ve been assured by company sources that when it goes on sale as the EX35 this fall, it won’t be a direct replacement.

Based on the automaker’s corporate FM platform, the EX Concept’s proportions dictated that its wheelbase be shortened to 112 inches, and the rear multilink suspension’s architecture is reworked to maximize cargo space.

Powered by a V-6 engine (we’re guessing it’s the G37’s 3.7-liter) paired with a five-speed automatic and all-wheel drive, the EX promises a sporting drive and foul-weather dependability.

The coupe-like roofline lends the crossover a sporty bent, but the real story lies in the innovative technologies beneath its skin. The vehicle boasts a new system called Around View Monitor. AVM stitches together real-time images taken from tiny video cameras and creates a composite overhead view of the vehicle’s surroundings, which makes parallel parking easy as pie.

Other bits of gee-whiz silicon-ry include Infiniti’s next-generation Lane Departure Prevention system, which not only warns drivers when they’re drifting out of a given lane, but also activates each of the vehicle’s brakes as necessary to shepherd it back on course.

Infiniti promises both AVM and Lane Departure Prevention will be available in the production EX.

2009 FORD FLEX

Ford was one of the few manufacturers to successfully embargo a vehicle for New York, as its 2009 Flex full-size crossover wasn’t splashed all over the Internet prior to its rollout at the show.

Slated to go on sale next summer, the unusually styled people mover has available seating for seven and will offer novel interior options like second-row footrests and a refrigerator. Having recently abandoned the minivan segment, and struggling to sell its Freestyle (soon-to-be Taurus X), Ford desperately needs the Flex to score big with consumers.

Which is why it’s good that its squared-off flanks are visually interesting. Incorporating Ford’s trademark flat-band grille along with scalloped side panels, the Flex is neither fish nor fowl, minivan nor wagon. The greenhouse’s blacked-out motif draws attention to the floating roofline. Standard eighteen-inch wheels and tires keep the Flex planted both visually and physically, and nineteen-inchers will be available.

Powered by Ford’s 3.5-liter V-6 yoked to a six-speed automatic, the drivetrain is expected to produce in excess of 260 horsepower and 245 pound-feet. With available all-wheel drive, the vehicle should provide plenty of family-friendly poor-weather security.

2008 MERCEDES-BENZ CLK63 AMG BLACK SERIES

New York is a natural spot for high-end unveilings, and Mercedes took advantage of that to show off the blistered flanks of its CLK63 AMG Black Series.

Designed to mark forty years of AMG high-performance vehicles, the muscular coupe is essentially a street version of Benz’s Formula 1 Safety Car. Incorporating a 6.3-liter V-8 churning out 500 horsepower, the car will reach 60 miles per hour in 4.1 seconds, accelerating until it bumps its 186-mph governor.

The Black Series car can be identified by its carbon-fiber flared fenders filled with larger, staggered-width wheels and tires. Nineteen-inch AMG forged aluminum wheels shod with Pirelli PZero Corsa tires hide larger composite disc brakes beneath.

The AMG coupe gets a new apron up front featuring carbon cooling air intakes under the bumper and lateral air outlets in the fenders. A larger radiator and a second transmission oil cooler receive air via added ducting. The side skirts are redesigned, and lead to flared rear fenders and a new rear apron with carbon-fiber air diffuser fins that should provide lesser vehicles with a visually impactful parting shot.

Other F1-influenced touches include close-cropped carbon-fiber buckets and a smaller-diameter steering wheel.

2008 FORD SHELBY GT500KR

Ford’s Mustang stable grows bigger by the day, with the latest foal to come aboard dubbed the Shelby GT500KR.

Based on the already-stonking GT500, this flagship model celebrates the fortieth anniversary of Carroll Shelby’s “King of the Road” cars with a more powerful variant of the supercharged 5.4-liter V-8. The hardtop-only model will see 540 horsepower and 510 pound-feet of torque find their way into the hands of 1000 fortunate customers.

The KR possesses other bits that will be available through Ford’s performance catalogs, ostensibly to owners of lesser Mustangs. In addition to a Ford Racing Power Upgrade Pack, the car receives a short-throw shifter, low-restriction exhaust, sexy Shelby KR-style carbon-fiber hood, strut tower brace, and so on.

Brakes carry over from the GT500 (save the addition of some cooling ducts), but the suspension gets a host of upgrades, including revised springs, dampers, and stabilizer bars. The new bits will be shrouded by Shelby-designed eighteen-inch GT500KR alloys, although the car seen here rests on twenty-inchers.

The car’s price has not been announced, but it’s reasonable to assume it will command around $50,000 before dealer markups.

2008 SUBARU WRX

Unveiling the successor to an automotive icon is no mean feat. In fact, it’s seemingly an un-winnable battle, no matter how great the follow-up actually is. That harsh reality is even more true now that the freewheeling Internet has come to town, flaunting its unchecked appetite for embargo breaks, rumor-mongering, and general muckraking.

Just ask Subaru, whose PR department has doubtlessly been ingesting Maalox by the institutionsized bottleful since late March, when premature snapshots of the 2008 WRX leaked onto the web in advance of the car’s New York unveiling. Things did not, as they say, go as planned.

When grainy shots of a rather anonymous-looking five-door with a smear of brightwork across its face and aftermarket-look taillamps surfaced on the Internet, enthusiast forums queued up to dissect and deride it, with some even suggesting the shots were in fact ill-rendered Photoshop fantasies. Admittedly, early images weren’t the best, but the vehicle pictured therein was indeed the real McCoy, Subaru’s five-door WRX.

Months worth of spy shots depicting heavily camouflaged mules couldn’t (and didn’t) prepare enthusiasts for the 2008 car’s significantly more organic shape. Riding on an all-new platform with a 3.7-inch-longer wheelbase, the car’s shape has definitely been matured by Subaru’s designers, who buffed out many of the previous-generation’s blistered edges. Away went the muscularly flared fenders. So, too, its form-follows-function mailbox-lid hood scoop (replaced by a more smoothly integrated aperture) and the gaping maw of a lower air inlet (binned in favor of a much more timid front fascia). Despite wearing seventeen-inch wheels and an aggressive-looking rear diffuser, armchair stylists lambasted its softer appearance, likening the new WRX to Kia’s Spectra5, or perhaps more charitably to the Mazda3.

It didn’t help matters that hatchback-averse U.S. enthusiasts weren’t altogether clear that they’d be offered a sedan variant (they will), as rumors had the WRX switching to a hatchback format globally. Photographs of the U.S.-only sedan hadn’t filtered in yet, and from the sketchy early reports that accompanied the first photos, it didn’t appear the new model would offer any meaningful powertrain changes.

Had Subaru quickly marshaled its resources and opened the informational floodgates to reveal additional images and specifications, mutinous WRX loyalists may just have been stayed. After all, few would have considered the brash-looking 2002-07 model to be beautiful—menacing or purposeful, perhaps, but certainly not beautiful. So it’s easy to understand how Fuji Heavy’s crew might fail to quantify the importance of all this cyber hand-wringing, especially when the old WRX transcended its divisive appearance to shine brightly as Subaru’s hero car.

Perhaps if it had been made immediately clear that the new car’s 2.5-liter flat-four whips up the same 224 turbocharged horsepower and its engine is fifty pounds lighter (and possesses a 226 pound-foot torque peak that arrives 800 clicks lower on the tachometer), a few diehards might’ve laid down their pitchforks. Perhaps if the critics were privy to clear shots of the new car’s dramatically enhanced interior (including its available sat-nav and infinitely richer materials), fewer torches would’ve been lit. And perhaps if those same firebrands were made aware the engine now sits ten millimeters lower, cradled in a 185 percent stiffer chassis, they might’ve called off the dogs. Sadly for Team Subaru, the story didn’t quite unfold that way.

Aesthetic misgivings aside, the 2008 WRX looks to be a convincing steer. According to officials, its substantially stiffer structure allows for the new car to boast higher handling limits, despite utilizing more compliant suspension settings. In other words, a would-be owner won’t need a kidney belt on pockmarked roads, yet can remain safe in the knowledge that his car handles better than his neighbor’s 2007 model. Subaru has fitted a new double-wishbone rear suspension, with lower pick-up points to maximize cargo space while providing a smoother ride, and this WRX cribs the old STi’s quicker 15.0:1 steering ratio, which should keep the longer chassis from feeling inert.

And with its substantially increased room and interior livability, enthusiasts not only have a more hospitable commuting environ, they have also got a significantly better shot at slipping a WRX past their spouse under the aegis that it’s solid family transportation—not an easy task. If the added lebensraum and accoutrements aren’t enough to accomplish this, the car’s augmented airbag count (six, including seat-resident thorax pyrotechnics and side curtains), active head restraints, and newly available Vehicle Dynamics Control system should help.

Subaru did manage to keep a lid on the WRX sedan until its New York debut, and while it could scarcely be called pretty either, it offers a more traditional rear-end treatment, along with improved accommodations. The new four-door is a full 4.5 inches longer than the outgoing model, shadowing the new five-door by a massive 6.5 inches. That means the hatchback isn’t the only one to gain meaningful utility.

Naturally, we won’t be fully convinced of the new WRX’s merits until we can muster our best Petter Solberg opposite-lock imitation on a suitably meandering and dusty stretch, but we’re willing to overlook the emperor’s new clothes for the moment on the promise of a better drive.

Just in case, however, we might have a word with the folks at Subaru communications before they roll out the STi.