Jay Grossman

hometownlife.com

Meet Joe Wiesenfelder, the car guy.

Wiesenfelder is executive editor of cars.com and has been covering the automotive industry for more than 25 years. With the 2016 North American International Auto Show about to roll into the town, the Birmingham Eccentric decided it was time to gear up and talk some shop with an industry expert.

Keeping his eyes on the road and his hand upon the wheel, here’s what Wiesenfelder shared about the wonderful world of metal and chrome, muscle and elegance:

Q: What’s the state of the domestic auto market heading into 2016?

Wiesenfelder: The market is remarkably strong, with almost 17.5 million new cars sold in 2015 – a record. The industry has now bounced back fully from the crash of 2008 and the resulting recession. The return of credit and leasing options — which dried up after the 2008 credit crisis — have combined with pent-up demand to drive steady growth year after year. The low fuel prices have definitely played a big part.

Q: It’s my first time attending the Detroit auto show ... how should I approach it?

Wiesenfelder: With comfortable shoes! If you’re attending just to see some new cars, just dive right in.

If you’re in the market for a new vehicle, auto shows are a great opportunity to compare competing models. If you think about it, new car dealerships are usually designed to show you one brand, but at an auto show the new Chevy Malibu is literally a few paces away from the latest Toyota Camry. Even if you aren’t driving the cars, you can compare, say, the backseat space of one after another. Side-by-side comparisons are invaluable.

Q: Are any of the companies planning to preview autonomous cars at the show?

Wiesenfelder: I wouldn’t expect full autonomy from real cars you can buy any time soon, but I do expect to see more semi-autonomous features rolled out. These features — like lane-departure prevention and forward collision avoidance — are the building blocks to eventual full autonomy and many automakers already offer them.

Many industry watchers are predicting the year 2020 for full autonomy, but that will depend on regulations, liability issues and how effective the tech proves to be. One high-profile failure could be a major setback to the whole movement.

Tesla recently enabled a feature called Autopilot that provides more hands-free functionality than we’ve seen, which is sure to pressure competitors to act faster.

Plus, Volvo is introducing an advanced version of the company’s semi-autonomous Pilot Assist software on the all-new Volvo S90 sedan and making it standard on all S90s sold in the U.S. The Volvo S90 will be the first car in the U.S. that makes semi-autonomous technology standard.

Q: Will lower gas prices at the pump impact sales at the showroom?

Wiesenfelder: Fuel prices always affect sales and low fuel prices do so more than any — essentially because they represent more cash in your pocket.

Some of the sales growth we’ve seen in the past couple of years has come from the effect of cheap gas on consumer spending power. The price of fuel always influences what consumers buy, as well as how much they can spend, and low gas prices have created a boom in pickup truck and SUV sales. Though car sales have grown steadily, they’re nowhere near what we’ve seen with larger vehicles. This makes the automakers very happy, because profit margins are bigger on bigger vehicles.

Q: What features are millennials looking for in purchasing a new car?

Wiesenfelder: There’s a common perception that millennials are vastly different from young buyers of any era and I believe that’s overblown, but there does seem to be more interest in technology and environmental friendliness. Electric cars and hybrids seem to appeal for these reasons.

But it also stands to reason that the smart phone generation is more interested in how their devices interface with their cars than would be, for example, my father, who still has a flip phone that spends more time turned off than on. Regardless of the vehicle type, millennials will be more interested in features like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which bring some phone functionality into the dashboard. And if it’s a function like navigation that they don’t have to pay extra for, as is otherwise the case in cars, all the better.

Q: Which vehicle are you looking forward to seeing at the show – and why?

Wiesenfelder: Well, there are a few, mainly for geeky car journalist reasons. Honda is re-introducing the Ridgeline pickup truck, which was sold from 2006-14 and never redesigned in that time. The Ridgeline was always an innovative package, but it made even less of a dent in domestic-brand pickup dominance than the other Japanese manufacturers have. I’m interested to see what Honda has done with this new one.

Hyundai will debut the first model under its new luxury brand (named Genesis, which has been the name of one of its luxury cars). After years of selling luxury-appointed vehicles, the company is making it official with a flagship sedan called the G90. Hyundai is doing excellent work and, frankly, its luxury models have been pretty luxurious already, so I’m curious to see if this car will be even more of a statement of what the Genesis brand represents.

I also want to see the Buick Envision SUV up close. It’s a Buick built and currently sold in China that will be added to the U.S. lineup between the tiny Encore and giant Enclave. GM already sells models of roughly this size in the form of the Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain, so one wonders why they’re bringing in a separate, China-built model.

jgrossman@hometownlife.com

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Twitter: @BhmEccentric