U V U U U w 9W -W 7w -w- The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 Young blood at the Auto Show Magazine Editor: Jessica Vosgerchian Editor in Chief: Gary Graca Managing Editor: Courtney Ratkowiak Photo Editor:. Sam Wolson Multimedia Editor: David Azad Merian Junk Drawer: Brian Tengel Center spread design: Hillary Ruffe Cover photo: Sam Wolson The Statement is The Michigan Daily's news magazine, distributed every Wednesday during the academic year. about it. rule 172: If opting for library books over new edi- tions for class will help you buy a ticket to a warm Spring Break locale, you're warranted in doing so. - E-mail rule submissions to TheStatement@umich.edu By Andrew Grossman Daily Staff Writer PHOT A SOULFUL KIA Nowhere at Cobo is there a more overt and aggressive attempt at reaching young buyers than Kia's Soul'ster concept. Its based on the Soul, a small, cheap SUV that looks a bit like those boxy Scions. The people who designed the Soul seem to have bought into the idea that young people raised on Face- book and text messaging need to constantly express themselves, even through their cars. The Soul, like the Scion, will go to market along with an array of accessories like custom rims. Perhaps they're ' envisioning a gathering of SoulsK similar to the gathering of Sci- ons in that strange commercial in which hundreds of cars drive to the desert to hear a strange hood- ed man proclaim, "It is our differ- ences that bring us together." Kia Soul'ster TOYOTA: A STEP AHEAD Our generation's coming of car-buying age should be a cause for hope as automakers look toward an uncertain future. There were 63 million Americans between the ages of 10 and 24 in 2007, according to an estimate from the Cen- sus Bureau. But we are a generation uncomfortable with our parents' transportation, survey-takers and market-researchers say. Somewhere between South Park and Barack Obama, we apparently developed something of an ethical streak. We're concerned about the effects the Baby Boomers' Yukons and Tundras are having on the places they're named after. We're also a bit unsure whether we need automobiles at all. Automakers know that. The vehicles on display at the North American Inter- national Auto Show are smaller, more efficient and more connected than they were even a year ago. Here's what companies are doing to catch your eye. CHEVY: LIKE A... TREE? The plug-in hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt has become, in the minds of many, General s Motor's last and best hope. That's probably a bit of an exaggeration, but the company_. is putting a lot of resources into a car that it hopes will not only make money but also change its image from a slow, boring automaker into a smart, eco-conscious and fashionable one. Executives have said the Volt, which they hope to have in showrooms by 2010, will be to GM what the iPod was to Apple. GM designers seem to be trying to channel the iPod through the car's white plastic center console. Too bad Apple doesn't sell white plastic iPods anymore. Chevroletvolit FORD GETS IN SYNC The healthiest of the Ameri- can automakers unveiled a redesigned Taurus on Sunday. Remember the Taurus? That spaceship-like staple of corpo- rate and rental fleets that you crammed into along with your family on vacations? This is nothing like that. Ford's lineup is in the middle of a drastic makeover, and much of that is meant to make the brand more appealing to young people. The best example of this is Ford's Sync technology system. Before Sync, automakers only put things like navigation systems and voice-activated cell phones in high-end models. Ford puts Sync in all of its cars, something young people have told pollsters we really like. Ford says it's soon going to add support for "apps" - think iPhone - to Sync. Ford Sync system THE EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK with JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN A look at the big news events this week and how important they really are. Conveniently rated from one to 10. TWO YEARS FATALITY FREE For the first time in the history of the commercial jet, two consecutive years have passed without a single passenger death in a U.S. carrier crash. Arnold Barnett, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology profes- sor, estimated that it is now more likely for a child to become president than die in a plane crash. But the question is whether Barnett took Barack Obama's election into account. That statistic might be true for some, but what about a female child? A gay child? A Muslim child? Sorry, children, you're still statistically more likely to die ina plane crash. BAILOUT HOARDING The Independent Bank of Michigan is demonstratingthe problems with the Treasury Department's bailout plan. Having received $72 million so it can resume lending and jump start the economy, the com- munity bank is having a hard time finding trustworthy borrowers. After being hit by the consequences of bad investments, the bank is under- standably skiddish. But history shows what happens when institutions hoard needed resources in desperate times. Riot, anyone? 3 POOR JOHN KERRY Hillary Clinton spoke Tuesday with the Senate ForeignRelations Committee about what she planned to do as Secretary of State. Sen. John Kerry, who became chairman of the committee after being passed up for Secretary of State, said that he thought it was "counterproductive and almost incompre- hensible" that Washington wasn't more involved with negotiations in the Middle East. Clinton responded with one of President-elect Obama's well- used lines: the United States has one president at a time. In other words, Kerry, accept your chair and bite your tongue. It's over. You lost. According to one study by con- sulting firm AutoPacific, our gen- eration prefers Japanese cars to American ones. Half of us would consider buying a Toyota. Only 34 percent would consider buying a Chevrolet. That's in large part due to what Toyota has on dis- play in Detroit: small, affordable cars and small SUVs with a green shine. Toyota unveiled a new Prius, a word that has been almost synonymous with "hybrid" for the last few years. Before the car was revealed, it sat covered with a sheet featuring a cross-section of growing green grass along the bottom. Toyota's marketing cam- paign that features a Prius made of sticks and leaves isn't overtly targeting young people, and that's what makes it valuable. Still, it's an attempt to associate Toyota with a cause our generation cares IBM, MSU SITTING IN A TREE Michigan State University is to become home to an IBM center that will research new technologies, modernize dated systems for state and local governments and create up to 1,500 jobs within five years. If MSU is getting 9 - set up like that, we're bound to do better, right? Like when Pfizer left and another great company swooped right in ... er, or I mean, when the Univer- sity bought the abandoned Pfizer campus and announced exciting, promis- ing plans ... er, well, let's hope. The Toyota Camry about much more than our parents. Couple that with affordable, reasonably attractive-looking cars, our generation seems pretty inclined toward Toyota.