Chevy Tahoe on 2040-cars

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Thanks for keeping us on our toes, Detroit Auto Show [w/poll]

Here at Autoblog, we love unexpected debuts at auto shows – and judging by our Detroit Auto Show comments and traffic, you do, too. Surprise reveals have been fewer and farther between in recent years with so many ways for vehicles to be teased or leak out, but this week's show has been a revelation. More to the point, it's been a series of revelations, with automakers from around the globe successfully delivering a brace of concept and production surprises. It's made our jobs a lot more exciting and challenging this week, and even though it's actually more work to react and run-and-gun when the sheet is pulled on a surprise reveal than it is to publish an already-written embargoed story, we've had more fun covering this show for you than any domestic show in memory. We hope you've enjoyed the surprises along with us. To that end, borrowing the words of an unnamed automaker PR flack, we'd like to thank the following automakers for enduring "mountain of antacids" and that "creeping sense of paranoia" necessary to keeping ones' wares totally under wraps until the sheets are pulled off the sheetmetal: Buick Avenir concept Chevrolet Bolt concept Ford GT concept Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Hyundai HCD-15 Santa Cruz concept And while we're at it, we'd like to throw in an shout-out to Detroit's substantially revised and revitalized Cobo Center, and in particular, the redone Michelin media center, which is arguably the single best accommodations for writing show stories that we've encountered on the entire international circuit. Well done, everyone. Thank you, and keep the surprises coming. Auto News Detroit Auto Show Buick Chevrolet Ford Hyundai Volvo 2015 Detroit Auto Show

Brief website update hints 2016 Chevy Volt will get 43 mpg, 106 MPGe

Customers in California can already order the 2016 Chevrolet Volt and be the first to own the new, range-extended EV in August. It appears there's now a possibility that buyers of the updated model might get slightly better economy than Chevy's initial announcement from the 2015 Detroit Auto Show in January, too. According to the eagle-eyed folks at GM-Volt.com, Chevy has been subtly tweaking the spec page for the 2016 Volt. It briefly showed the model getting 43 miles per gallon combined fuel economy and 106 mpge, rather than the originally released figures of 41 mpg and 102 mpge. Shortly afterward, the internal-combustion mileage returned to 41 mpg, but 106 mpge remained. A GM spokesperson told Hybrid Cars the changes happened by mistake. "We have not finalized numbers yet. We expect to announce in July." The economy isn't the only statistic to see an adjustment, though. The total range was reportedly briefly shown as 420 miles, and then returned to a 430-mile rating, according to Hybrid Cars. The Volt's output has also been slightly tweaked from the original figures. It's now displayed as 150 horsepower and 293 pound-feet of torque, versus the preliminary numbers of 149 hp and 294 lb-ft. These tiny changes likely have a negligible impact on real-world driving, but they suggest that Chevy's team is still working to squeeze as much as possible from the latest Volt's powertrain. If the final figures are coming in July, then the engineers still have just a few weeks to improve the ratings even more.

See all seven colors available on 2016 Chevy Volt

General Motors has been happy to promote the 2016 Chevy Volt in the shiny blue color. On the company's website for the car, though, we can find all seven exterior colors, thanks to the magic of digital technology. We went through the site and played around with the option picker and put together a gallery of all the colors the new Volt will be available in as well as the five interior options. For the record, the exterior colors are: Kinetic Blue Metallic, Iridescent Pearl Tricoat, Summit White, Silver Ice Metallic, Mosaic Black Metallic, Siren Red Tintcoat, Heather Grey Metallic. You'll be forgiven if you can't quite tell the difference between the Pearl and the White in these images, but both colors have been available on the 2015 model year Volt. GM spokesperson Michelle Malcho told AutoblogGreen that buyers do have a preference, with Pearl accounting for 10 percent of the sales and Summit White accounted for 17 percent. The Pearl color is a tri-coat and thus has a $995 price premium, which was likely a factor as well. The interior of the new Volt will have two cloth options (Dark Ash and Jet Black) and three leather choices (Dark Ash, Jet Black, and Jet Black/Brandy). That last one will only be available in the LTZ trim level. You can play around with the color adjuster yourself here. Kathy Sirvio, the color and design manager of the Volt design team, told AutoblogGreen that, "Kinetic Blue is a marketing name. At Design we call it 'Blew Me Away'. That is it in a nutshell. The blue color is vibrant, rich and eye catching. It may not sell at the highest volume, as we know from history whites, blacks and silvers are the dominant color sales. However, it will tell everyone who sees it on the street that here comes a new vehicle and it is expressive in all the right ways." The next-gen Volt arrives later this year with a starting price of $33,995. The powertrain upgrades will push the all-electric range to 50 miles and the gas-only fuel economy to 41 miles per gallon. Related Video: