There were no big surprises at this year's show, but even that shouldn't surprise anyone. This is still an industry nursing some deep wounds with quite a few repairs still needing to be made. The mood was certainly more upbeat than the last two years, even if there weren't as many eye-catching concepts taking center stage.
The Kia KV7 concept caught our eye as an interesting look at a bigger, more Ford Flex-like people mover from Kia. There might not be a better car company right now that is so good at contributing to an already existing good idea.
And then there's Toyota, still smarting from its public lashing these past two years. Where Ford, GM, and Ram had a decent selection of their full-size trucks on the floor by the second day of press conferences, Toyota had only one Tundra and one lone Tacoma. A little gun-shy, perhaps.
And finally, if the fact that a beautiful 1936 Carryall Suburban (on the showfloor on Monday) was replaced by Chevy's new subcompact B-segment Sonic on the Chevy floor is any indication, we'd guess next year's NAIAS will continue to be light on full-size pickups, SUVs, or more versatile crossovers. But that doesn't mean we won't be watching and hoping for a big surprise. We'll just have to wait and see what the 2012 NAIAS has to offer.