Best cars of the 2016 New York Auto Show

The New York International Auto Show concludes six-plus months of major car shows that began last September in Frankfurt. Despite all the major shows (Frankfurt, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Detroit, Geneva, New York) and US mid-majors (Washington, Chicago), automakers never seem to run out of new cars to unveil — plus local re-introductions of cars announced elsewhere, which the automakers call a “North American debut.”

Here’s our take on the top cars of the 2016 NYAIAS, which opens to the public Friday and runs through Sunday, April 3, at New York’s Javits Center. Prepare to spend an extra couple minutes getting through the metal detection stands and explosives-sniffing dogs. The show is international and so is the concern over security.

2017 Toyota Prius Prime plug-in hybrid

A Prius plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is back in the Toyota line-up after a two-year absence. The 2017 Toyota Prius Prime now goes 22 miles on battery before the combustion engine kicks in. That’s enough so the average daily commute will be covered on battery power for about half the commuting population. Toyota’s estimate of the electric/gasoline efficiency is 120 MPGe, the best of any plug-in so far.

As with any PHEV, you’ll want a 220-volt, not 110-volt, charging source in your garage to refill a depleted battery overnight, but prices are coming down.

(Hyundai) Genesis New York concept

The low-slung New York (the car’s name) concept appeared to be the only car in the Javits Center done in robin’s egg blue. It’s Hyundai’s idea of a BMW 3 Series / Audi A4 competitor for its new Genesis sub-brand. The car is too stylized to go direct from this design to production, but it suggests the Genesis nameplate will have a compact car as well as midsize and full-size, along with a likely SUV.

For the New York concept, at least, a big screen curves (slightly) around the driver’s position. Even more intriguing is a shallow bowl shape fixture in the console that is used for gesture recognition, somewhat as BMW is doing in the new BMW 7 Series. An infrared sensor tracks left-right swiping actions, front-back motions, character strokes on the bowl face, and circular motions for fine tuning.

Lincoln Navigator gull-wing concept

Since it’s an auto show concept car, Lincoln installed super-wide gullwing doors and a chromed three-step ladder for disembarking. It was all a way to show off the interior of what — minus the gullwing doors — is likely to be the 2017 Navigator. The 24-inch turbine wheels will probably be scaled back, too. However it ships, Lincoln needs multiple hit cars and SUVs to stay in sight of a resurgent Cadillac, which is trying to haul in Audi-BMW-Mercedes.

The new Navigator will get a twin-turbo V6 engine good for 400-plus horsepower. It’s unclear if the new Navigator will abandon the heavy body-on-frame construction for a unibody to help fuel economy at the cost of ruggedness (in some buyers’ minds). The Navigator plays in the small but prominent luxury full-size SUV category. The US market is just under 200,000 units (1% of the US market), led by the Cadillac Escalade and Mercedes-Benz GL selling about 25,000 each, with the outgoing Navigator back at 12,000 in 2015. The total market will grow by the end of the decade when BMW brings in an X7 SUV. The big land cruisers may be the automakers’ first choice for launching the next generation of semi-autonomous driving features.

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