Henry Payne

Cobo’s main show floor is a different place this year. I’m tempted to tout the delicious, scissor-door McLaren 570 as my favorite car in show.

But it’s part of Envy Auto Group’s display of exotic, pre-owned cars — an exhibit from a car dealer that helps fill space left by the mass exodus of European luxury brands. Thanks to Envy, you still get to ogle Porsches and Ferraris — but they aren’t the newest stuff on the market.

For that, there are still plenty of U.S. and foreign automakers who have brought their A-games. There are the usual mighty muscle cars and trucks we expect at a Motown show. But there is also an extraordinary breadth of vehicles from electric to autonomous to V-8s appealing to the richest auto consumer market on the planet.

Here are the most important vehicles in show.

Toyota Supra

Ford Mustang GT500

Ram Heavy Duty 2500/3500

Ford Explorer

Kia Telluride

Nissan IMs Concept

Lincoln Continental

Cadillac XT6

Hyundai Elantra GT N Line

VW Passat

The 2019 Detroit auto show is diminished this year, a victim of the exodus of foreign luxury-makers and the transition to a new June format 18 months from now.

But though this year’s show speaks softly, it carries big sticks.

From the ferocious Ford Mustang GT500 to the stump-pulling Ram Heavy Duty pickup to the long-awaited return of the Toyota Supra sports car, Cobo Center is full of the good ol’ muscle the event has long been known for. It’s also a family-fun destination with utes galore and enough rides, rope courses (yes, rope courses) and high-tech to keep the young ‘uns stimulated the whole afternoon.

Enter Cobo from the Washington Boulevard Garage/Cobo Roof into Hall A and it’s not immediately apparent that anything has changed.

The aisle between the Ford and Chevy exhibits is like a moat between warring armies: Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs and pickups bristle like heavy artillery. But while GM’s stand looks familiar from last year, Ford has a fresh look to go with its new state-of-the-art Mustang and Explorer weapons.

The stand is arranged with “shipping containers” full of product: an F-150 over here, a ‘Stang GT500 over there. In the middle of it all is a huge stage that re-creates — twice-an-hour — Ford’s media reveal of its all-new GT500 and Explorer. The simulated helicopter drop of the GT500 is not to be missed.

The second floor of the old Ford exhibit is gone, replaced by the “Ford Scramble Net” ropes course and virtual-reality Explorer drive. The kids will spend hours crisscrossing the roped net dangled high above the floor. Or you can pack the whole family into the Explorer, strap on virtual-reality goggles, and take an 11-minute ride into America’s national parks.

Behind the Ford exhibit is Fiat Chrysler’s display, once the envy of the show with its floor-to-ceiling, Times Square-like light displays. This year’s exhibit is de-tuned, though the product is not with enough Hellcat, SRT and Ram horsepower to blow the roof off Cobo.

There are plenty of themes to watch for. Here are my favorites.

Muscle Beach

The Dodge display ripples with biceps. Check out the 797-horsepower Challenger Red Eye.

But the new kid on the beach is the Ford Mustang GT500. This isn’t your father’s snake. Past GT500s were Woodward Avenue dragsters that left track-carving to the GT350. The new generation is an all-around athlete aimed squarely at the hyper-speed Camaro ZL1 1LE across the aisle.

If stump-pulling power is more to your taste, the Ram Heavy Duty 3500 generates 1,000 pound-feet of torque. That magic number bests every pickup in the business, and Ram does it with the stylish design and interior that just won its 1500 sibling the North American Truck of the Year prize.

On the other side of Cobo is another tasty morsel. Toyota teased the next-gen of its legendary Supra with the FT-1 concept sports car five years ago. It followed through this year by bringing in Formula One superstar Fernando Alonso and Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda (the funniest CEO in auto today) to introduce the curvaceous, 335-horse, $50,000 Supra hatchback.

Envy Auto Group is new to the main floor. The exotic-car dealer used to exhibit in the Cobo basement. They were brought upstairs to plug the space left by the exit of BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Porsche, Mini-Cooper, et al.

But what a collection of cars Envy has: McLaren 570S, Ferrari 488, Lamborghini Huracan, Aston Martin Vantage S. It has the exotics usually only seen in the exclusive $500-a-ticket gallery gala at the MGM Grand casino that takes place before the show.

It’s a reminder that whatever the show’s circumstances, show-goers come to see the hardware.

Ute nation

We show-goers love glitz, but sport utilities pay the bills. There are new utes everywhere you turn.

The Chevy Blazer is a knockout with Camaro-like, aviation-style climate vents. The rear-wheel drive based Ford Explorer has technology that will embarrass luxury cars costing twice as much. The Kia Telluride beats the Jeep Wagoneer to market as a rock-chewing, three-row SUV. Even China’s GAC brings two utes aimed at the U.S. market that it says it intends to enter.

My favorite crossroads in Cobo is between the Cadillac, Lincoln and Buick stands where Detroit’s newest three-row luxury-SUV entries can be compared face-to-face-to-face. Each brings seriously competitive vehicles (note the similarities between the new Cadillac XT6 and Buick Enclave). You will be blown away by Lincoln’s resurgence, including the Lincoln Aviator that debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November and is being shown in Detroit for the first time.

The merger of technology and autos is moving fast, and the Detroit show abounds with cutting-edge examples.

Toyota is going to flood the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo with autonomous cars and driverless pods. For a glimpse of what’s coming, check out the snow-white, lidar-crowned Lexus LS 500h.

Then there’s Nissan’s cool, autonomous IMs Concept with suicide doors, a retractable steering wheel and single rear throne for maximum comfort when the car is self-driving.

My favorite tech piece isn’t an automobile at all, but a two-seat, eight-rotor, hybrid chopper called the SureFly Octocopter. You’ll find it across from Lexus. Each of its eight rotors is controlled by electric motors, giving it drone-like maneuverability — and backup battery-power should the gas engine fail. Market target: 2022.

The kids will love it. Just as soon as you extract them from the Ford Scramble Net.

I shouldn’t be able to go this quickly in a big ute.

Through the writhing, undulating valley roads of northern California, I whipped the all-new 2019 Porsche Cayenne five-door steed. The 10-piston brakes pulled the eyeballs out from my head. The laser-like steering placed the beast — there! — at the apex. Ample torque to all four wheels helped power-drift on exit.

Cayenne’s sports car-like handling comes naturally. After all, its father is the Porsche 911, the best-handling supercar on the planet.

Payne, have you gone mad? Flogging a 4,300-pound SUV through the wilderness?

Well, the world has gone crazy for a while now. Blame Stuttgart, which in 2003 went off the sports-car reservation (some thought off its rocker) and invented the Cayenne, a midsize performance SUV. Like driving each new generation of the $100,000 Porsche 911, I make it a point to get in the latest Cayenne cyborg because, for two decades it has been the standard by which all performance SUVs are judged.

The uber-ute was infused with Porsche DNA reaching back to the famous LeMans-winning 906 and 908 prototypes I once piloted on the vintage racing circuit. The Cayenne was big, heavy … but unmistakably the Porsche of its class.

Customers gobbled it up.

The more consumers grinned, the more the executive suite smiled. The Cayenne made Porsche sustainable by expanding its demographic beyond hard-core sports car enthusiasts — and providing a steady stream of income to fuel the brand’s essential, brand-defining motorsports efforts.

Over the last 15 years, nearly every performance brand has followed Porsche’s lead. Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lamborghini, Ferrari. Your humble News columnist has urged Corvette to build utes.

Which makes the Cayenne in my hands all the more remarkable. This is a midsize SUV built on the same platform as Audi’s three-row Q7, for goodness sake.

The first-generation Cayenne was a pig in tennis shoes. At a rotund 4,800 pounds (the same weight as a base Ford F-150) it was a locomotive in a straight line — but also was a heavy locomotive in the corners. Porsche had engineered the Cayenne with the rugged outdoors in mind, a place customers rarely ventured. So for Gen 2 it concentrated on Porsche’s core principle: handling.

Job One became reduced mass and Cayenne 2.0 went on a 300-pound diet. I drove the all-wheel drive, 2015 Cayenne S back-to-back with an all-wheel drive VW Golf R hatchback and came away stupefied at how well it handled twisty mountain roads.

Cayenne 3.0 has further reduced the weight gap between the 3,300-pound Golf R by shedding another 120 pounds while maintaining the same wheelbase so my 6-foot-5-inch frame can slip comfortably into the rear seat. That’s still a lot of mass, but under its typically conservative exterior upgrade (save for the thin, horizontal tail lamp, the SUV is virtually indistinguishable from Cayenne 2.0), Porsche has brought major engineering improvements.

The mostly-tin skin now covers a 47-percent aluminum chassis. The front suspension has evolved to a sophisticated, multi-link setup to assist that precision e-steering, and the V-6 engine has been turbocharged to a healthy 340 horses and 331 pound-feet of torque (up 15 percent).

Speed freaks will get access to even more asphalt-gobbling toys when the Cayenne S and Turbo models come out next year: toys like four-wheel steering and 450- and 550-horsepower turbocharged mills and serious performance rubber.

But some of this sci-fi weaponry is also available on the base $68,000 V-6: Gadgets like the Sport Chrono package found on the Boxster and 911 speed demons.

Embedded in the steering column like Iron Man’s arc reactor, the Sport Chrono button glows red. Push it and the digital instrument panel begins a 20-second countdown. Countdown to do what?

Luffing along behind a semi-truck in sixth gear through the curvy Alexander Valley, a brief, dotted center-line straight stretch opens up. Push the button. Tiptronic tranny instantly shifts from sixth to third gear. Floor the throttle.

Zot!

I am past the semi in a flash — with 15 seconds more boost if I want to ingest other cars ahead. Call it push-to-pass like the Formula One technology. On the 550-horse Turbo I imagine it will take me across Michigan in about 30 minutes.

The arc reactor can also be used for standing-start launch control. Rotate its rim dial to Sport Plus. Floor brake and throttle simultaneously. Revs peg to 3,000. Release brake. Zot!

The Cayenne also has a toy for stopping: the 10-piston brake caliper. Stretching across the brake disc like a partial solar eclipse, the huge caliper provides instant stopping power for the 4,300-pound projectile.

In typical Porsche fashion, these accessories come alone — $1,200 for the Sports Chrono, $3,500 for the brakes. With sales of just 15,000 a year — roughly the same number as Ford F-150 Raptor sales — Porsche’s ethic is not unlike a high-end restaurant. Order fast food and choose your package — I’ll have No. 3 with two sides, drink and dessert, please. Order from Porsche Bistro and it is a la carte. Even adaptive cruise control. Happily, steering wheel is standard.

Porsche brings more innovation inside, though the results are mixed.

The performance brand long coasted on signature interior touches like left-hand key (just like the LeMans-winning racers!) and a console sleeve of performance buttons. But the electronic age has forced Porsche to catch up and it does so with stunning, digital, 10-inch and 12.3-inch color instrument and console displays with endless layers of customizable features.

My favorite is Auto Rest, which will channel the residual heat from your engine into the cabin so you can stay warm for 20 minutes in the parking lot even after the engine’s been turned off.

Ergonomics do not match the engineering. Haptic-screen control buttons are located awkwardly behind the monostable shifter. And 20th-century audio commands control the 21st-century features.

Overall, however, the machine’s pure joy on the road overcomes such minor grievances. For 80-grand, it is the Porsche of performance utes.

And if that’s too rich for your blood, then check out the similarly sized, $40,000 Ford Edge ST funbox. Another spawn of Porsche’s performance SUV revolution. Danke schön, Stuttgart.

2019 Porsche Cayenne

Vehicle type: Front-engine, all-wheel drive, five-passenger SUV

Price: $66,750 base including $1,050 destination fee ($84,240 as tested)

Powerplant: 3.0-liter, turbocharged V-6

Power: 335 horsepower, 332 pound-feet torque

Transmission: 8-speed automatic with paddle shifters

Performance: 0-60 mph, 5.6 seconds (mfr.); Tow capacity: 7,750

Weight: 4,377 pounds

Fuel economy: EPA: 19 city/23 highway/21 combined

Report card

Highs: I-can’t-believe-it’s-a-ute handling; tech-tastic features

Lows: Awkward console ergonomics; poor voice commands

Overall: 4 stars

Dearborn — Developing an all-new Ford Explorer SUV not only meant engineers could design a roomier, techier three-row ute for families — it also meant they could make a faster, leaner Police Interceptor to chase down the bad guys.

Ahead of the much anticipated Explorer’s debut next Wednesday at Ford Field, Ford gave media a sneak peak Friday at the tough Interceptor now being purchased by police agencies around the country.

This thing is a tank in gym shoes.

Like American consumers, police departments have moved to SUVs as their mainstay police vehicles given their rugged on-and-off-road abilities and five-door utility. Gone is the old Crown Vic sedan, though Ford still markets Ford Fusion Hybrids to police as well.

But with the addition of Explorer’s first-ever hybrid, the 2020 Police Interceptor now adds fuel economy to its benefits. Ford expects the Interceptor hybrid — equipped with a 3.3-liter V-6 mated to a 10-speed transmission — to get 24 mpg, a 41 percent improvement over the outgoing 3.7-liter V-6 Interceptor.

“We never do a police car on our own, because we get so many benefits from Ford’s production program,” says Interceptor vehicle engineer Allen Magolen, who works in the company’s police vehicle department. Ford currently provides about 65 percent of police vehicles in the US.

The new Interceptor hybrid benefits, not only from the drive-train’s increased fuel economy, but from its added torque for performance.

In bruising track tests conducted by Michigan’s finest performance cops at Grattan Raceway outside Grand Rapids last summer, the 318-horsepower Interceptor hybrid was quicker than its V-8 Chevy and Dodge SUV competitors. Zero-60 blew by in just 7.27 seconds and 100 mph in 17.69 seconds.

Only the Police Interceptor equipped with a third drivetrain option — the same 400-horse, 3.0-liter, twin-turbo V-6 monster found under the hood of the forthcoming Explorer ST — was quicker. The latter clipped the zero-60 tape in a breathtaking 5.7 seconds (100 mph came in just 13.59 seconds).

Ford says the turbo is preferred by western police departments that have to do prolonged, high-speed interstate chases. Crooks are going to have a tough time out-running this ute.

In addition to new drivetrains, the Interceptor achieves its performance numbers by going on a 200-pound diet, the result of the Explorer’s extensive use of aluminum and lightweight steel. With suspension and drivetrain tweaks for immediate pursuit capability, engineer Magolen says the Explorer drives like the performance Explorer ST model.

The fold-flat second row is popular for use with K-9 unit dog cages, while cargo space increases by 4 cubic feet for law enforcement equipment.

Doors can be optioned with level-four armor plating. Other options include a giant front push-bar and steel center-cap hubs to augment the Interceptor’s tough shell. The SUV can tow up to 5,000 pounds and is hardened to take a 75-mph rear impact  above and beyond the federal 50 mph standard.

“Whether patrolling or sitting idle, the all-new Police Interceptor Utility will change the way officers work,” says Bill Gubing, chief engineer for the Explorer. “Everything about it was designed for keeping police officers safe, comfortable and ready for action.”

When I was a kid, my mom would drive me to the race track in an old Ford Fairlane station wagon to watch my dad race sports cars. Last year I drove a Mercedes station wagon to NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky … to track it.

The Ford had a rear-facing, third-row trunk seat for spectating. The Mercedes has a 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V-8 putting out 603 horsepower for gulping straightaways.

How times have changed.

 As I’ve been faithfully reporting in this space, the world has gone mad. In 2017, I took a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk on Maine’s formidable Club Motorsports race track. Then I hauled an Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio SUV around the Circuit of Americas Formula One track in Texas.

Now come the 2018 Mercedes AMG E63 S and Jaguar XF Sportbrake wagons. You know, family cars.

Americans prefer SUVs over station wagons, so I admire European manufacturers’ persistence in trying to make them attractive as performance vehicles. Detroit automakers gave up long ago after the beefcake Dodge Magnum and Cadillac CTS-V failed to even get a wink from the public despite their V-8 ferocity.

In a Bloomfield Hills service station, a woman parked her giant SUV next to my Jaguar XF Sportbrake tester: “Wow!” she said. ”Now that’s a good-looking red car! What is it?”

Another ute sidled up to me on the interstate and shadowed the Jag for a couple of miles.

At the grocery, a group of young girls stopped in their tracks and stared as the Sportbrake drove away.

A pal did a full lap around the car: “Now that’s the hottest-looking wagon I’ve seen since the Magnum,” he says.

Jaguar’s station wagon is a knockout. Um, sorry. Their shooting brake. That’s Europe’s preferred name for wagon. Thus the Jag’s moniker “Sportbrake.” Anything to get away from the dreaded w-word.

Like all Mercedes these days, it’s a stylish sculpture — a long way from the stodgy bankers’ cars of old. But its lines are conservative (no long rear aerofoils or bulging hood scoops). Only the huge, lower front air intakes (which seem to have been stolen off an F-22 fighter jet) and AMG E63 S badge on the rear give it away.

This thing roars like a T. rex chasing Jeff Goldblum.

Grounded to the earth by the Mercedes 4Matic all-wheel drive that can throw 100-percent of its torque to the rear wheels, the bi-turbo V-8 eats track at an alarming rate. At 4,697 pounds the Mercedes is no lightweight, but the four-wheel traction and gummy Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires mean grip is never a problem. Massive AMG brakes aided by ABS help bring it to a stop.

On numerous occasions my colleagues exited turns at lurid angles as 627 pound-feet of torque threatened to swap ends like Mark Reuss’ Corvette pace car. But all-wheel drive saved them every time.

“The electronics available today make these cars possible,” says Tommy Kendall, the champion Trans Am driver-turned-Mercedes track instructor. He is in awe that today’s wagons have as much horsepower as his Corvette Trans Am track animals of 20 years ago.

I didn’t have the opportunity to track the lighter Jaguar, but Car and Driver records similar g-load numbers for the two, so I expect the XF would be similar. Except for the power. At 603 horsepower, the AMG has a similar power-to-weight ratio to the Hellcat engine-powered Jeep Trackhawk.

NCM Motorsports track lap record-holder Andy Pilgrim (the IMSA pro pulverized the record with a 2-minute, 5-second lap in a new Corvette ZR1 last year) confirmed as much by lapping the Mercedes in 2.23. That’s a full six seconds clear of his Trackhawk lap. And I suspect Andy emerged with fewer white hairs after his AMG round.

Just thought you’d like to know in case you want to take the family for a track lap some day. Or if you just want to detour through Hell, Michigan, with your kids on your way to the next soccer match.

Along the way, of course, you’ll want to know more than just what’s under the hood, and here the Mercedes runs rings around the Jag. Indeed, it’s hard to find a nicer interior anywhere with Mercedes’ exquisite digital screen, graphics, aviator-style air vents and gorgeous wood trim.

The Jaguar is second-class by comparison, right down to its slow touchscreen (the Mercedes remote rotary dial is not only precise, it’s assisted by a touch pad) and lack of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity. Oh, well, at least the cool, rotary gear selector rises out of the console.

The Mercedes’ steering wheel even has as its own touch-pad for navigating the instrument display. Very posh. And it’ll cost you.

The Merc’s sticker was a shocking $140,730, the Jag $84,815 in comparison.

Kendall said that when he was a kid watching Formula One racing, he noticed all the drivers drove home in Mercedes AMGs. It was his dream car.

But I bet he never dreamed there would be a 603-horse AMG station wagon.

2018 Mercedes-AMG E63 S wagon

Vehicle type: Front-engine, all-wheel drive, five-passenger station wagon

Price: $109,845 base including $995 destination fee ($140,730 as tested)

Powerplant: 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6

Power: 603 horsepower, 627 pound-feet torque

Transmission: 9-speed automatic with paddle shifters

Performance: 0-60 mph, 3.0 seconds (Car and Driver); top speed: 180 mph

Weight: 4,669 pounds

Fuel economy: EPA: 16 city/22 highway/18 combined

Report card

Highs: Astonishing acceleration; penthouse interior

Lows: Porky; sticker shock

Overall: 4 stars

2018 Jaguar XF Sportbrake

Vehicle type: Front-engine, all-wheel drive, five-passenger station wagon

Price: $71,445 base including $995 destination fee ($84,815 as tested)

Powerplant: 3.0-liter, supercharged V-6

Power: 380 horsepower, 332 pound-feet torque

Transmission: 8-speed automatic with paddle shifters

Performance: 0-60 mph, 5.1 seconds (Car and Driver); top speed: 121 mph

Weight: 4,351 pounds

Fuel economy: EPA fuel economy: 18 city/25 highway/21 combined

Report card

Highs: Head-turning wagon; AWD grip

Lows: Dated interior; slow infotainment screen

Overall: 3 stars

The pace of change in the auto industry is unrelenting. In addition to advancements in design and mechanical engineering across a multitude of platforms – sports car, SUV, sedan, pickup, minivan – the digital revolution has brought a new dimension to vehicle connectivity and safety.

Herewith, the 10-best features that debuted in the last year.

1. GMC Sierra MultiPro tailgate

Pickups are about beds, and the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra twins bring the toughest, cinder-block-catching, rolled-steel beds in class. But the Sierra separated itself with a unique, multipurpose tailgate that can be configured six different ways. MultiPro is, fundamentally, a tailgate within a tailgate so that, for example, the inner gate can be raised to act as a bump-stop for long boards. Or it can be folded downward to create stair steps into the truck. Clever.

More: 2018 in autos: 10 things that drove us batty

2. Subaru Ascent’s 19 cupholders

Horsepower wars? Let’s talk cupholder wars. Pack families into three-row SUVs and they are going to bring drinks to go: coffee cups, thermoses, Big Gulps, Slurpees, soda cans, you name it. Subaru figures you’ll need 19 cupholders. That’s a record… for now.

3. Ford Trail Control

Ford is the geek kid who always comes to class with the latest technology: self-park assist, SYNC, Trailer Assist. The 2015 Ford F-150 was the first pickup with adaptive cruise-control. So it’s no surprise that Ford this year offered up Trail Control, a sort of low-speed, off-road adaptive cruise for the Raptor and Ranger pickups. The driver can concentrate on steering through the scenery while the truck takes care of the throttle.

4. Tesla Summon

Summon is a sure-fire party trick from Silicon Valley’s EV pioneer. First introduced on the pricey Model S, the feature this year became common to tens of thousands of Model 3 buyers. Summon essentially makes your phone (via Tesla app) a remote control for your Model 3 so you can stand outside and pull the car out of tight parking spaces, walk it down the street, whatever.

5) Mazda i-ACTIVSENSE

Like Apple in a Microsoft computer world, Tesla will inevitably spawn copycats. Ram and Prius have adopted big console screens, and Mazda has adopted Tesla’s 360-degree, surround vehicle display. Mazda dubs it i-ACTIVSENSE, which places an avatar of your car in the instrument display so you can see everything around it — cars in your blind spot, cars in front of you, lane-keep assist, and more.

6. Alexa in-car app

Who can forget Infiniti’s “Avengers: Infinity War” ads in which a handsome couple head off to the the movies with a simple: “Alexa, start my Infiniti QX50.” Yes, the home device can now sync to vehicles like the QX50 and Ford Ecosport. Just download the app to your phone and you’re in business.

7. Cadillac Rear Camera Mirror
Manufacturers race, in part, to accelerate track-to-street technologies. But what about the reverse? Cadillac innovated its Rear Camera Mirror in the 2017 Cadillac CT6 sedan, and this year it moved to Cadillac’s hyper-quick IMSA Weathertech race car. In the space pod that is the Cadillac DPi racer’s cockpit, the mirror uses a tiny, rear-mounted video lens so the driver gets an unobstructed view of the field behind.

8. Lincoln suicide doors

How to call attention to a slow-selling luxury sedan? Give it rear-opening suicide doors like a Rolls-Royce. Eighty Continentals will be sold for a Rolls-like six-figure sum. To keep the doors from living up to their nickname if opened at highway speed, the Continental’s doors won’t open if the vehicle is traveling faster than 2 miles per hour.

9. Standard safety-suite

Pioneered a decade ago in luxury Mercedes, digital safety packages of adaptive cruise-control/blind-spot assist, automatic braking/lane-keep assist can be had — standard! — on vehicles like a $25,000 VW Jetta or Honda Civic.

10. Volvo XC40 trash can and purse hanger

The Swedish brand is back in vogue with the usual safety smarts, but now it’s stylish, too. The irresistible compact XC40 ute comes with a mini-trash can in the center console and a secreted glove-box hook for hanging purses and plastic grocery bags.

Automobiles are wonderful, complex companions. We bring them into our homes, depend on them, lavish money on them. Yet, they have flaws – some of which can drive us crazy.

Some things that got under our skin this year…

1. Stop-start systems

Automakers gain EPA emissions credits for automatically turning off their engines at stoplights – only to turn the rest of us off in the process.

2. Showy, non-functional design cues

Think fake engine ports. Fake intake screens. The VW Jetta takes this year’s crown with dual chrome exhaust tips… that have no exhaust pipes behind them.

3. Coupe visibility

Get a cool coupe with a racy C-pillar and you’ll likely pay the price in rear visibility. The Camaro is legendary in this regard, but this year’s prize goes to the Toyota C-HR, which you not only can’t see out of – but sitting in the rear seat feels like an underground bunker.

4. Infotainment touch pads

These maddening devices — on otherwise perfect automobiles like the Lexus LS or Acura RDX — exist despite the proven efficiency of touch screens and remote rotary dials. Trying to operate one while driving is like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube in the dark.

5. Long alphanumeric vehicle names

The best mouthful of 2018: Mercedes-AMG GLC 63 S Coupe

6. Where’s my pickup’s corner step?

GM pickups come equipped with corner steps that are the easiest, safest way to get into the pickup bed. Why every other truck maker doesn’t follow is a mystery.

7. Where’s my adaptive cruise-control?

On the other hand, only GM pickups lack that most basic of electronic safety features: adaptive cruise control, even on upper-trim, $60,000 High Countrys.

8. EV range-anxiety

Electric vehicles routinely boast 240-mile plus range, except when they don’t. These ranges are generally calibrated in 70-degree Southern California weather at the speed limit. But drive in 30-degree temps and that range can plummet by 30 percent. More degradation occurs when you travel over 75 mph. Which means that, if you’re traveling with traffic at 80 mph to Traverse City, you won’t make it.

9. Drone on

The Insight is Honda’s third shot at a green Prius-fighter. Based on the rock-solid Civic, it is attractive, stylish… and then you press on the gas pedal and the 1.5-liter engine drones on like Ben Stein in “Ferris Bueller.”

10. Genesis G70 Sport hiccup