Preview: a look at the Detroit Motor Show

Before you’ve boxed the Christmas decorations and got round to forgetting about that sworn-upon New Year’s resolution, the car world will already be in full swing. Detroit, Michigan will kick off 2016’s motor show circus.

It's played host to some of the biggest supercar shocks in recent years: the Ford GT upstaging Honda’s new NSX hybrid in 2015, for instance, and Toyota’s radical FT-1 concept stealing the 2014 headlines.

Here’s TG’s round-up of the most exciting and important new metal headed for Detroit 2016. What are you most looking forward to?

We’ve driven the A4 Avant, seen the S4, and know there’s an RS5 on the way with a bi-turbo V6, so the next A4 gap to plug is the taller, plastic-arched one. Word is Detroit will play host to the muddy-trousers A4, complete with Quattro drive, sensible engines, and off-the-scale smugness factor for having not bought a big, thirsty, roly-poly SUV.

Pictured: current A4 Allroad

Enthusiasts, bored of super-SUVs and near £100k-supersaloons: this one’s for you. BMW’s baby M car promises manual and dual-clutch gearbox options, a meaty 365bhp, and enough blistered arch, rear-drive antics to almost make us forgive the X6 M. Almost.

We know little more about this that some internet rumour and a mysterious sketch, but word is that Fisker’s comeback kid is a supercar offering a naturally aspirated engine, A really, really powerful one. Bear in mind that the current record holder for nat-asp power is still the 627bhp McLaren F1 and you get a sense of how special this (rather weirdly named, we grant you) newcomer could be…

It’s posh Nissan enthusiasts Infiniti, and the new Q60 coupe. Think BMW 4-series to the Q50 saloon’s 3-series, if you like. Normally, this’d be a footnote among new car release, except Infiniti’s come over all ballsy of late and shoved a 400bhp bi-turbo V6 in the Q50 saloon. That’s knocking on the door of BMW M4 power, so if the Q60 can finally nail Infiniti’s swoopy, fussy styling down into a coherent, attractive two-door, it might start 2016 on a high.

We’ve seen the new E’s S-class inspired cabin already, but Detroit will make the debut for the car in full. We’re expecting a conservative saloon body, hybrid drivetrains, and even more advanced safety gadgets than the S-class’s. No AMGs yet, mind – those come later in 2016.

With the Aston DB9 Volante and Maserati GranCabrio curled up in a comfy chair in the retirement home for fast, loud soft-tops, the new V12, bi-turbo S-class cab has just the Bentley Continental GTC on its case when it arrives in Detroit. How many other cars do you know that will drive themselves in traffic and heat the armrests and driver’s neck simultaneously?

Formerly the SLK, now re-named, re-nosed, and, er, powered down, The top-spec AMG has lost its rumbly V8, and been fitted with a bi-turbo 3.0-litre V6 that gives away 53bhp to the old engine. Still, efficiency, right?

With every 911 Carrera sprouting a pair of turbos, the actual big-daddy Turbo has had to up the ante in order to stay relevant in Porsche’s dizzying array of model variants. The result: MORE POWER. We’ll get the first look at the new 911 Turbo, capable of 0-62mph in a claimed 2.9secs, in Detroit. Hope the handbrake’s on.

Despite the unstoppable rise of the 4x4, Volvo thinks it’s found a niche for a lower, sleeker version with a boot. It’s called a ‘saloon car’. Pah, that’ll never catch on. Anyway, the new S90 uses the XC90’s modular chassis tech, frugal four-cylinder turbo engines and almost uncrashable safety tech, but in a rather handsome, BMW 5-series and Jaguar XF-worrying package. Not to mention the delectable, almost button-free interior.