Are We There Yet? 7 Drawn-out car reveals that took forever

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Auto manufacturers aren’t exactly known for their subtlety (we’ll put the Dodge brand at the head of that particular table). Even the so-called ‘sensible’ brands like Lexus and Volvo eventually show a rebellious streak through their veneer of staid suits and plain rice cakes.

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One area in which carmakers love to cause a stir? Marketing. After all, with so many brands and companies competing for your eyeballs (not literally, of course) it’s up to the ad agency to create a compelling narrative to which you will pay attention.

One method is, of course, drawing out the reveal of a new car instead of just dropping it on an unsuspecting public without warning. This, in industry-speak, is called a teaser.

Movies perfected this concept with their trailers (even though a trailer technically follows something, doesn’t precede it) and those in Detroit’s corner offices quickly latched on to the idea they’d be able to command extra attention by revealing their new car a piece at a time rather than all at once.

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Sometimes, those teasers can take the form of a shadowy headlight accompanied by an engine roar. Occasionally, it can be a glimpse of the interior. It can also be totally abstract, like when Dodge showed a picture of unshelled peanuts ahead of introducing the 1,000-horsepower Hellephant crate engine.

And other times the whole process can take entirely too long (much like this introduction, if I keep typing). Teasing a car is one thing; drawing out a reveal to the point of annoyance is quite another matter. Here are a few times when carmakers took their sweet time pulling back the sheet.

Acura NSX

The very first production copy of Acura’s second-gen NSX was delivered to Rick Hendrick nearly 1,600 days after the car first showed up at the North American International Auto Show in January 2012. Actually, we’re being generous: Acura put out a press release about the new NSX 28 days before that event in Detroit.

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That’s over four years, in case you’re keeping track. That means one could start a family and place the youngster in kindergarten, while also earning a part-time MBA from McMaster, in the same amount of time it took the NSX to slog its way from auto show to showroom. Don’t forget, the car’s entire powertrain concept was changed partway through development. All the while, Acura kept shovelling grainy photos and thinly veiled “concept” cars at us. By the time Hendrick picked up his keys to the first one, it could be argued that the style needed a redesign.

Ford Bronco

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Here’s another example of a company making the most out of a historic nameplate and doing everything in its power to milk the situation while they got the new vehicle ready. At the North American International Auto Show in January 2017, it was announced that both the Bronco and Ranger would return to the Blue Oval fold. What followed were years of shadowy pictures, thanks to gestation that had more leaks than a landlocked Navy. Anyone with an internet connection knew roughly what the Bronco was going to look like before the official reveal, despite Ford’s effort to keep it all under wraps.

Fortunately, this seems to be one time when the wait seems to be worth it. Production is delayed through little fault of Ford’s, thanks to COVID-19-related supply-chain issues allegedly causing hiccups with the truck’s removable top. Unlike the NSX, where we were shown a largely finished car that still took nearly 1,600 days to appear as something a person could actually buy, the roughly 1,500 days’ wait between when “Bronco” was uttered on-stage to when production starts included a heckuva lot of actual development time.

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Toyota Supra

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While a few keyboard warriors will whine into their Pilotis about the Supra being laden with BMW part numbers, your author is simply grateful there is another sporty coupe being produced in a world filled with milquetoast crossover vehicles. What didn’t turn my crank was, in the run-up to its reveal, Toyota besieged the world with an endless parade of teasers and thinly veiled concepts.

A shadowy silhouette accompanied by umpteen rumours were floating around the web in late 2017 ahead of the next year’s Geneva Motor Show, at which Toyota showed a ‘Racing Concept,’ with the actual car being unveiled at about a year later in Detroit. Rights to buy VIN 001 were auctioned for over $2 million, by the way, for a car which popped out of the Graz factory in March 2019.

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Every Mahindra Vehicle, Ever

It seems fans of small and affordable pickup trucks have been teased by this Indian manufacturer on more occasions than a fitness buff’s nose is teased every time they work out at that gym located next to a new bakery. Plans were afoot over a decade ago to introduce a low-cost pickup truck to North America, a strategy which ended in tears after no trucks appeared and dealers sued the company to get back their franchise fees.

Since then, we’ve seen a number of teasers for similar vehicles, presumably part of the company dipping a tentative toe or two once again into the North American waters. Chances are better this time around, since the company has invested heavily into facilities located near Detroit. This time, it’s assaulting the beachhead with an off-road rig called the Roxor, allowing the company to gain a foothold here before – potentially, maybe – selling cost-friendly pickup trucks.

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Dodge Challenger SRT Demon

If you’re seeking a definition for the term “Easter egg,” look no further than the will-it-ever-end tease program deployed by Dodge back in 2017 for the upcoming Demon. The automaker actually had a teaser every week over a span of what seemed like several lifetimes, releasing about a dozen in all. Each video bore a suitably aggressive title like ‘Cage’ or ‘Reduction’ or ‘Pants’ (we made the last one up).

Each of them focused on a different part of the car without telling us exactly how much power it was going to make. But what about those Easter eggs? Fans were combing each frame of the videos for clues as to what the car would actually contain. The film which featured the Demon’s Performance Pages, for example, had its clock reading 7:57, leading to all kinds of speculation. It all culminated in an 840-horsepower monster, though, so perhaps it was worth the aggravation.

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Tesla Roadster, Cybertruck, Semi, et al

To be clear, your author is currently busy donning a flame-retardant suit in preparation for the email blasts he is sure to get from eager Teslarati defending their beloved brand. Tesla has done a good job of bringing some of its mainstream vehicles to market in a reasonable amount of time, but a few fringe vehicles are taking their sweet time.

The will-it-really-look-like-that Cybertruck was revealed back in November 2019, with first copies scheduled (top-of-line models only) to appear late in the 2021 calendar year. That’s would have been about 750 days between reveal and on-sale date, but, as of the latest update of this article, it’s February 2023 and we’re still without Tesla truck.

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Meanwhile, the slinky new Roadster was first shown in November 2017 but, thanks to a myriad of other projects, Musk now says it likely won’t pop out of any factory until 2022. That would have approached NSX-levels of gestation, except – surprise! – that deadline was missed, too, and now we don’t know when we can expect the Roadster.

Fun fact: if a person had taken $50,000 in November 2017 and invested it in Tesla stock instead of reserving a Roadster, they’d have about $672,000 if they cashed out in April 2021 — enough to buy three Roadsters.

Volkswagen ID. Buzz

We saved the most drawn-out – and, as of this February 2023 update, most recent – new-car reveal for last. If we’re being charitable, we’d simply mention the concept version of Volkswagen’s electrified, reincarnated Microbus, the new ID. Buzz, bowed in January 2017 at the Detroit auto show, and saw production begin summer 2022 for sale in Europe later that year. North Americans still won’t see the thing until 2024, making for a rather embarrassing seven-year gap between the first time an ID. Buzz-badged vehicle touched down on these shores; and the arrival of the first production units.

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Except it gets worse if you consider how many other Type 2 Microbus-inspired concepts Volkswagen had teased out prior to the ID. Buzz Concept. Just the year before we saw that Buzz-building prototype in Detroit, VW pulled the covers off of its BUDD-e Concept, also an electric take-off on the Type 2, at CES in Las Vegas, January 2016. That van was a follow-up to the also-electric Bulli Concept of 2011, which ended up dead in the water after a flurry of consumer interest.

Go all the way back, though, and you’ll arrive at the gas-powered Volkswagen Microbus Concept of 2001, which the automaker said would hit production in 2003 or 2004, with a North American release promised for 2007. That never ended up happening, by the way. But that means there are very likely Microbus fans out there who saw that design study at the turn of the millennium, got their hopes up, and then had to wait 23 years before taking delivery of the hippie-van they’d been hankering so long for.

This article was originally published April 2, 2021, and updated February 2023.