Motown: The More Things Change...

Detroit--You know something's changed when a sexy silver Ferrari droptop has "Bio Fuel" emblazoned on the doors in bright green. As Lawrence Ulrich notes, green is the new black at the Detroit auto show, which started today.

That wasn't the only new attitude. It was clearly the year of diesels, with announcements from not only diesel stalwart Mercedes-Benz, but also Audi and BMW, and even a concept from Mitsubishi--hardly the first brand that comes to mind when thinking "diesel." And overall, the mood has been subdued. Few cars received any applause from the assembled media, no doubt because very single vehicle launched today had been previously revealed on the Internet. (A photo embargo on two new vehicles was violated by no less than The New York Times, whose website ran its Sunday story early Saturday morning.)

"The arms race for displays is over," said one partner in a company that builds those displays. The labor call for carpenters to assemble the elaborate displays was down, he said, and aside from ever-huger video screens, only BMW appeared to have a brand-new display. Only a handful of exotic brands had the traditional women in cocktail dresses decorating their vehicles.

Still, there were two significant launches, but they were--wait for it--full-size pickup trucks. Ford launched a revised F150--America's best-selling trucks for 31 years, as the company points out relentlessly--and Dodge showed a revised version of its Ram. You can talk about fuel efficiency, or you can talk about putting satellite tv in your pickup,

The F150 event opened the show's celebrity roll call, and Ford laid it on thick: Country singer Toby Keith, rodeo champion Justin McBride, NASCAR driver Rick Crawford, and MonsterJam driver Lindsey Weenik all spoke about improvements to the iconic pickup. Keith, it turns out, will take delivery of one of the first examples off the line.

Not to be outdone, Dodge attempted to stage a cattle roundup in the streets of downtown Detroit outside Cobo Hall to promote the equally tough and equally butch-looking Ram pickup. New Chrysler marketing chief Jim Press went through his lines enthusiastically, but viewers on one end of the hall were able to see the bulls attempting to mount each other--an event clearly not planned for by the PR team. No doubt the videos will show up on YouTube any moment now.

by John Voelcker