A Subdued Auto Show Opens in Detroit

Call them signs of the times. "Here to STAY" read placards held by hundreds of cheering General Motors employees at the company's press conference to open the Detroit Auto Show's press preview.

The fact that G.M., which recently got $4 billion in federal bailout dollars from the federal government, felt the need to proclaim that it's going to stay in business is, you know, telling.

In past years at Detroit's North American International Auto Show, the cars were the stars. But this year the buzz at the show is all about the companies themselves -- and their survival prospects.

Absent are such over-the-top publicity stunts as indoor waterfalls and longhorn cattle from Texas, which Chrysler trucked in last year. This year Chrysler scaled its display back to just cars and trucks, sans the theatrics.

Nissan doesn't even have cars here. While the company isn't facing the same sort of crisis as the Detroit Three, Nissan skipped the Detroit Show entirely to save money.

Free food and drink for journalists, once a staple of the press preview week, are hard to come by.

Of course, with 6,000 (hungry and thirsty) journalists on hand, the auto show isn't entirely devoid of new model unveilings.

Among them are the 2010 Ford Taurus and Mustang -- and the new Shelby GT Cobra that boasts a beastly 540 horsepower. A panel of automotive journalists voted the Hyundai Genesis, a new upscale sedan, the Car of the Year -- not the best news for Detroit's hometown team.

Toyota is introducing the new, third-generation Prius, and Honda is showing its new Prius-fighter hybrid car. G.M. showed the "Cadillac Converj concept with Voltec electric propulsion technology," as the company put it. That's a fancy way of saying prototype "dual mode," or plug-in, hybrid.

Meanwhile, the world's first dual mode hybrid car that consumers actually can buy is on display at the Detroit show.

China's BYD Auto is showing the F3DM, which went on sale in China three weeks ago. Dual-mode plug-ins are more fuel-efficient than Prius-type hybrids because they can run further (60 miles for the F3DM) without using gasoline. BYD plans to sell the F3DM in the U.S. in 2011 -- about the time that G.M.'s plug-in, the Chevy Volt, first goes on sale.

by Paul Ingrassia

Photograph of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Stirling Moss gull-wing car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit by Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images.