Battered Automakers Hope to Shine at Detroit Auto Show

Automakers, bruised and battered by a brutal year, are rolling into the Detroit auto show a lot leaner, and they’re bringing cars that are both greener and meaner. But this year’s shindig is just as much about the companies as the cars they’re selling.

The North American International Auto Show next week is one of the biggest on the calendar, and will see 700 new cars — including more than 30 making their worldwide debuts — in the Motor City. But this year’s show takes on added importance because it will be a measure of the auto industry’s health after its worst year since 1970. General Motors and Chrysler went through bankruptcies, Toyota posted its first loss in 60 years and automakers sold about 10.4 million cars in the United States. That’s down 21.3 percent from 2008.

Sales surged in December, but don’t expect a big gain this year. Many analysts expect automakers to move about 11.4 million cars. That’s nothing compared to the 16 or 17 million consumers were buying a few years ago. Automakers know they’re working in a radically different environment. The economy is still sluggish. The dollar remains weak. And technology is changing.

It’s against this backdrop that the auto industry hopes to put its best foot forward for the 5,000 journalists and 700,000 spectators (which won’t include President Obama after all) expected to attend the show.

“Each company has to project a sense of confidence in themselves, even if they choose to acknowledge some of the challenges they face,” said Stephanie Brinley, an industry analyst with AutoPacific. Washington is keeping a close eye on GM and Chrysler, she said, but that doesn’t mean politicians will glean a lot from the show. The automakers are focused on launching new products and reaching out to consumers.

And they’re bringing some impressive hardware to Detroit.

Fuel-efficient cars like the 40-mpg Chevrolet Cruze, pavement-peeling muscle cars like the 412-horsepower Ford Mustang GT and big-ticket luxury cars like the Audi A8 are among the centerpieces. Chevrolet pulled the sheet off the Cruze last month at the L.A. Auto Show, but the Mustang and A8 are making their debuts in Detroit.

We’ll also see the upscale 2011 Hyundai Sonata hybrid, the 2011 Ford Focus and the 556-horsepower Cadillac CTS-V coupe for the first time.

And smaller cars like the handsome new Chevrolet Aveo and the adorable Fiat 500 — which might finally come to America now that the Italian automaker owns Chrysler — are getting the spotlight over SUVs and crossovers.

Seeing a trend here?

“American automakers are rediscovering passenger cars,” said Aaron Bragman, an industry analyst with IHS Global Insight.

Bragman says American automakers largely ceded the small- and mid-size car market to the Japanese and Europeans as they churned out trucks and SUVs. But they’re coming back fast and strong with cars that draw heavily from their European offerings.

Brinley isn’t so sure. She says we aren’t seeing a new trend so much as normal product cycles. Automakers, she said, are simply updating their passenger vehicle lineup after focusing on other segments.

Whatever the case, automakers will be touting fuel efficiency. Tightening standards have them embracing a slew of technologies, from turbocharging and direct injection to dual-clutch transmissions and improved aerodynamics. Car companies started promising the technology two years ago when the Bush Administration raised the CAFE fuel economy rules, and we’re finally seeing it in a wide array of production cars.

As a result, the 2011 Ford Mustang can put down 305 horsepower, yet return 30 mpg. The 2011 Mustang GT with the 5.0-liter V-8 making its debut at the show reportedly produces 412 horsepower while getting fuel economy in the mid-20s. That beast is a shot across the bow of Chevrolet and its popular Camaro. And to think people worried rising fuel economy standards would kill the muscle car. Quite the contrary.

“If the economy recovers and gas prices stay low, I think we’re going to see the renewed popularity of these cars,” Bragman said. “People want the performance and styling of a muscle car, but they don’t want to get 15 mpg.”