The North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which opens Monday, January 11, 2010 and runs through the 24th, will respond to the economic recession and demands by consumers for more fuel efficient cars in a "small" way, showcasing products radically different from those of even one year ago.

Gone are the days when convention goes ogled the latest trucks and muscle cars. Chevrolet, for instance, will be featuring three tiny cars, the Cruze, Aveo, and Spark, the smallest car the company has ever made. The front-wheel drive, four-door Spark hatchback is approximately the size of its competitor, the Mini Cooper, and is equipped with a 1.0 and 1.2-liter engine.

Other small cars taking the spotlight include the Ford Focus and Fiesta, the Chrysler Fiat 500, the Mazda2, and Honda CR-Z as well as a host of new hybrids. Since the market share for compacts and subcompacts has grown from 15 to 23 percent, according to a survey by Edmunds.com, all these models should sell well in the coming year.

While smaller SUVs will still be on display, the days of the large behemoths seem to be over, a fact that industry analysts attribute to changed spending habits in the face of the recession as well as high fuel prices. Fords sales figures bear out this assumption. In 2007, 6\70 percent of the companies sales were in trucks and SUVs and only 30 percent in cars. In 2009, 60 percent of sales were in mid-sized and small sedans.