Less is more.

Like a recession-whipped consumer learning to be frugal, the embattled automaker had eliminated costly floor risers, live music and other big-ticket items for its typically souped up 100,000-square foot display at the Cobo Conference/Exhibition Center in the heart of downtown.

GM was not alone. With recession blues pressuring the auto industry, gone were many of the Hollywood flourishes that, in recent years, had turned the North American International Auto Show into a virtual arms race of marketing flash among the world's automotive titans.

Yes, there was a monstrous video screen above the GM speaker's podium. And, of course, there was plenty of thumping, pounding music as a gleaming procession of cars and crossover SUVs rolled down a long, roped-off catwalk lined with reporters and photographers.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, marching along with the much-hyped electric Chevrolet Volt, held high a sign that said "Here To Stay," evoking the precarious condition that has threatened to thrust Detroit-based GM into bankruptcy.

Detroit Tigers announcer Mario Impemba talked up the passing cars as if they were MVP hitters.

To Magarity, this was good news. It was all about the cars. So many. Sixteen, in fact. Four times as many as GM trotted out last year.

"Auto shows are still someplace where the American cars are still big dogs," said Magarity, who on Friday sold his Chestnut Hill Ford showroom and lot to Bowman Properties after shuttering what had been a family franchise, due to poor sales.

"That," Magarity said, pointing to GM's lineup of fuel-efficient sedans and SUVs onstage, "is going to help me."

Having parted ways with Ford, Magarity has now invested all he's got into Magarity Chevrolet in Flourtown, his one remaining dealership.

As chairman of the forthcoming Philadelphia Auto Show, Magarity wore his Sunday best to attend the big show yesterday, his first time here.

With the domestic auto industry in a tailspin and dealers like Magarity shutting down franchises to cope, the media kickoff to the auto show here in the Motor City was subdued - a stab at humility for the once-swaggering Big Three - Ford, Chrysler and GM. Penny-pinching seemed the rule overall. Nissan didn't even make an appearance.

"GM not long ago did absolutely anything they wanted," said Tom Libby, analyst for J.D. Power & Associates, who has attended the car show for a decade.

During that time, the companies tried to outdo one another with high-end gimmicks and all-you-can-eat-and-drink junkets for the press.

"A lot of it is like competing with the Joneses - one-upping the competition," Libby said.

This year, there is but a trace of such decadence. The economy has changed things.

"That's why you're not going to see a lot of it," said Libby, who tracks and projects North American auto sales. "The companies are trying to save money."

The mood was also shaded by a peaceful midday protest outside by about 100 unionized workers.

With Congress and bailout critics calling for the Big Three to extract deep concessions from the unionized labor force, autoworkers made an unusual appearance outside on a slushy sidewalk on a subfreezing day.

"Cutting wages won't help the industry survive," said Wendy Thompson, past president of United Auto Workers Local 235, whose members work for auto supplier American Axle.

"We support solutions that don't unfairly blame workers for botched corporate policies," she said.

Despite the economic difficulties that have drastically cut U.S. auto sales, the industry has not lost sight of the potency of U.S. consumers and their importance in any company's success.

"The American market, even in crisis, is the most important automotive market in the world," said Matthias Wissmann, president of the Association of the German Automotive Industry, which organizes the annual auto show in Frankfurt, among the world's largest.

"We hope we can see some light at the end of the tunnel about the crisis already here," Wissmann said to the throng gathered as the Ford F-150 pickup and Hyundai Genesis luxury sedan won truck and car of the year.

For Chrysler, Ford and GM, whose offerings have long been big and brawny, the buzzwords were fuel efficiency, electric cars, style and value - a mantra embraced by newly cost-conscious consumers and the incoming Obama administration.

Ford and GM, in particular, rolled out a number of fuel-efficient models and touted in-the-pipeline electric designs. Chrysler, too, talked electric cars but was leanest on new offerings overall.

"I'm really impressed," said Magarity.

He liked what GM was showing - particularly, Chevrolet's nine models that get 30 highway miles per gallon. "Nobody's got this lineup," he said.

The scaled-down GM show, echoed by a spare and under-lit display by normally ostentatious Chrysler (which once crashed a new Jeep model through a glass wall here for effect), seemed to transmit a message that the billions in taxpayer funds recently given to GM and Chrysler are not being wasted on glitz.

"This marks a new beginning for General Motors," chairman and chief executive officer Rick Wagoner said. "Our plan is anchored by what you see here this morning."

The global automakers are reeling from a sudden decline in sales that hit late last year as the Wall Street crisis struck.

North American auto sales, which had peaked in 2000 at 17.4 million and were 16.2 million in 2007, spiraled last year to a meager 13.2 million. They are expected to hit 11.4 million in 2009 as the recession grinds on, said Libby.

To match the new reality, GM cut its Detroit auto show budget by 35 percent, said Tom Conwell, GM's director of shows and exhibits. After taking a beating from lawmakers on Capitol Hill while pleading for federal financial assistance, GM approached this show conservatively.

"Based on what happened in Washington, our management felt we really needed to set the record the straight with the public," he said.

"Just like consumers, everyone who was used to living a certain lifestyle with a certain level of spending," he said, "we are all finding ways to reevaluate what's most important."