Wes Raynal/The Saint

Another year has come, and for auto makers all over the world this means another chance to bolster their appearance. What better place to do this than Detroit? Even with the recent economic struggles of the city and the state of Michigan as a whole, the Detroit International Auto Show continues to be one of the most important shows for auto makers everywhere.

Many people around the automotive world speculated about how this year’s show would turn out. Some skeptics cited the economic hardships of the area as a main concern. Others were concerned with the handful of companies who pulled out of the event—the most popular being the German manufacturer Porsche. Known for their sleek and speedy sports cars, Porsche always draws a good crowd at the show. Porsche’s absence from the 2009 show was an obvious disappointment to auto enthusiasts.

Despite concerns, this year’s show turned out to be a big success. As one would expect, with all the talk of “going green,” auto makers took the chance to show off their fleet of environmentally friendly cars. With three huge releases, 2009 can (as of now) be marked as “the year of the Hybrid”.

The biggest of these releases was Toyota’s new Prius. With the overall shape and look remaining the same, Toyota made some small changes to the exterior design. But who cares what a Hybrid looks like? People want improvements in performance when it comes to these “green” machines. Well yeah, Toyota was focused on that too. The new Prius features an all new redesigned synergy drive system. The primary focus was to reduce the weight of the vehicle, improving gas mileage. They’ve also given the Prius a larger engine, which adds 22 horsepower and more than quadruples the amount of torque from the older model. Finally, Toyota gave the new Prius three selectable drive modes—EV-drive (for low speed driving), Eco (for optimal fuel economy) and Power (for when you’re feeling dangerous).

In an effort to keep pace with their Japanese rival, Honda released their new Insight. The Americans were represented as well in the eco-friendly race as Chevy came out to show off their production Volt. The Volt concept was presented at last years show, and this production model was first released back in September of ’08. The Volt—which runs off electricity from a plug—seems to be a step ahead of the Japanese hybrids as far as environmentally friendly technology is concerned. It will be interesting to see which system (Hybrid or plug-in) reigns supreme in the coming years.

In addition to all this environmental business, a lot of companies seemed to be focused on reaching out to a younger audience. Companies like Volkswagen, MINI and Scion always draw in large crowds of young adults, but this year some unsuspecting players were getting into the mix.

Lincoln released their C concept, which is clearly aimed at a younger audience. Perhaps this move is an attempt by Lincoln to separate themselves from the Cadillacs and Buicks, which they are often associated with.

Another big release came again from Chevrolet as they released the new Cruze. This all new vehicle will replace the Cobalt, Chevy’s small-size sedan/coupe.

Even with all the talk of Hybrids and convertibles, at the end of the day it was Audi who took home the big hardware when their Sportback concept won AutoWeek Magazine’s Best In Show award.

If you missed out on the Detroit Auto Show, check out the Chicago Auto Show which is open to the public Feb. 13-22. For more information, check out www.chicagoautoshow.com.