Auto Know: Showsational!

If you just have to have it, the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Mich., is usually the place to find it.

In the town that earns its Motor City name every day of the week, the new-car show must always go on and a pretty decent show it was this year (open to the public Jan. 19-27), despite some whiffs of doom and gloom that could be expected in what was a slightly slower year for industry sales.

Unlike November’s Los Angeles, Calif., green and laid-back car show, the big-daddy Detroit event offered lots of hustle and hubris, along with plenty of promises from the manufacturers that greener vehicles would eventually come on stream.

There was a serious display of good old-fashioned hard sell mixed in with lots of glitzy concepts, both Detroit hallmarks.

It would take several pages to cover everything from this year’s press preview days that took place in advance of the show, but here’s our highlights of the best, the different, and the just plain weird that makes the Detroit show — the first official auto show of 2008 — a must see.

Best new-vehicle launch

Without question, Chrysler’s Texas Longhorn cattle drive down Washington Boulevard, right outside the Cobo Hall show venue in downtown Detroit, was this year’s big attention grabber. “Steering” the event were genuine cowboys who managed to prevent the utter destruction of the event’s co-star, a sharp-looking 2009 Dodge Ram pickup, that ran with the bulls. That’s one tough truck. Chrysler’s chief pitchman Bob Nardelli had a difficult time holding the attention of several thousand auto writers in attendance, especially when a few of the rowdier steers began to misbehave. The whole show was great fun and a great attention getter for Dodge, although running with rams instead of cattle might have made more sense.

Best press kit

Dodge wins this one, too. The usual press kit comes in a folder, but hats off to Dodge, which served up the 2009 Ram’s info in a brown canvass satchel that resembled western saddle bags. Also included was a separate 20-page booklet covering such cowboy lore as how to build a campfire, how to write a cowboy ballad and everything you need to know about Beef Jerky. Yes, somewhere in there was information about the revamped truck, whose optional 5.7-liter “Hemi” V8 gets a boost to 380 horsepower  from 345.

Best star appearance