Autoblog

The Cruze and the Beat greet journalists early Monday, January 12.

Entering on the Chevy side, the Volt display is up front, followed by a long expanse of Bowtie-adorned metal. The Corvette ZR1 is on the floor in front of a Camaro display.

Look at all the muscle. The end of an era?

The other assorted Chevy cars and trucks (there's certainly no shortage of nameplates) are mixed in beyond that. The Equinox, making its big debut, is on a rotating dish toward the back end of the Chevy area. The Bowtie is the giant 900-pound gorilla here. Its mere existence obviates the need for most of the GM brands and nameplates joining it on the floor.

The GM display is expectedly large, given the number of divisions that have to show off their stuff. Depending on where you enter, you encounter either Cadillac or Chevrolet. Caddy's really the headliner for the General this year, with the Converj concept, CTS wagon and SRX placed front and center for the masses. Beyond that, you've got the CTS-V, a smattering of Escalade models, and the cursory XLR appearance. Other than the Converj display, there's nothing particularly gaudy here. Cars on the floor - that's it.

One thing that we noticed down at the GM area is that if you stand at the front, between Chevy and Cadillac, you get a view down the main hallway that seems a bit telling. On the right are brands that are likely to survive: Chevy, Buick, and GMC...

...On the left side, the prognosis is not so good: Saab, HUMMER, Saturn, and then Pontiac (not visible here) - which is banished to the outer reaches of COBO Siberia.

The centerpiece of the Saab display is the 9-X Air BioHybrid Concept. Very pretty. Very not-gonna-happen. A handful of production models are scattered behind it, but you can almost smell the looming death in the air here.

HUMMER follows Saab. A smattering of vehicles, and not many media are paying it any mind. GM almost seems shy about calling attention to the display, too. The accessorized H3T on display is given a turntable, but it's pushed up against the back wall instead of being located along the main foot-traffic thoroughfare. Unless you're looking straight on, like we were for the photo, the newest HUMMER is easy to miss.

Next up is Saturn. The Vue Plug-In Hybrid gets the prime turntable real estate, but it seems hopelessly optimistic given the recent media reports about GM's plans to shrink down to four brands. That casts a pall over the display, where a number of the vehicles are beginning to look a little aged. And the gray "Hybrid" stickers on the "mild" Aura only look like a cry for relevance. Next door at Ford, the new Fusion hybrid makes it look like an antique.

Pontiac comes next (or last, really). End of the hall, end of the road? A G8 GXP looks almost completely out of place among the rest of Poncho's patchwork, largely hand-me-down lineup. The Solstice Coupe is, inexplicably, almost completely hidden from view in the back corner of the floor. Behind the admittedly great-looking G8 GXP, things plunge downhill very quickly. The Vibe and facelifted G6 are there. You can't see it above, but the G5 is present and accounted for, not that anyone'll notice. And of course, the all-important G3 Waveo is on hand, too, because every joke needs a punchline.

The Solstice is hidden away in the corner of the floor. Bring a jacket if you plan to go see it. It's cold in Siberia

Buick follows Chevy on the right side of the hallway. The LaCrosse, which is strikingly handsome in person, is represented twice over - there's a static car (not visible above) and a red one on a dish. Beyond that, you'll find a few Lucernes and Enclaves... oh right, that's all Buick has in its entire lineup. The Lucerne is as pedestrian-looking as a Camry compared to the LaCrosse. Suddenly, it looks ancient.

GMC stands opposite Pontiac, and you can't help but wonder why it always seems to make it onto the keep-alive list. There's not a single product there that isn't completely duplicated by a near-identical-looking Chevy truck or, now, the Traverse crossover. Baffling. Like the rest of the General Motors displays, GMC's got nothing especially fancy going on here.

One company, eight brands. No ostentatious displays, but probably too many of them. Maybe that'll change next year. We'll have to wait and see, but we wouldn't be surprised if at least a couple of those brands don't make a return.