I spent a great deal of time hauling the camera gear from display-to-display, setting up to capture the best of the show. The goal here at MPGomatic is to provide an unfettered view, to give you the feeling of being at the show, without having to endure the crowds. You want to see the cars. You don’t want to see me saying blah blah blah, obscuring the view.

That’s not to say that we didn’t go deep. You’ll find a smattering of interviews with experts from GM, along with long looks at more than a dozen vehicles that premiered at the show, concepts and production models alike.

Of all the manufacturers at NAIAS 2010, Ford brought the thunder, winning the North American Car of the Year Award for the Fusion Hybrid and the North American Truck of the Year award for the Transit Connect. The premiere of the 2012 Ford Focus was extremely well received, as was the revamped My Ford/My Lincoln Microsoft Sync initiative.

GM earned high marks for Buick Regal (a reworked Opel Insignia), the Cadillac CTS-V and XTS, and the GMC Granite Concept, along with the Chevy Volt, Cruze, and Aveo RS show car (a huge step up from the current production model).

The addition of Ferrari and Maserati brought sparkle to the Chrysler booth, which was lacking in new model announcements. A Chrysler Lancia Delta Concept was most noted for the video in its display that hinted at the next generation 300C. Chrysler showed two sweet little Fiat 500C variants … an Abarth and a battery-electric (BEV) concept. Put us down for one of each.

Honda premiered the production version of the attractive new CR-Z hybrid. While many in the automotive press were unimpressed by the initial performance specs, we have an inkling that tweaked versions of the CR-Z are in the wings (from both Honda and the aftermarket), which offer the potential of greatly improved fuel economy and performance. If they’re not, we’ll gladly volunteer to lead the charge.

Volkswagen pulled the wraps off a stunning NCC (New Compact Coupe) hybrid concept, with the buzz being that this could be the new Jetta coupe. We would not be surprised if this critter evolves into a diesel hybrid.

Toyota doubled down on hybrid concepts, with the Toyota FT-CH and Lexus LF-CH. We also caught the Lexus LFA as it spun about tauntingly.

Audi brought a new and gorgeous electric e-tron concept, along with an R8 Cabriolet – providing inspiration to shave my facial hair into a Tony Stark-like goatee.

Tesla showed their Model S Sedan, still holding to the line that it will be a seven passenger vehicle. Tesla honcho Elon Musk suggests that owners shove two kids into the hatchback. We’ll all be looking forward to that demo. It’s a hatchback for Pete’s sake, not a wagon.

And there’s one more interview … just in case you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to go 0-60 MPH in 2.9 seconds without gasoline …

Disclosure: GM kindly covered my travel to and accommodations in Detroit for NAIAS 2010, along with a varied group of automotive bloggers.

VW Concept Blue Sport

Lincoln C Concept

Dodge Circuit EV Concept

Cadillac Converj Concept

Audi Sportback Concept

Volvo S60 Concept

Mercedes-Benz Concept Blue Zero

Chevy Spark Concept (formerly the Beat)

Subaru Legacy Concept

KIA Soulster Concept

Never mind the never-touched-a-wrench ne’re-do-wells. A fundamental shift has taken place. You know blogging has hit the big time when conventional media sits up and takes notice …especially the television news operations in major metropolitan areas, like Toledo, Ohio.

I met Barrett shortly after setting up my camera gear setup stage right in Cobo Arena for the Ford press conference. Hours later, Barrett caught me when I had packed everything up and was headed out for the day. He asked if I would do a piece on camera for his audience and I happily obliged.

The most efficient way to keep up with MPGomatic coverage of the Detroit show is to follow me on Twitter. I’ll tweet when the video stream goes live and will do my best to take requests … if there’s a specific car you want me to chase down, please let me know and I’ll do my best to capture it on video.

http://twitter.com/mpgomatic

Even though this is a down year, there will be a good number of exciting and innovative cars unveiled at the show. I’m bringing two boxes of MiniDV tapes to get everything I can on tape.

In all likelihood, I won’t have the chance to post videos to YouTube until I’m back at the ranch … but this will still be days before the show opens to the public.

http://www.youtube.com/mpgomatic