Hot new style for stodgy old Detroit

After all the talk of war, rising oil prices, and falling sales, it turns out automakers just want you to have fun. Take that brawny SUV up some unpaved mountain road. Or hop into a racy coupe and head down the highway. Even if you just sit in it - parked in the car lot - it still looks as if you're doing 100 miles an hour.

Which is the point.

While Detroit is losing sales of its everyday cars to foreign, especially Japanese, competition, it is trying to refocus the game on vehicles that turn heads and lure customers into the showroom. It's not a new trick. But in an era of declining market share, automakers in the United States are banking on it more than ever.

"Cars are clothing; they're fashion accessories," says Kevin Wilson, executive editor of AutoWeek magazine. And yesterday's fashions always become commodities. So automakers, like fashion designers, are always looking for the next big statement, he adds. "They're all trying to push their way out of [becoming commodities], because that's where you have to start stuffing money in the glove box."

If there was one big statement at this year's diverse North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it would have to be sleek and sexy. Four automakers debuted almost identical racy coupes - all of them silver. These concept cars are:

• Jaguar's Advanced Lightweight Coupe Concept, which previews the upcoming revision of the brand's iconic, sleek XK8 sports coupe. Ford Motor Co. owns Jaguar.

• The Chrysler Firepower, a 500-horsepower sports car built on the chassis of a Dodge Viper but with more elegant looks and a fancier interior.

• The Shelby Cobra GR-1, a loose replica of the racing Shelby Cobra coupes of the 1960s except that the body is polished aluminum. It was so bright, several observers at the show complained they couldn't take a picture of it. "It looks liquid," said another.

• Toyota's Lexus LF-A super coupe, designed to run with the likes of Jaguar and Porsche.

If put into production, these vehicles may one day be "halo" vehicles, designed to stand out on the road, get buyers to stand up, take notice, and feel good about the brands that make them, says Wes Brown, an analyst with automotive marketing firm Iceology in Los Angeles.

A halo car "makes a strong enough statement" to bring buyers into the showroom and has a positive emotional effect on buyers, says Mr. Brown. And it doesn't hurt that the car is unattainably expensive or impossibly impractical for most buyers.

After a year in which America's two largest automakers lost market share and the average cash rebates on cars increased 2 percent - to an average of $2,512 per car and $4,179 for large SUVs - manufacturers need all the help they can get.

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