Shadowy Play; Secondhand stars from earlier shows will brighten Detroit fo the mass market.(Brief Article)

Remember when ``video game-like'' was a mild automotive pejorative, a critique of cars that made the right numbers but lacked warmth or soul? Well, it's a new millennium. Carmakers want you to think their cars are like video games, judging by the predominant themes of the Detroit auto show press preview. This was evident most at the Ford EX and Acura RS-X introductions, where the cars seemed small and secondary, overshadowed by huge productions on enormous screens where they starred in video game-like computer-generated racing scenarios. At Acura, journalists were handed 3-D glasses, presumably for a more ``realistic'' experience of the simulation of a simulation of driving that was playing on the monster screen.

Reality was mostly virtual throughout, however-including at Chrysler where the concepts drove through ``streets'' that were auto show aisles with computer-drawn backdrops. It was as if the Detroit show was playing second fiddle to the Con-sumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, automakers subconsciously suspecting that more folks would care about Bill Gates' new X-Box than they would about a Honda Model X or Nissan Z.

Now that it's open to them, though, the general public will be excited by this year's Detroit show, probably more so than anyone in the industry or among the car cognoscenti. We've been-there done-that with the likes of the Mini Cooper, Porsche Carrera GT and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. But they're fresh to most Americans. Those and many more (550 Maranello ...