On the dashboard of the handsome new Bentley Continental GT is a clock by watchmaker Breitling. You may have seen it in Bentley-Breitling advertising. And a few years ago, Bulgari jewelers were asked to design the dash instruments in a new Cadillac.

What times we live in when the style of a clock or watch is more important than its timekeeping function. Everyone knows you can buy an unbeatable, accurate watch for $10 or $20 – maybe $30 if you insist on some style, too.

The Swiss watchmakers survived the loss of the volume watch business by moving up-market and, so far, they seem successful. But will it be the same for automakers?

These thoughts were prompted by a visit to the North American International Automobile Show, earlier this year, in Detroit. Detroit is one of four “world-class” auto shows where new models are premiered, and every maker shows some futuristic concepts (the others are in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Frankfurt). Our San Francisco show is one level down – a regional show that gets mostly current models only.

January in Detroit? Forget it, unless you really like automobiles, because it’s always freezing. 2004 was a year Detroit would like to forget. Except for Chrysler, Detroit (GM and Ford) lost market share. The Asians were way up. Toyota announced plans to increase worldwide sales sufficient to replace GM as #1. The Detroit newspaper headline said, “GM vows to fend off Toyota”.

The show went on – glitzy and exciting. What I saw there suggests that Toyota and the other Asians know precisely what we want to buy, are delivering it currently, and have some tasty morsels in their pipeline.

Car importers in the last 50 years started with niche products – either expensive luxury or sports cars, or economy sedans. Over the years they’ve expanded up-market, down-market, and sideways. Importers have offered some terrible dogs, but more often brilliant products, and now Lexus (Toyota) is the best selling luxury car.

Toyota Camry is the best selling individual model. Detroit forgot about passenger cars and made a lot of money on SUVs and pickups. Now the Asians are effectively attacking those sectors with top grade, USA produced products. And, they don’t bear the same burdens as their American and European competition; health and retiree costs for the former, and disadvantageous currency exchange for the latter.

Consider SUVs. The appeal of four-wheel drive, a safe-feeling high-driving position, and versatility has typically been offset by poor fuel mileage, bulky size and truck-like ride and handling. In the last year, we’ve reviewed the Subaru Forrester and the Infiniti FX, two SUVs that ride, handle, and perform more like passenger cars.

In Detroit, many prototypes of future “soft-roaders” were shown, the handsomest of which, to my eyes, came from Suzuki! Mazda and Acura each had an eye-catcher, and so did Ford (score one for the home team). Mercedes showed a new “M” class along with two impressive crossovers (part car, part SUV, part van). At least one of these will be built in the U.S., thus avoiding the currency crunch.

In sporty two-seaters, my favorite prototype was a tasty little coupe called the Nissan Azeal, suggesting a bargain-basement, high style, low price, 350Z-inspired car. Along with the Pontiac Solstice, a soon-to-be-introduced two-seat roadster at about $20,000, and the existing Scion tc (Toyota), plus the latest Mazda Miata, one can only wish to be a kid selecting his or her first new car. No previous generation has had anything like the selection of sexy, cheap sports cars on offer today.

At the other end of the sports car scale are the super cars – Ferrari and its challengers. For the first time ever, the Americans are well represented, GM with the Chevrolet Corvette, Ford with its GT, and Chrysler with its Dodge Viper. Auto buff magazines have reviewed all three very favorably.

There may be a fourth – Chrysler showed a Viper-based Hemi-powered Aston Martin look-alike that looks all but production ready. It’s called Firepower – the name of the original hemi-head V8 in 1951 – but may have a different designation if it’s actually produced. We may see the Firepower pacing the California Mille historic car tour at the Fairmont Hotel on April 24, 2005.

In the world of four-door sedans, Mercedes-Benz’ new CLS, described as the world’s first four-door coupe, looked very smart in deep red. Available soon, it should be a big hit. But in describing it as the world’s first four-door coupe, someone must have overlooked an identically-described car offered by the British maker Rover in the early 1960s, and now enjoying great desirability in the collector car field, especially in the U.K.

Infiniti (Nissan) showed a new M series of sedans, in the $40-50,000 range, that promise to be formidable competitors. Every other new Nissan model recently has chalked up huge gains, because they’ve been so damn good. The M looks like another winner.

But the most memorable scene occurred when Toyota took off the sheets covering their new Avalon sedans. Dozens of Japanese executives swarmed around the cars looking quite dazzled. Their name tags indicated that they worked for competitors such as Honda and Nissan; their manner suggested that they viewed the car as a bombshell.

Why? For starters, it looks a lot like the $70,000 VW Phaeton. That’s a lovely car, but overpriced in buyers’ eyes. The Toyota is arguably even more handsome, reeks quality, and shows all the hallmarks of Toyota’s world-leading reliability. Power? A 3.5 liter, 280 hp V-6. Weight? About 40 percent less than the VW Phaeton. Result? Vivid performance. But the real killer is the price – $27,000 to start – maybe $32,000 with everything.  And if you wish, you could buy an American car; this one’s made in Toyota’s Kentucky plant.

The Toyota Avalon is one more car that challenges the prestige nameplates, and again makes the point that, in the automobile world, the price of goodness is going down. Like watches. Only more so because many inexpensive brands have better reliability records than the top dogs.

Just to put things in perspective, the Chevy Cavalier is a car you’d probably never consider – it’s plain and simple. It’s not bad looking, but it’s no standout. But if you put aside your prejudices and drive this car you’d have to agree it’s not bad. Tight, quiet, quick, comfortable, economical, durable and trouble-free. To top it all off, there was a 2004 model advertised by a rental car company for $8,995. Lots of people are waiting in line for a Toyota Prius because of its low fuel consumption. Compared to that $8,995 Chevy, it’ll take them 30 or 40 years to come out even financially.