Delhi upstaged Detroit with The Tata Nano

It was always the big brother show but this year, Delhi upstaged Detroit with the Tata Nano. Despite its 200 cars and 50 concepts, the ongoing North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) did not quite get it right this year. True there were some pretty zany marketing antics - including Chrysler's cattle stampede to launch the Dodge Ram truck.

True there were the usual sprinkling of stars, including Kid Rock for General Motors, Bryan Adams for the Audi R8 V12 concept super car. And sex and the city's Kim Cattrall for the Mercedes Benz GLK Freeside.

But no BIG BANG. In fact a section of the international media actually commented that the car that held centre stage in Detroit this year was one that wasn't even on display. Namely, the Nano.

For Detroit, the cheapest debutante this year was a Chinese SUV. It will be imported by a company called Chamco and is manufactured by ZX Auto of China. It's tag: $14,000. Sorry guys, the Nano is leagues ahead. Although the Chinese companies - BYD, Changfeng, Geely and othershogged quite a few headlines and have announced their intention to roll out Made in China sedans and SUVs in the US, none of them had any breakthrough products on display. Of the 200 cars that jostled for eyeballs, just a hand few were different/ special /truly gorgeous.

Top of that roster will be the Mitsubishi RA clean diesel concept coupe which marries the EVO DNA to a 2 litre turbo diesel engine to crank out some truly decent power and torque. Just as interesting is the Audi R8 V12 super car concept, both in style and performance promise, Bryan Adams notwithstanding.(Audi paraded John Abrahams in Delhi and between the two, Abrahams is certainly the dishier variant.)

The Land Rover LRX concept got a lot of wows which should be good news for the Tata team. And the Ferrari 430 Spider biofuel was the ultimate in toys for boys going green. Hummer displayed an ethanol variant and Toyota a fuel cell-cum electric hybrid SUV though the stunning Jeep Renegade concept (a battery-and-diesel hybrid) topped the list of green droolworthies.

Mercedes Benz showed off the Vision GLK Freeside which should soon get into production while BMW X6 sports activity coupe was the kind of hundreds-of-horses performance packs that the American market has always liked. Also on display was Tranformers car Chevy Camaro which rubbed hub caps with other all-American models Ford F150 and Dodge Ram pick ups.

The Asian brigade also had some good old fashioned SUVs and sedans. Hyundai for instance showed off the Genesis saloon and Kia the Borrego SUV, both of which should earn the Korean company some de-cent marketshare in the US. Volkswagen's sleek four-door coupe, the Passat CC, also drew attention as did the Cadillac CTS coupe concept, a genuinely nice looking two-door.

But of course, despite all the hoopla and green angst, it was the Nano that ruled both conversations as well as media bytes. Top auto bosses either announced their plans to enter that segment (Toyota) or not. When the Nano does debut overseas in Geneva, the Delhi rush will see another encore. Till then, Detroit will simply have to play second fiddle.