In an effort to show the world at the Detroit auto show how many brands it has to appeal to great numbers of people, General Motors will take the apparently counter-intuitive step of putting them all in one display.
The world's biggest-selling car company invited the automotive media into the cavernous confines of Detroit's Cobo Hall to show them where its huge display will sit and how it will showcase each of its brands.
The GM Experience is, at 115,278 square meters, the largest showcase ever presented at a North American auto show from January 15 to 23 and it will house production, concept and advanced class vehicles from all of the company's product brands, including North America's Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn, as well as Australia's Holden, Europe's Opel and Britain's Vauxhall.
There was some suspicion among media types on hand for the announcement that this move by GM was in response to a similar move by arch-rival Ford at the previous Detroit auto show, but Zarrella refuted that claim.
He said he was struck by how difuse the GM display was and how powerful the centralized Chrysler display was the first time he went to the Detroit show, which was only a couple of months after he joined the company and several years ago now.