HispanicBusiness

Detroit (dpa) - The North American International Auto Show in Detroit kicks off the car industry's annual exhibition schedule.

Opening Monday to the press and dealers, the show welcomes the public from January 19-27.

Last year, more than 770,000 visitors - an improvement of 36,000 from 2011 - came to the show in frigid Detroit, which in January is anything but a top destination.

German carmakers, who face a mature market at home and a shrinking economy in the surrounding eurozone, increasingly rely on the US and other overseas market for growth.

In 2012, the US car market, in rapid recovery from the 2007-09 recession that brought Detroit's Big Three to their knees, absorbed 14.5 million new vehicles, growth of more than 13 per cent from a year earlier.

German brands even outperformed in the US with growth last year of 21 per cent, up to a 9-per-cent combined US market share.

In Detroit's rear-view mirror, 2009, when General Motors and Chrysler sought bankruptcy protection and received rapid, government-aided reorganizations, now looks increasingly distant.

At the time, the atmosphere at the Detroit car show was almost apocalyptic. Now, with more than 50 international and North American model premiers this week at the Cobo Centre arena complex on the Detroit River, the tone is much more celebratory.