While southern California highways were as clogged as ever with huge SUVs, the construction cranes that dotted the LA skyline this summer were mostly idle or gone.

More telling was the Saturday real estate edition of the Los Angeles Times that had 84 pages of homes for sale and just two pages for new.

On the floor of the LA Convention Center, the Chrysler/Dodge display was in darkness, after it withdrew days before the show opening. GM cancelled two unveilings at LA, presumably saving them to make a bigger impact at Detroit in January. That may also have been the case with Chrysler.

There was also speculation Mitsubishi would not participate in January's auto show in Detroit joining Suzuki and Land Rover that will also not attend.

But despite this sense of gloom, the cars premiered in LA showed that the carmakers are, in fact, reacting quickly and positively to a swiftly-changing world.

I am no apologist for the auto industry, but what I saw in LA was very encouraging and bodes well for the future. Sure there will be some bad bumps, but the road to a greener, more efficient automotive future is emerging.

Here are some of the highlights, as I saw them, at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show.

MAZDA:

The most important unveiling was the 2010 Mazda3. One in every three Mazda vehicles sold on the...