CanadianDriver was invited to a media preview of General Motors’ show display at the Detroit Auto Show, and they can report that quite a few new cars will be unveiled.

The cars include the eagerly awaited Chevy Camaro Convertible, a new Chevrolet Aveo, an extensively revised Malibu, production versions of the Chevrolet Spark (Pictured above) and Orlando, a high-performance Buick Regal, and a GMC version of the Chevy Orlando, which will be called the GMC Granite.

The Camaro Convertible will be just that, a Camaro Convertible. Don’t expect any changes apart from the roof.

The new Malibu was unexpected. It’s been only three years since the car underwent a complete revamping. The mock-up on display showed that the bodywork will be more sculptured, the metal will have crisper edges, and there will be larger wheel arches and a raised rear deck.

The Aveo gets bigger for its update. It was designed in Korea, but will be produced in several plants around the world for different markets. The North American market will have it built in the US. There will be hatchback and sedan variants.

The production Chevy Spark won’t be far off from the concept (Pictured above). It was designed for the youth market. The interior will get a unique gauge cluster with an enormous tachometer and digital speedometer mounted to the steering column.

The Orlando won’t be far from its concept either. It is based on the Aveo. It will get seven-passenger seating and a four-cylinder engine. GMC’s version of the Orlando, the Granite, is being called an “urban utility vehicle”, and will be the smallest GMC ever made. It is targeted at a younger market than the Orlando. It will have to compete with the likes of the Honda Element, Kia Soul and Nissan Cube, so it should be a funky looking car. Autoblog predicts that a Denali version should be on the way.

The high-performance Buick Regal is something I’ve been really hoping for. Most of its performance parts will be taken from the Opel Insignia OPC/Vauxhall Insignia VXR. The Regal, including this high-performance model, supposedly called the GS,will be built in Europe for the 2011 model year, but production will be moved to Oshawa, Canada for 2012.

Lastly, Jalopnik got invited to this event as well, and they noticed on the floor plan that there was a car called the “XTS Showcar”. This is presumably the concept Cadillac previewed a few days ago. A while ago, there was a closed media event where General Motors previewed some cars, and one of them was a concept called the XTS and it was supposed to succeed the STS/DTS. So maybe this is what we’ll be seeing. Alex noticed that the car has 4-doors in the preview picture, making this even more likely.

Sounds like General Motors will have a very interesting lineup at the Detroit Auto Show.

Source: CanadianDriver via Autoblog and Jalopnik