Forget the winter chill: the mood at the Detroit auto show is expected to be bubbling with merriment when carmakers riding high on record US sales reveal their latest wares to the world January 16. We are especially interested in offerings from Mercedes, Porsche and, of all things, Hyundai and Buick!

“The industry is truly firing on all cylinders, and that will be reflected at this year’s show,” said Paul Sabatini, chairman of the North American International Auto Show, also known as the Detroit auto show or Detroit motor show as we are tagging it here.

More than 40 new vehicles will vie for the attention of over 5,000 journalists from dozens of countries during two days of official press previews.

“There are certainly important vehicles there,” Jack Nerad, an analyst with Kelly Blue Book, said in a telephone interview.

Volvo S90 at Detroit

Chrysler will be unveiling the next generation of its Town and Country minivan while General Motors will reveal its China-made Buick Envision sport utility vehicle. The Buick Avista has already stolen the spotlight ahead of the show and we will be following up with more this model, if it is up our alley.

This is a nice bridge to news that we like very much: lots of activity on the high end. Mercedes will be trying to steal the spotlight by revealing its new E class luxury sedan at a party.

The luxury market is reported to be crowded, with an all-new Porsche 911 Turbo set to debut alongside Volvo’s new S90 premium sedan, Ford’s much-anticipated updated Lincoln Continental and fresh models from BMW and Infiniti. Yes BMW has more to reveal, even after CES in Las Vegas earlier this month.

Korea’s Hyundai is hoping to replicate the success of Japanese rivals Toyota, Honda and Nissan by introducing a separate luxury brand, Genesis.

Global debut of the Genesis badge by Hyundai at Detroit

Technology will take center stage, said Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor of Cars.com. Given that the biggest forward leaps in terms of consumer technology have already been revealed at CES, we are not looking for new developments, just more of the same. In other words, look for more semi-autonomous features.

Press previews were held this week at Detroit’s convention center. The show opens to the public on January 16 and 800,000 people are expected to attend by the time it closes on January 24.