Ed Welburn, vice president of GM Global Design, said, "We have not spent as much money on the displays as we have in the past, far less money on the displays, there aren't as many large video walls and cutaway models. The focus is on the vehicles."

U.S. auto sales tumbled nearly 40 percent in the first three months of 2009 to the lowest level in 27 years. This has driven GM and Chrysler to the brink of bankruptcy and other major automakers into mounting losses.

Chrysler's lenders are in talks with the U.S. government to reduce the automaker's debt by swapping some of it for equity, new debt or a smaller cash boost.

General Motors is under pressure to reach sweeping concessions with bondholders and the UAW by June 1st. The Obama administration says the alternative would be a government-controlled bankruptcy.