The folks who spawned the econobox now eyeball the Luxotrux, a new vehicle variant gathering momentum around the industry.

It's been a long journey from the sedan to the station wagon and pickup truck, from the wagon to the conversion van and then the minivan, from the pickup to the club cab, from the conversion van to the sport utility vehicle. There has also been migration to sports cars and more sport sedans.

Fighting for - and finding - the spotlight last month at the Detroit North American Auto Show was a new vehicle genre. Companies that crashed and burned with the econobox are now seeking salvation with a new generation of vehicle I call the Luxotrux. This nom de mechanique' describes a family of hybrids somewhere between the pickup truck and the sport utility vehicle.

I would place the Lincoln Blackwood concept vehicle at the high water mark for this vehicle type, a 4 x 4 go-anywhere, with everything, in heated leather seats via GPS navigation type of vehicle. Potential price tag? The estimate is $45,000 to $50,000.

Vehicles like the Dodge Ram Quad Cab are already available and vehicles like the Dodge Dakota Quad Cab and the Ford Explorer Sport Trac, based on the F-150 pickup, are coming in model year 2000 and beyond. The visual results are quite similar whether stepping off the pickup truck or the SUV base, but the handling characteristics are probably altogether different.

One very active theme in Detroit was certainly the nostalgiamobile, epitomized by Ford's Thunderbird "less is more" concept vehicle and also the tricked up "meet George Jetson" looking Chevy Nomad. Chevy has also relaunched the six passenger Impala, which is based on the Lumina platform. But the traditional passenger car is definitely taking a back seat to the new varieties of trucks and SUVs.

At the opposite end of the spectrum from the Luxotrux, we have Ford replacing the Escort with the Focus, a small vehicle with truck attributes and styling cues, and the Chrysler PT (personal transportation) Cruiser, which puts a rakish 1930s Chrysler Airflow inspired look on a Neon platform. Part car, part minivan, part SUV. Add in the RAV4, Trackers, Wranglers, Sidekicks and similar vehicles, and we see some very serious market segmentation developing. The table is getting more crowded and that means heightened competition and thus lower margins.