Detroit ? The streets of downtown Detroit will be free of cattle this year, and there won’t be any Jeeps flying through the windows of the convention center.

With the entire auto industry suffering, and Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. on government life support, this year’s North American International Auto Show will be a much more spartan affair with fewer elaborate displays, less glitz and none of the crazy headline-grabbing stunts of past years.

“Those kinds of things, it’s not the right year to do those,” said Doug Fox, who runs several Ann Arbor-area car dealerships and is co-chairman of this year’s show. “The money just isn’t there to be spent on those things.”

That doesn’t mean there won’t be news. More than 6,300 journalists from around the world have signed up for the three press preview days starting today, about 100 more than last year.