An Early Look at Car Showrooms in 2012

California and 16 other states seem close to being allowed to hold automakers to tougher emissions standards than the federal government has in mind.

If these states move ahead with their plans, they'll generate enough of a critical mass to largely determine what the rest of the country is driving. So it made me wonder what dealer showrooms will look like beyond 2011, when the first of the latest round of emissions standards go into effect.

For some answers, I talked with Paul Ballew, who spent several years as a sales and markets analyst for General Motors(GM Quote) and is now senior vice president of customer insights and analytics for Nationwide Mutual Insurance. ...