LOS ANGELES — At a corner table outside a Malibu cafe sits the classic California girl: a tall, slim, flawless blonde in white capri pants, a gauzy shirt and delicate gold necklaces, eyeing the Sunday crowd from behind oversize Gucci sunglasses.

At 34, Vicki Vlachakis is an acclaimed designer for General Motors. Her stamp is on two of GM's recent triumphs, the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice. The sleek, eye-catching sport convertibles managed to reinvigorate two GM brands as Detroit strains to avoid catastrophe.

Vlachakis is at the front of a small but increasingly influential pack of smart, young designers Detroit counts on to make it relevant to an under-40 crowd that not only doesn't much care for American vehicles but, just as troubling, has almost no loyalty to the home team.

Part car geek, part Malibu glam girl, Vlachakis insists, "Design is going to be the big thing to pull us out of this mess."

It's a mission launched by GM products chief Bob Lutz, who has restored power to designers.

"Design is the last great differentiator in products," Lutz said. "All cars work well. They all have about the same fuel economy. They're all safe. They're all comfortable. They all have heat and air-conditioning. ... What you're left with is, 'Do I love it? Do my friends admire it? Do I feel good about myself when I drive it? When I'm sitting in it?' "

Design is king, and it's not only designers who will tell you so. Consumers are demanding beauty from even the most mundane products: from Target's cheap, chic cone-shaped vacuum cleaners to Toyota's belated redesign of the reliably bland Camry.

Detroit is absorbed in designing vehicles that will be produced and on the roads in the next few years, while the more distant future is unfolding out West. Every major automaker is represented in southern California.

An L.A. studio allows automakers to capitalize on the area's creative talent. It also provides entree into a massive consumer market and a car culture ahead of the national curve on driving trends, including fuel efficiency and environmentally sound vehicles.

The Solstice, for one, was conceived in GM's design team in North Hollywood. "I thought about the car on the Pacific Coast Highway early in the morning, the way it would look, the way it would feel," Vlachakis said.

Lutz fast-tracked the car through GM's bureaucracy to preserve the vision of the car's two young lead designers, Franz Von Holzhausen (now with Mazda) and Vlachakis.

The duo met with engineers, and the result was a near-miracle in the auto industry: a car that bears a strong resemblance to the designers' sketch, with Vlachakis' large, rounded shapes and sleek, simple gauges left intact.

When the Solstice went on sale in 2005, GM sold the first 1,000 online in 41 minutes. By that August, when the Solstice went into production, Pontiac had orders for 12,000 more.

A year later, while most Pontiac vehicles were sitting on lots for months, the Solstice moved in less than three weeks. The Sky, released afterward, is even hotter, selling in less than two weeks.

"Those cars do well because where else can you get a convertible that size that looks as good for that price?" said Chris Li, a researcher for a unit of J.D. Power and Associates, which tracks automotive sales.

Vlachakis grew up in Pasadena. As a 12-year-old, she was a popular girl who preferred to sketch cars on the back of her notebooks. By the time she finished high school, she had fallen in love with automotive design and enrolled at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, the only woman in her graduating class.

She learned that making a $20,000 car, something for the masses that does not look mass-produced, is a challenge. In that way, GM — and its Detroit rivals — don't have it so easy.

Which is why it was such a triumph when the Solstice, listed at $20,490, was the only American car named to Automobile Magazine's Most Beautiful Cars of 2006, listed alongside a $171,286 Bentley and, yes, a $162,250 Aston Martin.

Vlachakis said she has been encouraged by GM to maintain her youthful vibe in an industry that hasn't always celebrated change.

"Look at Ikea. Look at Target," Vlachakis says. "They've made design not just attainable but a must for everyone."