The Importance Of Auto Shows Today
With the focus of car manufacturers on lucrative social media marketing campaigns on Instagram or Facebook, and sponsorships on things such as Motor Trend head-to-head videos, it’s no wonder why some may think that the idea of an auto show is a dead concept.
Back in the day, before I was definitely born, the auto show was all civilians had if they wanted to go and see the latest and greatest from automobile manufacturers. Sure, of course there were dealerships, but much like today, dealerships want to move people in and out like cattle to the slaughter, as manufacturers want dealers to put up high volume numbers plain and simple.
The only way for someone to see something such as the new C7 Corvette ZR1 and not get pressured to buy it or move along, or have their credit checked via a face scanner as they walk into the dealership, back in the day was to either have a rich uncle or coworker who bought one, or at the auto show that rolled into town.
Perspective
Since I’m managing this blog, I’m sure a lot of you can guess that I’m a hardcore car enthusiast to actually dedicate time and passion to writing stories on car-related items. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s true, and I also happen to work at a car dealership. No, I’m not a salesman, so I’m not here to sell you anything, but I can speak firsthand on what it’s like to be an enthusiast who gets to see both sides of the coin when it comes to new cars at the public level.
As soon as you park your car at most dealerships, you’ll have a swarm of salespeople waiting to pin you down like vultures at the door to the place if you decide not to look around the front lot first. Even if you somehow manage to avoid the vultures outside, you still have the remaining vultures inside asking you, “Have you been helped?”, “Is there something specific you’re looking for today?”, and the list goes on and on. After that, it will be an even tougher challenge to try and look over a new M3 or Corvette without getting watched in particular.
However, auto shows are a completely different animal, and it’s for the benefit of the general public. That’s not to say car manufacturers won’t use auto shows to debut cool new models. I attended the Los Angeles Auto Show this past December to go see the new C7 ZR1 Corvette in person, where they debuted the convertible variant (the coupe was debut in Dubai earlier that month). Nonetheless, auto shows are for the public.
If you’ve never been to an auto show, it is essentially a smorgasbord of cars. With delectable samples from a variety of car companies, and even aftermarket companies. You can choose to ignore what you want, pick out favorites, and best of all, go in-depth with those said favorites of yours.
Now for cars that aren’t in production yet (like the C7 ZR1) or those that are million dollar hypercars (such as the AMG Project One shown above), you probably won’t even get to see inside, let alone open the doors. But, for cars that are already in public or from lower brand companies, everything is fair game.
You can open the doors, feel the dashboard and radio controls, put your butt into those seats and see if the seating position is right for you, try out the shifter, check out the hood and trunk, and maybe if you’re lucky enough, get to try out the radio and sunroof. You get to fully immerse yourself in any car you want. I personally took the liberty of sitting a bit too long in a BMW M2, my current dream car, as well as the new Shelby GT350R. I don’t have any photos of the lovely M2, a bit of oversight on my car as I was so shocked that I was getting to sit in my dream car. Being a car guy I should see more M2s in my life than the average human, yet the one at the auto show was about the third or fourth I have ever seen and the only one I have ever gotten to sit in.
The best thing of all about the show? You have zero pressure to buy those cars right then and there. Sure, the lovely models in polo and dress shirts can help you schedule a test drive at the auto show or put you in contact with a local dealership near you, but for the most part, the auto show is for you, the consumer.
So sure, while you can see these cars flooding your Instagram and Facebook feeds, you won’t be able to sit in these cars, or touch them. If you don’t have the fortunate luck like I do to be located in sunny, Southern California, you may never even see these cars in-person in your lifetime.
For me, I had not been to my local auto show in at least a decade, so it was definitely a breath of fresh air not having to see new cars in a crowded parking lot at a Cars N’ Coffee, or getting attacked by vultures at a dealership, or seeing some photograph I have to decipher from a journalist on Instagram with zero photo skills whatsoever on my small, cracked phone screen.
In a world where the automotive industry tends to stray away from making things easier on the consumer with cars that fall apart at eighty thousand miles, or unfavorable financing plans, or just poorly designed cars, automotive shows are the one place where the consumer wins, at least for a week or two. You can go full in-depth with the cars from touching every last bit of the exterior and interior, to even going on a test drive in real-like traffic conditions outside a convention center in nearly every car you see on the show floor. So go out and enjoy what’s there to sample!