Sorry to rant but here goes:

BMW and Mini, Mazda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Mitsubishi, Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini, and Ferrari have all pulled out of the Detroit Auto Show.

It's sad. I lived in Ohio and Michigan almost all my life and made the trip a handful of times to see the show. Spectacular displays from all over the world that made me dream of someday owning a powerful, beautiful automobile that I have to this day worked my *** off to achieve.

We planned to take the whole family this year but missed out on the flight deal we wanted from Tampa (where we now live) back in November. We decided to go in 2020 instead since we thought it might be bigger and better. My oldest son bought his tickets anyway and is flying up from Fort Walton Beach to be there this year. So disappointed for him doesn't begin to explain it.

The BIG3 used to be a big deal, now they are more worried about labor contracts and trade deals. The pinnacle of cardom has moved on. As an American I'm disappointed.

The big auto shows are for the die hard auto enthusiast that either is shopping for a high end beauty or buys the cheaper models because they love the brand. Now, as a former Midwesterner, and BIG3 worker myself, we are left with the low end consumer manufacturers with none of the ability to witness, first hand, the high end vehicles that made us lust after the unobtainable machines to begin with. 2019 is the beginning of the end of the Detroit Car Show I'm afraid.

I understand the shrinking budgets and demographic studies that drive these decisions, but this sucks for every father, wife, son and daughter that lives in the Midwest and, unfortunately, is a testament to Detroit's irrelevance..

Thanks for listening. Rant over.

 

Fiat owns Chrysler. Government Motors is/was owned by the feds. Ford isn't going to make cars anymore, only trucks except for the mustang.

They now make a fraction of the cars they used to, but they did it to themselves. You can only feed even your most loyal customer it garbage product for a couple of generations before they start to look elsewhere.

Detroit is not even close to being the center of the automotive world anymore. The combination of arrogance and incompetence made it happen.

 

I bought my SS because I first saw it at the auto show.

It really is the same ol thing though. Even autorama has been slipping, and for a number of reasons. I haven't went to the auto show the last few years. Nothing new. Nothing exciting. Same old boring appliance vehicles I don't care for. LA and NY auto shows have taken over.

At least there is plenty of stuff to do downtown, your sun should be able to keep pretty well occupied. I have never seen downtown so vibrant in my life and even my 65 year old dad said the same. Even on a cold weekday night the city is just bustling with activity. Not on the level of Chicago, but close.

 

As a GM employee I have to say it us GMs fault for the situation the company is in. They need to kill GMC and Buick. Just have Chevrolet and Cadillac. I work for a GMC/Buick dealership and the product sold isn't worth the money they want for it. I constantly run into the same issues across all generations of specific models that you think would be fixed after year 1. The problem with having 4 different makes causes difficulty in getting parts in a timely manner.

I wouldn't put all the blame on the Big 3, the feds are also to blame. The EPA regulations are crazy. GM is coming out with a new designed 4 cylinder turbo engine for cars and trucks. A 2.0 and a 2.7. The damn camshafts are sliding camshafts for AFM (Active Fuel Management) where a solenoid basically shifts the lobes on specific cylinders to either go high lift, low lift, or no lift duration in order to deactivate cylinders. Why the hell not just use 4 EGT sensors, and tune per cylinder and deactivate accordingly instead of trying to control back pressure/harmonics. AFM sucks on older model trucks and now with the new 2019s they aren't just using cylinders 1,4,6, and 7 as they were but instead going to all 1-8 AFM style lifters with individual solenoids. I can't wait for those to **** out. All of this in the name of fuel economy and decreased emissions.

 

This is also the last year the auto show will be in the dead of winter. They are changing it to summer. Shooting themselves in the foot IMO. Everyone wants to be outside in the summer, winter is perfect for tooling around inside all day. Watch their numbers go down.

 

I talked to my son last night. We are seriously considering a cross country trip in the Exocet to SEMA in Las Vegas in November. Tampa to Las Vegas in an open cockpit car sounds crazy but would be something we would never forget.

Never been to SEMA but I heard it's the **** compared to the declining Auto Shows.

 

Note that your list is entirely foreign manufacturers. Your disappointment implies that you lust after foreign cars. Detroit is, has been, and always will be, a hub for domestic manufacturers. If you are cancelling a trip to Detroit because you are disappointed that all the foreign companies are not bringing their cars there, and you're looking for someone to blame for that decline, I'd look in the mirror.

 

Forget where I saw it, but they get more coverage/$ statistically by doing private shows/unveils vs. competing for attention at DAS, NYAS, etc. "It's just business."

 

Hey Savington, maybe you misunderstood. We cancelled our trip this year because of flight issues (it's in my rant above) nothing to do with the manufacturers pulling out of the Auto Show. And my son is still going. I'm fine looking in the mirror. My wife and I daily drive two Chevrolet Volts. And yes, I lust after fine Italian automobiles but spend my hard earned dollars in the USA. The Volts are one of the few innovative things to come out of the BIG3 in ten years unless you count pickup bed storage from Dodge an innovation.

I'm just commenting on the state of affairs in the auto industry that caused MANY manufacturers to exit the, once premier, Detroit Auto Show and how some families in the Midwest will never get to see, in person, some of the world's most desirable cars because they can't afford to go to the big shows on the East and West coast.

I am, most certainly, not the problem.

 

Again, I ask: If you are spending your money on US-made cars, like so many people in the Detroit area do, then why would BMW, Audi, Ferrari, etc. spend money to bring their cars to show you? They don't attend auto shows for their health or for charity, they do it to move units.

I think blaming it on the "state of affairs in the auto industry" is to miss the forest through the trees. The San Jose auto show a few miles from my shop has similar spotty attendance from certain MFGs. The reality is that the publicity of a wide net of auto shows simply isn't necessary in the era of social media. The MFGs can host private, small gatherings, and then livestream them, rather than paying huge sums to rent convention centers for multiple days.

As far as the "big shows on the East and West coast", consider that Chicago is the largest auto show in the country, and most/all of the MFGs you listed plan on showing cars there. Fly there instead.

 

I had no idea that Chicago was the largest. Very cool. So there are options.

I'm probably suffering from a bout of nostalgia. I guess I'm showing my age.