Recently went to LA Auto Show. It was never world class but a decade or two ago it definitely had all mainstream German brands represented, the mainstream exotic brands (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati) and the small market share brands like Alfa Romeo, Mitsubishi, etc. It had literally none of that. It wasn’t boring but it also wasn’t the “near-complete index of new cars for viewing” it used to be.
Do such shows still exist? Geneva and Detroit come to mind, but have they withered away too?
Maybe some lesser-known shows like Dubai, or Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, India? Mexico?
Would appreciate any input & insight
TBH even NYC isn’t what it used to be— since they’ve come back from COVID the whole lower level is just a big track.
Detroit went big on the tracks this year too. Mostly showing off the 0-60 for EV’s and off-road climbing set ups.
Sadly, covid seems to have killed the Detroit show as a all-in-one premier event.
Best I can tell, the big ones left are Geneva, Tokyo, LA, and possibly NYC, with different automakers favoring different shows. I’m not sure there’s any show left that has all of them.
Chicago used to be the hidden gem in the auto show circuit for consumers who were actually in-market, since the event space is enormous. Manufacturers and even local dealers would bring new inventoried models that were of different trims. It was nice to see them all side by side and poke around to see what made the sometimes-double-the-MSRP of the base add up in features and options.
I still enjoy chicago for that reason, this year I ended up driving a solid 10-12 cars too, could’ve been more but i’m under 25. It sucks on the more flagship end of things though, no launches and the german luxury brands are basically absent as well, let alone any higher end or bespoke brands to oogle at. Ford does a good job bringing some cool GTs though.
Loved Chicago growing up. Went this year and it was a shell of its former self. Super disappointing. Wasn’t really worth going, and I live in the city.
I’ve been going to Detroit at least every other year as long as I can remember and it’s gotten horrible. I don’t expect to go again anytime soon. Most of the brands are gone and the brands that are left make much less of an effort.
The uaw strike has caused the American manufacturers to pull out of all auto shows this year. The Phoenix auto show was cancelled entirely as a result of the strikes.
I was a kid in a candy store at the 2007 Chicago Auto show. Every manufacturer had a concept car there. Players from the Bears were having meet and greets. Others were spotted getting the first look at unreleased or high end cars. It was awesome.
By the time I’d left Chicago in 2017 it was smaller. We live in a largely digital world now. Unveiling a car at an auto show reaches far fewer people than releasing a car in some remote, luxurious or challenging location that shows off the cars intentions and capabilities.
All of the Big 3 were at this LA and Detroit
I went to the industry/press day for Detroit and LA. LA was 1000x better in every way. Detroit is pretty much just the Big 3 now. I don’t think there were any significant reveals at Detroit this year either.
LA at least had the new Santa Fe and the Lucid Gravity. It also had free tasting of Kevin Hart’s tequila on press day which was very nice.
Autoshows as a whole are on the decline. That was the trend before the pandemic but the pandemic put several more nails in the coffin.
As a professional in the automotive industry, I’ve been attending many large auto shows for the past 14 years and I couldn’t agree more, they’ve all declined quite a bit. I miss when there were more concept cars and crazy designs, even if they never came to fruition it was neat to see. Nowadays I’m just like… “where’s Nissan? Where’s Honda?” Haha. :/
Man, the LA Auto Show has fallen far. I’ve gone every year for the past four years, and each time there were less manufacturers. This year there wasn’t even Porsche! Which is kind of weird because they unveiled the 911 Dakar at the LA Auto Show last year, I wonder why they pulled out this year.
To make way for Kevin Hart’s rides!
Seriously, though, it was disappointing to not see Porsche there. That was always a highlight for me.
Detroit isn’t as good as it used to be but I still enjoy going, they have tons of cool concepts and some niche automakers too
The Paris Motor Show is the longest running and gets the most visitors.
Yeah it’s brilliant, been there twice. Frankfurt is also good but the city sucks for a weekend break so its just the car show.
IAA has been moved from Frankfurt to Munich
Auto shows are dead. If you want a good one you’ll need a time machine.
The Quail at Monterey Car Week & the whole week itself is generally a pretty good place to see some grand unveilings & new car showcases.
Monterey Car Week, and the Porsche Rennsport Reunion totally spoiled me. The LAIAS truly seemed boring by comparison. No Porsche, BMW, Audi, Alfa, Lambo, Rolls, Ferrari…you see all those cars in Monterey.
I even saw Frank-Steffen Walliser less than two months ago at Laguna Seca not 10 feet from me. LA really lost something with the auto show this year.
Monterey Car Week is probably the closest I’ve come to Forza Horizon in real life.
Pebble Beach and Goodwood are fantastic, but its ticket price isn’t really affordable for most viewers.
Gotta keep the grubby poors from touching the cars.
It’s COVID. The LA Auto Show in 2018 was legit. A lot of debuts and such. The two auto shows I’ve been to since they started after COVID have been noticeably weaker.
I remember they had the Russian, UAZ-based “Bremach 4x4” at the 2019 or 2020 show.
Swiss here. Last Geneva Motor Show was before Covid, since then it was cancelled. Last month the Geneve Motor Show happend to be in Qatar! WTF? But there is a silver lining: It seems the show is coming back to Geneva in March 2024, but we will have to see how many manufactures actually will show up again.
I think I read somewhere, brands favor to be on their own time now and so are doing their own events. It gives them better flexibility, and they can fly in people they want. Doing things on their schedule gives focus on only them, instead of fighting at shows. I see more brands fly in social media people to their events, especially to tracks or their HQ. Gives social media people something to talk about for a week on just that automaker.
I haven’t been in years now, but the Paris motor show is a sight to behold.
Highly recommended the Paris motor show. Biggest in Europe for attendance and you also get to see Paris.
I’ve been to it twice and it was fantastic. But watch out when getting tickets as its bi annual. 1 year is consumer cars, then next is commercial, so only every second year has cars.
There is also the Frankfurt motor show, which is the biggest motor show in Europe. Its so big that each of the big German brands have their own dedicated convention centre buildings. This is also the venue most new cars are debuted in Europe.
The only downside to Franfurt is that the city doesn’t have much to do outside the carshow unless you plan ahead and look for things.
Both of these shows are manufacturer shows and have attendance in the hundreds of thousands.
Frankfurt is in Munich now and it’s not good anymore. Germans barely had cars and the rest of Europe was not there