The Big Picture Blog: Why the LA Show will rule

Posted 12/3/2006 11:28:11 PM by Angus MacKenzie



Lured by cool concept cars, lavish show stands and – especially as the Detroit-based automakers started rolling out more globally relevant products – important new model launches, the world's automotive media made the annual trek to Motown each January, despite the inconvenient date (I recall staggering onto the plane in Sydney, Australia, on New Year's Day one year to make the first press day) and weather that made travel an adventure. European and Japanese automakers, anxious for a slice of media attention in their biggest export market, quickly made sure they had a strong presence there with cool concept cars, lavish show stands and important new model launches of their own.

Stuck in Detroit’s shadow, the LA Show became a sideshow. Now it looks like becoming the main event.

Why? Let’s take it from the top. Of the 800 or so Rolls-Royce Phantoms sold throughout the world last year, 50 of them were sold through just one dealer – Rolls-Royce of Beverly Hills. Of the 4000 orders Bentley has for the new GTC convertible from around the world, about 1000 are for California customers. Californians buy roughly one out of every ten Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis built each year. The world’s largest Mercedes-Benz dealership is in Orange County. You get the idea.

So now premium brand automakers are taking a closer look at the LA Show. Because when the journalists and the TV cameras go home, an awful lot of potential customers are kicking the tires out there in the halls. And if the premium brand automakers start making more of a fuss over the LA Show, mainstream automakers, particularly the Europeans and Asians, for whom California has long been their point of entry into the American market, will almost certainly follow in their wheeltracks.

There were plenty of straws in the wind at the LA Convention Center last week. Nissan, for one, told show organizers if they changed the date it would support the move with a big stand and stage two world debuts. The company made good on its promise with a glamorous display that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Geneva and the reveal of the all-new Altima coupe and Sentra SE-R. Volkswagen flew in a posse of British journalists for the reveal of its all-new Tiguan mini-SUV (lightly disguised as a concept) at an extravagant Hollywood-style party near Paramount Studios the night before the first press day.

There’s a definite buzz in the air about the new LA Auto Show. And a real dilemma facing America’s automakers. Think about it. If you’re launching a high impact halo car like the forthcoming Cadillac CTS coupe, the production Dodge Challenger, or the next-generation Mustang – cars any Motown marketer will tell you need to succeed in California – suddenly Detroit isn’t the only game in town any more.