Detroit auto show

The Detroit Auto Show (NAIAS) is Jan 14-22

Whos up for a GRM group outing? I think a Saturday or Sunday would be best, hard to get through the whole show after work during the week.

I'm in. Let me see if any of my TAMU or Ultimate players are up for it.

Really? Detroit still has an Auto show?

I thought the whole place was a ghost town.

carguy123 wrote: Really? Detroit still has an Auto show? I thought the whole place was a ghost town.

D.C. has one the following week which is rich in irony given the state of many of the citys roads and the constant profusion of bike lanes eradicating parking on streets that see the lightest bike traffic. There is the motorcycle show this week which I hope to go to. Again funny how there is a market for bike lanes everywhere but not for a bicycle convention show.

Sorry guys, I'll be there this coming Monday or Tuesday. Not planning on going on the public days.

carguy123 wrote: Really? Detroit still has an Auto show? I thought the whole place was a ghost town.

Wow, that's an original, well thought out, reasoned and presented comment that’s totally relevant to the conversation!

Yes, Detroit still has an auto show. While auto shows are becoming less and less important to the industry for reveals as more and more take place in standalone events away from shows, it’s still a big deal. Detroit is called ‘The North American International Auto Show’ for a reason. It’s still the big daddy of them all on this continent for news and reveals that happen at shows. In the Industry the major Global shows are Detroit, Geneva, Beijing/Shanghai (alternating years) and Frankfurt with New York, LA, Paris, Tokyo and CES (yes the Consumer Electronics Show) fractionally below them, but still big. The other shows in this country are all regional an no major news happens.

Detroit has had a really rough time, but it’s passed the bottom. Last figures I saw said it was basically stable on population in 2015 (lost approx. 3,000) and expecting small growth to start in 2106 although figures aren’t out yet. Down town and mid-town are booming. The biggest danger downtown is getting knocked down by a new $100K plus lux sedan or SUV. You can’t get an apartment in mid-town as it's a full capacity so the growth is moving outward at an increasing pace. I've met people who bought condo's in Detroit in 08-10 who have now bought a second and rent the first for more than the cost of both mortgages combined. Wish I'd done that. There are tons of really cool restaurants, businesses, bars all over the place. Some are 50-60+ years old, some new. It’s one of the few cities with all major sports franchises (NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL) plus an Indy car race. It’s got a world class art museum in the DIA, an opera, a symphony etc. The days of houses selling for $1 are long long gone. Big efforts to remove urban blight and abandoned, falling downs homes and buildings. It’s got a long way to go, but it’s moving in the right direction. It’s the first major city to have 100% LED street lights on all streets which considering how bad it was a few years ago and the massive size of it (You could fit Boston, Manhattan AND San Francisco all inside Detroit’s boarders) is really impressive.

How about moving past the 10 year old sound bite snipping (that was wrong even then) and give the place a chance?

Adrian_Thompson wrote:

carguy123 wrote: Really? Detroit still has an Auto show? I thought the whole place was a ghost town.

Wow, that's an original, well thought out, reasoned and presented comment that’s totally relevant to the conversation!

I saw that comment and though "This will set Adrian off".

Turns out I'm going next week, too. My cousin won a drawing to be one of 100 "guest judges" for the Detroit News, and he can bring a guest. So we'll be going on Wednesday. Yay, no crowds!

I think the last time I was there was when the "new" beetle was revealed. Wow.

It looks like adult tickets are $13 and kiddos are $7. This may be a possibility for me.

The last couple years I've gotten preview tickets and enjoyed it greatly without the crowds.

Alas, the vendor hasn't come through this year.

My being surprised that Detroit had a car show was totally relevant. If you thought the place was a burned out husk with no car companies and no cars then the thought of a car show was mind boggling.

carguy123 wrote: My being surprised that Detroit had a car show was totally relevant. If you thought the place was a burned out husk with no car companies and no cars then the thought of a car show was mind boggling.

Ford and GM aren't car companies anymore? And FiatNA isn't headquartered in Detroit? That's weird.

Adrian, I think you should probably include the Chicago Auto Show in the "Fractionally below" category as well. Especially because of the size of it alone; they have displays and exhibits that aren't possible in most other places.

But I'm just basing this on my going to the CAS for most years of my life. I'm not an industry insider.

carguy123 wrote: My being surprised that Detroit had a car show was totally relevant. If you thought the place was a burned out husk with no car companies and no cars then the thought of a car show was mind boggling.

Seems odd that someone who calls themselves "carguy" would think that there are no car companies in Detroit....

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Bingo. I love Detroit. So much history and automotive culture, plus a lot of the people are quite friendly (unlike in many other major metropolitan areas). First time I visited (Summer 2011), we took Gratiot from Randolph all the way up to 8 mile. Sure it seemed a little grey, but it wasn't sketchy at all. Although there used to be a lot of empty stuff, none of it felt decrepit. Last time I was there was the summer of 2015, and it was a really vibrant place. Probably one of my favourite cities in the world.

carguy123 wrote: My being surprised that Detroit had a car show was totally relevant. If you thought the place was a burned out husk with no car companies and no cars then the thought of a car show was mind boggling.

Fair enough.

GM is literally headquartered right in down town. Ford and Fiat/Chrysler close by. I can get from my office here in Ford to a down town restaurant in 20 mins flat including parking. Nissan and Toyota are HQ'd in the area, Toyota particularly has a massive presence. While VW isn't HQ'd here anymore they still have a lot of people. Lotus still even has an office in Ann Arbor! There are several Chinese OEM's here too, Changan in particularly have an expanding presence. All the big Tier 1 suppliers are either based here or have major offices here. The big three all have many assembly plants in the area and both GM and Fiat/Chrysler have plants within the borders of Detroit proper.

Detroit itself may be a much smaller city that it was, but the Metro area is still the hub of the automotive industry in the US and it could be argued the biggest concentrated area in the world of automotive and related companies.

Look at this from the Federal Highway Admin. It's a map of auto plants density. Notice how SE Michigan and Detroit are completely obliterated in orange dots and black stars? It's not just the big 2.5, it's the whole industry is still centered around here, or a close radius.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

The maps density from London, ON to Toronto surprised me.
Thanks for sharing this map.

Well I would love to get to the show this year.

My daughter lives in Detroit somewhere around the 4 mile area and works for Fiat/Chrysler. Agreed it is not a dead city but one that is slowly coming back.

I will take a vacation day and take my daughters to NAIAS instead of school that day. It's tradition. We park in Greektown, do a couple laps on the People Mover, hit the Lafayette for coneys and chili cheese fries, then walk the last few blocks to Cobo. On the way out, we do another couple laps on the People Mover if we have time. I don't get to see much of the cars, but my girls love it and that's what matters to me.

So bummed that I have to miss the show this year...

JohnRW1621 wrote: In reply to Adrian_Thompson: The maps density from London, ON to Toronto surprised me. Thanks for sharing this map.

No surprise here.....I used to live 35 miles SE of London, running an autoparts plant. All the area towns had auto related industries. There were 5 plants in my town of 13,000 people alone.

Mainstream media told me that most of the plants had all moved elsewhere.

Plus based upon the pics I've seen of the devastation I've seen of Detroit I didn't think there were any workers left in the area either.

Damn, mainstream media!!!

In reply to carguy123:

Lots of awful areas to photograph in Detroit and it "sells" better than showing the nice areas. That tends to happen when a huge city shrinks from 2 million citizens to 700,000.

Hopefully you don't believe in the lies told about Dearborn by the not-so-mainstream media

My wife and I are going to the charity preview and staying downtown all weekend. Looking forward to the event. I'll probably head down again with my dad and my boys as well as a customer at some other times during the week.

Adrian-what is Ford building just north of the main building off of 275 on Dearborn? I saw cranes and construction going on and wondered what was happening.

wawazat wrote: Adrian-what is Ford building just north of the main building off of 275 on Dearborn? I saw cranes and construction going on and wondered what was happening.

I think you mean off of Southfield not I275. We have just broken ground on building a whole new campus. Some of the buildings are really old. It's going to be a 10 year plan to replace the whole lot. Build one building, move people, tear the old one down repeat. Link to Detroit news article from last year. The good news is the first new building will be the new Design studio which is where I work.