Are Auto Shows Dying?

by Tim Healey

Published: February 9th, 2024

The question I posed in the headline is an interesting one. There's been a lot of consternation that auto shows are dying, set to be killed by a changing world.

Most of that narrative comes from an automotive press that goes to the media-preview days and then writes about the ills of auto shows if there's not much news being made. Never mind that auto shows are for the paying public, not the media, and no matter what happens during the press preview, auto shows are really about the general public.

So, no, I do not think auto shows are dying. I do, however, wonder what will happen with media days.

I've said this before so I won't belabor the point further. Even with the recent big Stellantis news.

I did, however, talk to Jennifer Morand, the president of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, and automotive content creator (and NACTOY juror) Jill Ciminillo, about this. Chris Tonn and I then discussed their takes and had our own chat about auto shows.

We also went in on the Tesla Cybertruck, which we saw in person for the first time (Chris and I even sat in it) before spinning it back to the auto-show conversation -- we discussed our favorite vehicle debuts of all time. Naturally, we asked Jen and Jill for theirs, as well.

Thanks for listening!

[Image: Chicago Auto Show]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 43 comments

Steve on Feb 13, 2024
Ever since SUVs and CUVs took over the market, auto shows have been dead to me. When we get more electric cars, my interest might be revived.

1 Reply
JTiberius1701 on Mar 15, 2024
Until the Covid sham debacle, I had not missed the Greater Cleveland Auto Show since 1979. Since then I attended the 2023 show but took a pass on this years show because the '23 show was so very depressing.

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Recent Comments

Theflyersfan With sedans, especially, I wonder how many of those sales are to rental fleets. With the exception of the Civic and Accord, there are still rows of sedans mixed in with the RAV4s at every airport rental lot. I doubt the breakdown in sales is publicly published, so who knows... GM isn't out of the sedan business - Cadillac exists and I can't believe I'm typing this but they are actually decent - and I think they are making a huge mistake, especially if there's an extended oil price hike (cough...Iran...cough) and people want smaller and hybrids. But if one is only tied to the quarterly shareholder reports and not trends and the big picture, bad decisions like this get made.
Wjtinfwb Not proud of what Stellantis is rolling out?
Wjtinfwb Absolutely. But not incredibly high-tech, AWD, mega performance sedans with amazing styling and outrageous price tags. GM needs a new Impala and LeSabre. 6 passenger, comfortable, conservative, dead nuts reliable and inexpensive enough for a family guy making 70k a year or less to be able to afford. Ford should bring back the Fusion, modernized, maybe a bit bigger and give us that Hybrid option again. An updated Taurus, harkening back to the Gen 1 and updated version that easily hold 6, offer a huge trunk, elevated handling and ride and modest power that offers great fuel economy. Like the GM have a version that a working mom can afford. The last decade car makers have focused on building cars that American's want, but eliminated what they need. When a Ford Escape of Chevy Blazer can be optioned up to 50k, you've lost the plot.
Willie If both nations were actually free market economies I would be totally opposed. The US is closer to being one, but China does a lot to prop up the sectors they want to dominate allowing them to sell WAY below cost, functionally dumping their goods in our market to destroy competition. I have seen this in my area recently with shrimp farmed by Chinese comglomerates being sold super cheap to push local producers (who have to live at US prices and obey US laws) out of business.China also has VERY lax safety and environmental laws which reduce costs greatly. It isn't an equal playing field, they don't play fair.
Willie ~300,000 Camrys and ~200,000 Accords say there is still a market. My wife has a Camry and we have no desire for a payment on something that has worse fuel economy.