I cannot overstate how much of a party the Detroit Auto Show was before everything went to hell and the shows shifted from being media-focused to being consumer-focused. But to assist in your understanding I will tell the story of how I interrupted a remote shoot for “The Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno” and got into a little bit of trouble.
This story is relevant to The Morning Dump because the Detroit Auto Show is canceled for this year and, instead, will return in January 2025. I think this is good news, but I’d like to pour one out for what the show once was. [Ed Note: I, too, am glad the show is returning to January. Detroit needs something to look forward to during the hellscape months. NAIAS helped get me through winter many years, and I was always grateful for it. -DT].
We have a pair of Reuters exclusives this morning to unpack. Up first, Tesla Berlin is going to shut down for a couple of weeks due to disruptions in the ongoing Houthi-Yemen-Red Sea situation. Then we’ll talk about how the EU is looking into Chinese automakers as those cars start to show up on Europe’s shores.
Finally, Toyota isn’t done with the internal combustion engine yet!
The Detroit Auto Show Ain’t Happening This Year, Will Return In 2025
Here’s a story I think it’s now safe to tell.
It was my second Detroit Auto Show, which would have been in January 2009, right after everything went to hell but before the inertia caught up to all the auto shows.
Back then I was at Jalopnik and we all had to cover everything that happened at the auto show and write like 12 posts each or something ridiculous, lest the villainous Autoblog beat us to a story on Digg (back when Digg was the quickest way to get traffic to a story).
By the end of the day, we were all wiped, so myself and some colleagues decided to blow off the after-show parties and sneak back into the show after hours. I’m not saying whose idea it was but, honestly, it was probably my idea.
Just for context: In 2008, almost every automaker had a bar at their booth and it was just one big moveable feast/drink-a-thon to each new press conference. This was winding down in 2009, with only about a third of automakers offering drinks.
There was some sort of event going on so we were able to grab two trays of sushi and quietly slipped into the second floor of the Mazda booth (back then almost all automakers had a second floor for meetings/drinks). I texted a friendly PR person at Mazda and he said they were restocking the fridge in the morning so we were welcome to drink the, errr, dozen or so Asahi tallboys that were left. If you want to know where this story is going, I have no recollection of how many tallboys there were. Let’s just say: enough tallboys.
To compound matters, it was then-EIC Ray Wert’s brilliant idea to get us a little GEM NEV we called the “Mobile Command Center” to drive us from one press conference to the next. It was a ton of fun. One of us still had the key to it so we decided to go driving around the now mostly empty auto show.
And when I say mostly empty, there are some important caveats to be made. Many people work overnight getting the show ready for the next day and we all agreed we’d stay out of their way, not take any pics, and otherwise not make our presence a disturbance to anyone doing real work. We had just enough sense to try and not be jerks.
Unfortunately, CNBC reporter and automotive news legend Phil LeBeau was doing a taped standup for “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno apparently and, of course, I had no idea. I don’t remember who was driving, but I was in the passenger seat of the command center and I saw Phil, so I leaned out of the GEM as we drove by and I started doing the raised-hands-whatup gesture and yelled out “WHATTTUPPPPP PHIL LEBEAUUUUUU.”
I did notice the cameras, but it was so late it didn’t occur to me that anyone would actually be filming anything and it was too late for me to stop myself from being an ass. At least that’s how I choose to remember it.
So the next morning it’s like 5 AM I get this angry call from Ray Wert, who had just gotten an angry call from CNBC complaining that someone flashed gang signs at him during his taping and that person was in the extremely identifiable Jalopnik Mobile Command Center.
I was feeling not great, but the whole night flashed before my eyes and I had to admit “Oh, that was probably me.” From that point on CNBC was granted the right to use any Jalopnik photos they wanted for the rest of the show as a make-good.
Apologies to Ray, the Detroit Auto Show, GEM, Phil LeBeau, Jay Leno, and anyone who got caught up in that.
I mention this story because you can really chart the progression of the auto industry by looking at its auto shows. For a long time auto shows weren’t about media, they were about consumers. Then they became these big glitzy media affairs. In 2008, pre-Great Recession, it was a big party for bloggers and reporters with automakers spending many millions of dollars to get Bryan Adams to sing a song before the reveal of, like, a Mercedes C-Class or whatever.
Post-Great Recession that slowly began to change. Many automakers shifted to having private events where they wouldn’t have to share the floor with anyone else. The COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated what was already happening, which was a shift away from media-centric shows to consumer-centric shows with more consumer experiences/indoor tracks.
The Detroit Auto Show tried to plan for this in 2020 by moving from its January show to a June 2020 show. That show was cancelled because of COVID and the 2021 show was an outdoor affair at a race track called Motor Bella. In 2022, there was a mid-September show and another one last year back at the convention center.
My guess is that Stellantis pulling out of shows and the general uneasiness led the Detroit Auto Show to announce this week that it was going to move back to its traditional January date. It sucks that there’s no show this year, but I think this makes a lot of sense, as The Detroit News points out this morning:
Although the show put on the past two years by the Detroit Automobile Dealers Association was able to take advantage of the outdoors more, the September dates came shortly after back-to-school busyness and amid the kickoff to football season. In January, the show had fewer events with which to compete in the winter and could help stir up sales during quieter months.
Claude Molinari, CEO of Visit Detroit and chairman of the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority that oversees Huntington Place, said winter is a slower time of year in the convention business with more local recreational vehicles, boat and auto shows.
“We don’t have a problem filling in days in September or June, frankly,” he said, adding about the move for Detroit hotels and restaurants: “It’s just fantastic for us.
I love the Detroit Auto Show and I’m looking forward to it being back in January. I know it won’t be the media heyday it was and that’s not a bad thing. Journalists get plenty of amazing opportunities to see cars and it’s way more important to make the shows about normal people, which is something I think the LA Auto Show has done well.
How The Drone Strikes In Yemen Are Impacting Tesla
Attacks on vessels by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea have escalated into a larger conflict, with a coalition led by American and British forces finally deciding they were getting tired of launching multi-million dollar missiles at cheap rockets and drones that were attacking container ships.
Coalition forces struck approximately 61 sites in Yemen allegedly responsible for the frequent attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. This body of water is key for the shipping of goods from Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal.
For our purposes, this means that automakers relying on parts from Asian suppliers are probably going to have to wait for ships that are now rerouting around Africa.
Tesla (TSLA.O) will suspend most car production at its factory near Berlin from Jan. 29 to Feb. 11, the company said late on Thursday, citing a lack of components owing to shifts in transport routes because of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
The partial halt to production is evidence that the crisis in the Red Sea has hit Europe’s largest economy.
The attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi militants, in solidarity with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in its fight against Israel in Gaza, have disrupted one of the world’s most important shipping routes but U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla is the first company to disclose a resulting interruption to output.
While Tesla is the first company to report an issue I’m guessing it won’t be the last.
It’s worth listening to the “Odd Lots” episode above with Craig Fuller from Freight Waves who makes the important point that the era of unimpeded global shipping (save for a few pirates and the odd regional conflict) that’s existed from the end of WW2 is probably over. The War in Ukraine has already proven that a country without a real Navy can cheaply disrupt advanced military vessels with rockets, missiles, and uncrewed/unmanned munitions. What chance does a container ship have?
EU Investigators Will Look At Uncompetitive Automakers In China
Here’s another fun scoop from Reuters:
European Commission investigators are to inspect Chinese automakers in the coming weeks as part of a probe into whether to impose punitive tariffs to protect European electric vehicle (EV) makers, three people involved in the process said.
The inspectors will visit BYD (002594.SZ), Geely (0175.HK) and SAIC (600104.SS), two sources said, with one of them saying the investigators will not visit non-Chinese brands produced in China, such as Tesla (TSLA.O), Renault (RENA.PA) and BMW (BMWG.DE).
What the EU wants to figure out is whether or not companies like BYD, SAIC, and Geely are unfairly benefitting from state subsidies from the Chinese government that give those brands an advantage over other (i.e. European) automakers.
I mean, of course they do. As do American automakers. As does almost every automaker in the world. There is no fairness in world trade, no matter what the WTO might pretend. Free trade, like history, is just a fiction we can all agree to at any given moment.
The Chinese government got to EV tech first and this feels like the European Commission trying to help its own automakers play catch up. This doesn’t mean that Chinese automakers aren’t, for instance, using forced labor or abetting a humanitarian crisis in the Congo. There’s a lot of reporting to suggest they are.
I’m just suspicious of the timing.
Toyota: Engines Are Still Cool
The days of the internal combustion engine are certainly numbered, but how big that number of days is becomes important when trying to combat global warming. If we’re all buying EVs in a year then any investment in a cleaner gas engine is wasted. If the gas engine is going to stick around for another decade then it matters quite a lot.
That’s the point Toyota is making these days, according to Automotive News.
“Battery electric vehicles do not represent the only way to achieve carbon neutrality,” Toyoda said. “Should we not all have enthusiasm for cars as we take on the challenge.”
Preaching to the choir, buddy.
What I’m Listening To While Writing This
I love a good pop album and you shouldn’t sleep on Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia.”
The Big Question
What was the last auto show you went to? Are you going to any this year?
I do miss something about the feeling of the pre-recession shows…
*Big 2 story displays, all the cars out, unlocked, and powered on so you could adjust the seats and wiggle the doodads.
*The party atmosphere of displays like the early-mid 00s Mini
*The technical excess of cutaway components like engines/trans/axles of the Subaru/GM/Ford areas
*The cool concepts- the Aztek, the Sixteen, the Ford Forty Nine, and dozens of others over the years that were brimming with wild, unhinged, unrealistic optimism about the future of motoring.
Let us also not forget the overflowing quantities of brochures and free gimmicks like bags, keychains, can koozies. I remember walking the floor at 2002 NAIAS and reaching the limit of what I could carry.
The recent years just make me sad, based on the expectations I’d set due to earlier years.
YES! I have about a decade’s worth of those clear plastic VW pen holders they would press while you wait. Anyone know where to get the pens that fit in them?
I went to an auto show sometime 30 years ago. It quickly occurred to me what a scam it was. Why did I pay to enter a showroom? You want me to take the time to shop your products? Then don’t charge admission. Tradeshows in my industry at least offer a free exhibits pass and maybe a paid tier for seminars and extra events. It just seems much more respectful.
I couldn’t wait to pay my money to get in at the NYC show every year for 34 years!
Literally the same year(2009) I was a panelist at PAX. I also became very drunk and also started yelling at proper celebrities. For me it was shouting “Wesley” at Wil Wheaton. Not my finest moment
I’ve been going to the Detroit show since 2012 but attending the Chicago show since 1995. I second the sentiment about the show being moved back to January. Does Michigan weather suck in January? Absolutely. But I think it will help to bring more focus to the show as it won’t have to compete with everything else going on in the summer. Plus, it makes it a lot easier to pop into the city’s fine restaurants and bars without having to deal with long waits and larger crowds. I also need something to do in January to help stem the bleak depression that sets in around that time of year.
Does the GM display at the end of Test Track count? No? Then I guess I haven’t been to any. 🙂
I don’t really know any of Dua Lipa’s music, but she seems like a pretty chill celebrity. I realize she’s probably got tons of media training to come off that way, but after watching her day drinking segment with Seth Meyers where she got blackout drunk (so the media training probably wasn’t having much effect) I’m thinking it’s not all an act.
I attended the 2008 Detroit Autoshow, the one where they debuted the 2009 F-150. Funny enough, its out I started reading the ol’ German lighting site too! The show was incredible. We went 2 days and I still doubt I saw everything, but as a youngin’ obsessed with Ford & cars in general it was a like visiting Disneyland! With what the show has become, I am so glad we took that miserably cold trip to Detroit. We also went the the Henry Ford museum and did a factory tour the rouge assembly plant, where we saw pre-production F-150s rolling down the line.
In the years since, I have been to the local Seattle autoshow that pails in comparison as well as SEMA, which is the closest I’ve ever seen compare to the old Detroit autoshow, only with a whole lot more d’bags and stance bros.
That was my first Detroit as well!
Grew up in Pontiac, Michigan my Dad worked at the GMC Truck & Coach Division. We went every year from 1977-1983. My favourite was the 1992 Frankfurt Auto Show I went to when stationed in Germany. I lost all the pictures I took that day over the years. It was amazing.
My last show was Los Angeles 2023 but honestly, I need to pump myself up to even bother going anymore. Concepts are rare and usually tucked into a far off corner of the show and the big debuts are mostly meh. It’s sad when the most exciting car at the show is the new Prius..
The 90’s and early 2000’s Detroit shows were actually SHOWS. Wild concept cars all over the place, debuts had pounding music and real human performers doing acrobats from the rafters and all kinds of crazy stuff.
The 2001 show in particular was the high water mark for my show experience. I think that show actually had more concepts than production vehicles with the, Crossfire, Buick Bengal, Honda Element (called the Honda X at the show) and the one that I still drool over the Ford Forty-Nine.
Heres the old MotorWeek episode showing all the highlights of the show for anyone interested.
https://youtu.be/Po4aeCbiR7I?si=mPHW1u8y4I4-W1a7
I worked at the Detroit Auto Show from 1997-2007, installing lighting, audio, and video equipment. Not only at the show itself, but also for various side events like parties and offsite reveals. I can not begin to describe the economic benefits for folks working in the trades. Manufacturers’ money was flowing faster than the cheap champagne they served. In a typical week at the show, I would make a month’s worth of wages. I’m sure those days are gone.
Last auto show I went to was the 2019 NYC show almost exclusively to see the Nissan booth, specifically the vintage race cars at their booth. I think the whole thing was for the 50th Anniversary edition GT-R but they had the factory works Kenmeri that never ended up racing, the famous Calsonic R32 GT-R, and the only R33 GT-R LM on display at their booth. The R33 was even up on a lift so you could walk underneath it. Normally I wouldn’t have flown out from Michigan just for that show but my parents in PA needed my help with something right around that time, so I flew back from that and went to the show for a day, it was perfect timing.
As for the Detroit show, I’m glad they’re moving it back to January. After seeing the coverage of the show here, I still feel like the show is barely worth going to in general but if it’s in January, I’d probably go just because I don’t have anything else going on right now. It was really hard for me to justify going to what’s basically just a regional auto show at this point in September while the weather is nice and there’s other things going on.
My dad and I used to go to it every year from I think 1997 up to a year or two before the pandemic, sometimes joined by rest of the family. After it was paused it got moved and shuffled around a bit for dates and I debated going, but it’s now always a weekend where I have a conflict most of it, and at this point my dad’s not usually up for the in/out of cars or casual stroll, so it’s not an outing or activity any more.
I had time on Sunday this year and went a couple hours before it closed which was plenty of time because it was easily half the size it was before if not less. With the local ones there’s usually OEM support for some of the bigger brands – Toyota, Ford, GM – but other brands usually leave it up to dealers to buy-in and they don’t often want to without some way to measure if it actually leads to any sales.
I think I went to the LA Auto Show in 2003 as it just happened to coincide with a reason we traveled out there, but that’s the only “big” show I’ve been to. I’ve been to NY in the spring but have always missed the show by a week or two, but I might try to plan for it this year to say I did before the shows dwindle away. NY in spring is easier to plan as part of a larger trip too with family or friends compared to Chicago in February or Detroit in January.
In the mid 90s. I traveled to Michigan for my grandfather’s funeral. The day after the ceremony I went to my cousins’ and we threw snowballs on the frozen lake. Temperature was in the low teens. That afternoon, they took me to the Detroit Auto Show on public transportation including a several block outside walk. I was unprepared in cloth tennis shoes and my feet nearly froze. The show itself was not memorable.
The last auto show I went to was about 2016. It was the Tulsa Auto Show.
I can feel the jealousy from all of you just oozing through my screen.
Mine was in the 90’s in Hamilton, ON. I think we are about tied in awesomeness.
I keep meaning to take my kids to the Toronto one but never get around to it. Maybe this year.
I’ll instead talk about the first auto show I attended, with my Dad and Brother. Probably 1985-1987? Two memories:
First was a bus trip from PA to the 1962 NYC show with my Dad. Sadly, I don’t remember too much of it, and the catalog I had went missing.
Second was 1972 with my neighbor: Ferrari Modulo, 512S, 365 GTB/4 (including the Cannonball Daytona outside) and 365 GTC/4 (global introduction). Lamborghini Miura and Maserati Ghibli too!
Is….is it not 2024 right now? I mean, it might not be, I can’t keep track anymore.
Also, I think Automotive News meant “dyed-in-the-wool,” but again, I suppose what they wrote could potentially be the case, in a morbid way.
That’ll be $24.95
I wore a wool coat today to and from my vehicle. If I left it on in the office, I might have died of heatstroke in the wool. Maybe Automotive News was just overheating.
Last auto show I went too was the Milwaukee show last year with Mercedes and other Autopians. Good times.
I used to go to the Detroit auto show in the 2000s big reveals and lost of excitement. But I quit that around 2010 as it was getting boring. The last one I went to was the Cleveland auto show 2 years ago which was basically like a somewhat nicer dealer showroom. Sit in cars, chat, have a beer. Cincinnati used to have a car show with gambling and other fun things along side the cars but also even fewer cars.
Best part of the Cleveland show was the classic car show. Some fun stuff including an EV1.
Went to every NAIAS from 86 to 2007 when I moved out of MI. I remember seeing the Viper, Ford GT and Ram trucks big grill show cars. The Group C cars in the MB and Jag booths. So cool being able to see things first like some special people.
One year the models at the Ferrari felt bad for us nerds and let us behind the ropes to touch the cars. The MC-12 was in the shared booth with Maserati, so choice.
I miss the people with the feather dusters trying to brush off all the finger prints.
Glad I stopped right before it declined, everyone I knew still went after but it was never the same. One thing I do not miss is the autoshow flu you got after going, the rest of Jan you just felt sick. With Covid I can not even imagine.
Much like DEMF what was can never be again for Detroit and the town does not move forward well.
The first few years of DEMF when it was free was amazing. Too bad Carol Marvin got all caught up in the bullshit. I gues Movement is ok? You are right, though, it’s not the same.
Last show was the NY show because I happened to meet one of the Cadillac models on Facebook or something. Long story. Anyway, Jeep had the whole outdoor climbing rock trail but the line was hours long. The rest of the displays were pretty blah, so no more shows for me.
fyi: “… American and British forces finally deciding they were getting tired of launching multi-million dollar missiles at cheap rockets and drones that were attacking container ships.”
Not quite. The US stole a freighter full of oil last year, and then yesterday it got stolen back. That’s why.
The only show I’ve ever attended was the Seattle Auto Show in 2010. This was long enough ago that Saab had a spot but also just recent enough that nobody from Saab actually bothered to show up to make use of it. The nearby Spyker representative (yes, really) parked this there instead:
https://live.staticflickr.com/4084/5187153509_ac87be42e8_c.jpg
This didn’t make a lot of sense for any of the marques involved and so it struck me as either an act of desperation or perhaps a reasonably perceptive commentary on the whole state of affairs at that time. Maybe both.
I’ve been going to the Chicago Auto Show since about 1982 as a kid or so, even went to the 2020 Covid show, and am planning to go again this February. But the show is clearly not what it was, and quite frankly without the Stellantis brands there frankly it’s going to look either very sparse, very small, or both. Which makes me sad, considering the place it’s had in my life for 40+ years.
Local Charlotte Auto show was the last one in November, which was a shell of it’s pre-covid self. It’s just a local show but they used to have an area of cars from as early as they could get up through to the 70s or so, and an area of roped off elite cars like Bentleys and Maseratis, all that gone this year, and Stellantis showed up but they really shouldn’t have, large area but only like 5 models in it, 3 of them RAM trucks. We’ll go again this year if they have it, good way to spend $10.
This year probably the same, about 10 years ago I lived up north and went to the NY Auto show a few times, hard to compare to the big shows like that, but I still enjoy the small shows, and cars and coffee and such, bunch of people walking around looking at cars, nice relaxing time.
Oh, they DID have the Weiner-Mobile at last year’s Charlotte auto show, wife and I got a picture so that was definitely worth the $10.
My kids like auto shows because they can climb on and in “cool cars and trucks” so we may go to Chicago again next month, but every year there’s less that interests me there.
Which is fine by the way. My father took me to many auto shows that I’m sure he had very little interest in himself.
I love climbing in the cars. As a taller dude It’s a game of “will I fit”. Sometimes I’m surprised, other times I’m disappointed. Miata is not the answer.
Same here, always want to see what will fit, really it’s the first consideration for me when looking to buy.
Last auto show I went to was the Cincinnati Auto Expo in 2019. My mom ended up with a free pass to the sponsor preview night that she gave to me. That event was interesting. There was a valet for parking which I didn’t do, cause nah son, then after waiting in a long line to get the pass, they also handed out coupons to be exchanged for poker chips to play the gambling games upstairs where there was Hors D’oeuvre, coffee and drinks. I had a few Taft’s Nellie’s Key Lime Ales, a coffee, and some tidbits of food, gave the gambling coupons away (it was sad looking gambling just like any midwest casino) then went down to the floor to see what cars were there. Walked around climbed in some cars then left.
NAIAS every year from 1989 through around 2003. Stopped going because it got to be a circus and there were too many D-bags vandalizing the cars.
Last auto show? 2000-something Seattle Auto Show. Just every regional dealer there being scummy. Felt like walking into a Michael Moore documentary cut scene to the 60s. Such an outdated model. I guess it was nice to sit in a bunch of cars without having to endure a car salesman’s yapping. But still. Seemed silly