Jumpstart Automotive Group

I spent the early part of this week at the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer’s Association (SEMA) event in Las Vegas. I’ve never been to SEMA and didn’t have a clear expectation of what the show was all about. A friend of mine who had been before told me to prepare myself for row after row of spark plug and air filter displays. So, that was encouraging.

This was to be my second auto industry trip to Vegas in less than three weeks. My body and soul recoiled at the thought of being surrounded by automotive execs drowning their sorrows in vodka tonics in the evening and delivering dismal sales reports the next morning. Sitting here at McCarran airport getting ready to leave Las Vegas, I am glad to report that my fears were unfounded. Revulsion has been replaced with enthusiasm and satisfaction.

While SEMA is an industry event, the usual industry types do not haunt it. There are no press days. There are no industry-only days. Those of us in the business stand cheek-to-jowl with the thronging, passionate masses there to see the most incredible cars, trucks and motorcycles on the planet. We jostle with teenagers to get a look at the latest Lingenfelter Camaro creation. We trade appreciative whistles with tattooed grandpas as we crouch to measure the miniscule ground clearance of a chopped and dropped 1950 Buick Coupe. We try not to get in the way of art students who are photographing, sketching and musing over the most interesting industrial design ever produced.

I’ve been in this business for 15 years. I’ve been to every major auto show in the country, and more than a couple out of the country. I regularly attend the circuit of conferences and seminars where all the big brains get together and talk about what is going to happen and why. Most of these happen separate and apart from the public that buys cars; away from this crazy American car culture where people express themselves through what they drive. That is a mistake.

Today I saw a young woman and her boyfriend going crazy over an electric car conversion that would allow her to get 200 mpg in her Honda Civic. Twenty feet away there was a crowd of guys and gals staring popeyed at a 700 horsepower Dodge Challenger. People love cars because they are cool. Green or guzzler, our love affair with cars is woven into the fabric of this country.

Nobody at the SEMA show cared that sales had dropped 30 percent year over year. Few of them cared about the monthly sales race between GM and Toyota. What they cared about was unbelievably cool technology wrapped in beautiful packages that were an integral part of how they viewed themselves and their place in the world.

The Los Angeles Auto Show is coming up fast. I’ve got industry passes and meetings with all sorts of people from all sorts of companies. The meetings are a must, but I may stick around an extra day or two until the show opens to the public. Tapping into that passion and enthusiasm should be the perfect antidote for the pessimism that continues to haunt this business.