Some Models of Success : New Cars’ Popularity, Buyers’ Affluence Has County Auto Show Riding Smoothly
On Memorial Day weekend in 1985, there probably were as many people roaming through new car showrooms across the county as there were at the struggling Orange County International Auto Show.
The annual new car revue suffered from a bad location--cramped quarters at the Anaheim Convention Center. Even worse, its timing was terrible--the affair was held long after the new car bug would have bitten many potential buyers.
“Their appetite is whet to get a look at cars during the winter. By May, their mind is on the beach,” said Barry Greenberg, a spokesman for the show.
So the show’s sponsors switched the date to mid-winter in 1986 and moved it to the Anaheim Stadium parking lot, where cars are displayed under cavernous tents. The exposition, now a popular event, opens today and will continue through Feb. 26.
Show director Bill Schultz, who began managing the event in 1986, said the show also has benefited from the feverish pace of new-car buying in recent years and from the larger numbers of crowd-attracting cars.
Last year, 151,000 car-watchers turned out for the event. This year, the show’s 30th, promoters expect up to 180,000 to spend as much as $4.50 apiece to scope out 43 different car lines and to get a sneak preview of 11 not-yet-available 1990 models.
That’s a real contrast with 1985, when fewer than 75,000 came to look at a paltry 19 lines of cars during the event, which ran 5 days at that time.
Some of the 450 autos to be displayed this year were getting fresh shines Friday after their arrival from expositions as far away as Chicago. Among the showcase cars this year are many luxury models, including several introduced by Asian car makers who want to enter that fast-growing market.
Toyota’s Lexus and Nissan’s Infiniti, models in the $35,000-and-up category expected to go on sale this fall, have received favorable reviews from consumers and auto critics since the cars had their premieres earlier this year in the Midwest.
Sportier cars from Lotus, Mazda and Chevrolet will be on display, too, as will two “concept” cars--models that are not (and perhaps may never be) ready for the market.
Promoters said the exceptional number of 1990 “winners” have brought record crowds at expositions across the country this year. The Chicago Auto Show, which ends Sunday, has attracted larger crowds than it did in 1982, when a record 988,000 people turned out, said Ross Kelsey, a show consultant.
Attendance topped the half-million mark for the first time at the Los Angeles auto show last month. San Diego promoters expect 60,000 for their exposition next month.
“The crowds are the result of the customer being over-choiced,” said Jeremy Anwyl, president of USP Automotive Advertising, an Irvine agency that specializes in retail car advertising.
“Customers will never make it to all the dealerships to see the cars they’d like,” Anwyl said. “They’d also be too intimidated to try.”
Consumers need not worry about getting a high-pressured sales pitch at the Orange County show. And sightseers can talk to the manufacturers representatives on hand to measure responses to their cars.
In addition, consumers may attend sessions on car buying, one of which is a seminar sponsored by the Chrysler Corp. Women’s Advisory Board on making purchases based on family needs.
One traditional car-show cliche will remain: female models clad in the latest bathing suits on display alongside the new cars.
Local car experts say the crowds at the Orange County show are far different from the ones at shows elsewhere in the country.
Status Seeking Cited
“Los Angeles had many more people, but they didn’t have as many buyers as our show,” said Jim Upp, executive director of the Orange County Motor Car Dealers Assn., whose membership includes 120 of the 138 new-car dealers in the county.
“Keeping up with the Joneses is more prevalent here in Orange County than it is in L.A., so people are always looking to buy new cars,” he said.
Manufacturers also said that they can put expensive cars on display at the Orange County show without worrying about shocking consumers with the price stickers.
For Joe Cappy, a vice president of the Chrysler Jeep-Eagle division, Orange County is one place where he must try harder. In the Midwest, his company’s vehicles are sales leaders, but here Toyota and Honda are the traditional kings.
“A lot more buying decisions will probably be made here at the show. These people have a pretty good idea of what they are after,” said Cappy, who arrived here from Detroit this week to promote his division’s vehicles.
The difference in what will sell in Orange County was one factor that led to the decline of the show in the early 1980s, promoters said.
“Years ago, we had Eastern promoters pitching the show with Eastern ideas,” Upp said. “They loved hype. The Orange County car buyer doesn’t buy hype.”
HOW AUTO SHOW HAS GROWN
Year Attendance Exhibition Space (in sq. ft.) 1984 88,000 88,000 1985 73,000 88,000 1986 101,000 160,000 1987 125,000 180,000 1988 151,868 185,000 1989 N.A. 220,000
Source: show promoters COUNTY AUTO REGISTRATIONS Leaders in new-car registrations by make of car
1988* 1987 1. Toyota 1. Toyota 2. Ford 2. Honda 3. Honda 3. Ford 4. Nissan 4. Nissan 5. Chevrolet 5. Chevrolet
* (first 11 months)
Source: R.L. Polk & Co., Carson
