Car Buffs Cruise : Curious Size Up Future Wheels and Deals at the Auto Show in Anahein
Lena Dufrene thinks a car should express her personality. Look at her sporty Nissan 280ZX, and her Kawasaki motorcycle, “and you see who I am,” the 24-year-old Dufrene says.
Dennis Murrell says dependability is the key for him.
Loren Bingaman, a retiree, considers comfort to be paramount.
“I sat in cranes for a lot of years, so a comfortable seat is the most important thing to me,” he said.
For many Orange County residents, a car is more than a means of transportation--it is an expression of identity and life style.
And thousands of car buffs, including Dufrene, Murrell and Bingaman, have paid $4.50 each to inspect, photograph and touch some of the 450 new cars on display at the Orange County International Auto Show at Anaheim Stadium. The car lovers stalk new cars the way groupies hound their favorite stars.
“The car is my office. If my car dies, I’m dead,” said Murrell, a Balboa Island resident who travels 60,000 miles a year, mostly because of his work in electronics sales. Murrell drives a 1987 Mercury Sable station wagon for work and a Ford Bronco truck for pleasure.
Murrell attended the show this week because he wanted an early peek at the 1990 Bronco, which he plans to buy when the vehicle hits dealer show rooms in the fall.
Others at the 9-day auto show, which ends Sunday, were car enthusiasts who have no plans to buy but wanted to see the latest automobiles from three continents all under one roof.
Steve Plett, who plans to drive his 1979 Volkswagen as long as it lasts, was among those just looking. “I read a lot about cars. Here I can see them and lift the hoods,” he said while inspecting the engine of a Dodge Dakota.
Car makers court Southern Californians not only for their purchasing power but also because buyers here signal tastes that the rest of the country will likely develop in a few years.
“When we introduced the Ford Taurus, people in the Midwest and East were saying it looked like a jellybean,” said Len Alaimo, a customer satisfaction planning manager for Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich. “They asked what happened to the square look. Well, it was selling in Southern California. . . . And now it’s a hit everywhere.”
But in California, American auto makers generally don’t have the market leadership they enjoy in other parts of the country. Since the 1970s, Japanese models have been the most popular in Orange County, according to R.L. Polk & Associates, an automotive research firm in Carson. Toyota is consistently Orange County’s biggest seller.
Price may account for much of the popularity of the Japanese cars, and the attention paid to Daihatsu, a newcomer to the American car scene. The manufacturer has only one model to display, a subcompact economy model, and still managed to draw a respectable number of onlookers.
“It’ll get you there,” sales representative Christy Armstrong said of the car. “It won’t give you any trouble.”
