190,000 Visitors Expected at Orange County Auto Show

Organizers of the Orange County International Auto Show say they expect 190,000 people to attend the eight-day event--record attendance in a year in which new car sales are expected to drop dramatically.

The show, which begins Saturday and is staged in its own special buildings erected in the Anaheim Stadium parking lot, is the fourth largest of the annual auto shows that new car dealers and auto makers sponsor in major cities across the nation to drum up interest in their offerings.

Just five years ago, the Orange County show was struggling, with only a handful of exhibitors and not much audience--a victim of scheduling practices at the Anaheim Convention Center that downplayed consumer-oriented shows and kept moving the auto show later and later into the year.

“The last year it was at the convention center, it was held in June,” said show spokesman Barry Greenberg. “That made it the last auto show of the year. They were displaying 1985 models just a few months before the manufacturers were rolling out the 1986s. So the manufacturers lost interest and only 19 of the 38 that we had back then bought space for displays.”

This year, more than 600 models from 42 auto makers--just about everybody but Rolls-Royce--will be on display, Greenberg said.

Included in the displays will be several 1991 models that won’t hit the dealers’ lots for a month or more: the new Chevrolet Caprice; BMW’s 850i; the restyled Ford Escort and the new Ford Explorer; Hyundai’s two-door sports coupe, the Scoupe; the turbocharged Toyota MR-2 and the new Mercury Capri sedan and convertible.

In addition, the show for the first time in its 31 years will be host of a concurrent recreational vehicle exhibit, with about 50 models from 10 RV makers.

And several manufacturers are displaying concept cars--those sleek, futuristic models that occasionally are translated into production cars.

As important as timing, advertising and location are to the success of an auto show, however, the general economic climate has a lot to do with things--in an unusual way.

“When car sales are down, that’s when auto show attendance goes up,” Greenberg said.

The reason is that people who are thinking of buying seem to prefer the convenience of looking at a lot of different models in one place--a principal reason auto malls are doing so well. And potential buyers know that sales pressure will be turned up at most dealerships when sales are down, so they use the auto show as a low-pressure environment for their comparison shopping, Greenberg said.

The show runs through Feb. 25. Doors open at 11 a.m. on weekends and Monday and at 1 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Tickets are $5 for adults and $2.50 for children ages 6-12. Children under 6 are admitted free.