Driven by personality

Ever step out of Dodger Stadium, or worse, Disneyland, and suffer parking lot panic? You wander the rows, thumb frantically pumping the button on your keyless remote, eyes desperately scanning for that flash of recognition from your otherwise anonymous compact sedan.

The Jack in the Box ball on the antenna? Useless.

This identity problem is, in part, simple physics: Automakers favor aerodynamic shapes that reduce wind noise and increase fuel economy. It’s part economics: Colors and options are limited to what pleases the most buyers. But it is primarily a matter of mathematics. Dealers sold about 1.6 million new vehicles in 2002, and then again in 2003. Just in California. A shiny new car, even the latest and greatest model, is no longer enough to separate you from the herd.

Beyond successful parking lot reunions, this poses a huge dilemma here. Any of the nearly 1 million visitors expected at the Greater L.A. Auto Show, which begins Friday, could tell you this: Cars are essential to -- perhaps even the essence of -- the Southern California lifestyle. But so is individuality.

Consider that the roots of sports cars, hot rods and drag racing can be traced to postwar Southern California. In the years after, we gave the world lowriders, dune buggies, hippie vans and customized cars. We are the world’s leading automotive trendsetters. Five decades later, car customizing -- a crude, oh-so-’50s word to those who now prefer the term “personalization” -- is back.

Flip on almost any cable channel except the Food Network and you’ll likely find a California automotive makeover show. MTV’s “Pimp My Ride” is based out of Inglewood’s West Coast Customs shop. The Learning Channel’s “Overhaulin’ ” features Huntington Beach-based designer Chip Foose.

These shows and others peek behind the doors of Southern California’s many specialized garages, where automotive pumpkins are transformed into Cinderella-style freeway carriages. The Cinderella analogy is particularly apropos; both shows match the vehicle’s exterior, interior and accessories to its specific owner.

Personalizing cars is more than just a ratings ploy. The Specialty Equipment Market Assn., headquartered in Diamond Bar, represents 5,700 U.S. companies that make or sell aftermarket products, things that alter cars’ appearance or performance from what rolls off the assembly line. Last year such sales amounted to almost $29 billion, according to SEMA.

Historically, aftermarket products appealed to hard-core auto enthusiasts -- hot rodders -- who were primarily interested in faster acceleration or better handling. Today almost 60% of that $29 billion is for appearance items sold to what SEMA considers the mainstream public.

Image conscious

“Everybody wants to be noticed,” says Pierre Hoffmann, whose company, Auto Indulgence, specializes in eye-catching modifications. Hoffmann started his business in 1988 after he engineered a way to install neon lighting under a vehicle to create what he calls “street glow.” The lighting gained popularity after being used on cars in “The Fast and the Furious” and its sequel -- films that spread the word of California’s customized import scene to the rest of the country.

“Why do you get dressed up for a party? Why do we have so many carwashes in Southern California?” Hoffman says. “It’s an image thing.”

Hoffmann knows that among his customers, who tend to express themselves with tattoos, shaved heads and slammed import sedans, customizing has to tread a fine line between trend and fad. But he’s also found that the need to be automotively different has no cultural or economic boundaries.

In wealthy Newport Beach, for instance, is the North American office of Brabus, considered the world’s uber Mercedes-Benz aftermarket specialist -- or tuner, as the Germans prefer to be called. President Steven Beaty reports that roughly 60% of his clientele tack on $10,000 to $20,000 worth of wheels, body kits and exhaust systems to make their brand new $60,000 Mercedes look different.

“Say you pick up your new CLK 500 at Fletcher Jones in Newport Beach,” Beaty says. “Before you get home it is not unusual to see 10 other CLKs on the road. You buy this kind of car to feel special and if all your neighbors have the same car, suddenly you don’t feel so special.”

Beaty’s best customers are the owners of the most expensive Mercedes-Benz models, such as the SL 600 and S 500. They’ll often upgrade their leather interiors, install multimedia entertainment systems and get an engine that produces more than 600 horsepower. The latter will set you back about $50,000.

Echoing Beaty’s comments is Norman Celik, who owns D’Vinci Wheels, a company that designs and manufactures the oversized wheels popularized by Escalade- and Hummer-driving hip-hop artists. These wheels can be up to 28 inches in diameter in contrast to the 18-inch or smaller wheels that come standard.

“Most new cars look so similar to each other that adding new wheels is a practical and quick way to make your car look different and stand out from the pack,” Celik says.

It may be quick, but it is not cheap. A set of 26-inch D’Vinci wheels with tires can cost up to $13,000. That goes a long way toward explaining why Celik sees his client base shifting from the young, hip crowd looking to add some bling to their SUVs to “doctors and housewives with BMWs and Mercedes looking for less chrome and more subtle touches.”

Auto manufacturers are catching on: New cars are just starting to come with 22-inch wheels, Celik says. Custom wheels, he thinks, will peak for a while at a practical limit of 28 inches, still a big step up.

“California sets the trend and the rest of the country is about a year behind,” he says.

Dealers respond

Not waiting for the factories to catch up to the latest trends, savvy car dealers are tapping into the broadening desire for something distinctive.

Brabus’ Beaty reports dealers are buying more of his modified cars to add dazzle to their Mercedes showrooms. Galpin Motors in Van Nuys always keeps 200 to 300 custom cars and trucks (the dealership calls them “Galpinized”) on its lot. The extras add about $350 to $1,800 to a new car’s price tag, but these vehicles account for 15% to 20% of Galpin’s annual sales.

Although Galpin sells exotic Aston Martins and Panoz sports cars, it is the more plebian Fords, Mazdas and Volvos that draw the majority of buyers. But that doesn’t mean those customers want an undistinguished ride.

Galpin Vice President Beau Boeckmann says a buyer could spend as much as $100,000 to modify a car or truck to suit his or her style. The majority of buyers spend about $2,000.

“People who live here like to see themselves as individuals and that applies to their cars as well,” Boeckmann says. “My dad started offering customized cars at the dealership in the early 1960s, then we moved on to the van conversions, and later the 4-by-4 trucks.”

At last year’s L.A. Auto Show, custom cars got the most attention. Boeckmann sold three right off the floor of the Convention Center. This year he’s rolling in half a dozen vehicles, including a Mazda 3 hatchback named the Mantis for its lime green paint and scissors-style doors. Their other vehicles on display include a Ford F250 pickup dubbed the Tiki Truck for its waterfall and hot tub, and a 4-by-4 Ford pickup called Slither that sports a $10,000 metallic snakeskin flame paint job, matching python and buffalo suede interior trim, and an 8,000-watt sound system. Even Volvos are not safe: Galpin coated a normally sedate S40 sedan with a $5,000 paint scheme in frosty pearl white and ice blue and named it Ice.

Toyota, with its U.S. sales office headquartered in Torrance, is one automaker that understands the bonding nature of customizing. At the 2003 L.A. Auto Show it introduced the Scion, a make-me-your-own model aimed at a youthful market. The Scion went on sale in Southern California six months later, well before it was launched in the rest of the country.

One of the core philosophies, Scion marketing promotion manager Brian Bolain explains, was to make the Scion a “blank canvas on which the consumer can make the car what they would like it to be.”

While still in development, Toyota shared Scion specifications with aftermarket companies that build products to meet Toyota’s standards for dependability. Of the 40 items available at dealerships, audio upgrades are the most popular, followed by interior lighting kits that cast a glow under the seats and in the cup holders.

Toyota topped that for this year’s L.A. Auto Show. The company handed over Scions to three noted street artists who turned the low-priced vehicles into one-of-a-kind automotive statements. Graffiti artist Eric Haze coated his white Scion tC with a black and gray array of stars, stripes and arrows straight out of a superhero comic book. Rock star tattoo impresario Mr. Cartoon, Mark Machado, went for That ‘70s Van look on his boxy, lowriding xB. The well-known graffiti artist known as Futura, Leonard McGurr, chose a stealth flat black for an xA.

The arty Scions -- along with the Galpinized trucks, D’Vinci’s pricey wheels and Hoffman’s glowing neon -- will be on display in the Convention Center’s Kentia Hall.

L.A.’s ultimate

Kentia Hall, tucked in the basement below South Hall, is what makes the Greater L.A. Auto Show unlike any other.

It’s a carnival midway compared to the corporate main halls, a catchall where sellers tout personalized license plate frames and draw attention with a fire-breathing monster truck. In short, it’s a celebration of Southern California’s car culture.

And although Chrysler, Honda and friends will be upstairs, they and other automakers will surely be peeking at what’s happening downstairs. Automakers understand that Southern California leads the way not only in how cars look, but in how they are used.

Eleven of the car design centers based here were challenged to come up with the Ultimate LA Machine for this year’s show. Renderings of their ideas will be on display in Kentia Hall.

The designers have opinions as diverse as those who ultimately drive the fruits of their labor. Jon Hull and a team from Mitsubishi came up with a multipurpose roadster influenced by L.A.’s proximity to the beach, desert and mountains. It combines the sleek lines of a sports car with a pickup-like rear bed and rides on 22-inch wheels for strutting around the club scene.

Chris Rhoades, chief designer at Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design in Irvine, had had a different take on L.A. His Ultimate LA Machine has the unmistakable look of the SL with a three-pointed star in the grille and the iconic gull-wing doors of a classic Mercedes, but with a twist. Actually, four. The “wheels” of his fantasy vehicle contain giant propellers that rotate to lift the car over and out of traffic jams.

“Who hasn’t sat in traffic and dreamed about flying above it?” Rhoades says.

Rick Woodbury of Commuter Cars envisions his electric high-performance Tango -- which he’s taking orders for -- slicing through traffic instead of hovering above it. Not exactly custom, but undeniably individualistic, the Tango is narrower than a Honda Goldwing motorcycle. Two can easily drive side by side at 65 mph sharing a 12-foot-wide freeway lane. The tandem-seat vehicle can out-accelerate and out-handle a Dodge Viper.

It also slightly out-costs a Viper, with an $85,000 asking price.

Until flying cars are a reality, the Auto Show will offer more immediate gratification for those who want wheels that turn heads. Especially in Kentia Hall. Just remember where you parked.

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L.A. Auto Show

What: The Greater Los Angeles Auto Show

Where: Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., downtown L.A.

When: Friday through Jan. 16. Hours: 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturdays, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Sundays, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday to Thursday.

Cost: $10. Free for ages 12 and younger. Weekday discounts for seniors and with coupons from Al & Ed’s Autosound or participating car dealers.

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Be sure to see ...

The stars will be in red at the Greater L.A. Auto Show. Ferrari’s F430, for instance, will make its U.S. debut after wowing ‘em in Paris last fall. The stylish Italian successor to the 360 Modena, it’s a sleek beauty loaded with Formula One race car technology.

The retro-chic-styled Ford Mustang will be donning red as well, and for this occasion, going topless. Ford offers the world premiere of the 2005 Mustang convertible.

These two will share the stage with 15 others making their first appearance, and 11 concept vehicles that may or may not ever hit the road. Some of the must-sees and where to find them:

Audi’s A3: This 2006 compact hatchback comes with a 200-horsepower turbocharged engine. Audi also shows off its 2005 A4 sedan. South Hall.

Chevrolet HHR: Think of it as a 1940s Chevy Suburban crossed with a PT Cruiser. This small-scale but high-roofed car was designed by Bryan Nesbitt, who came up with the Cruiser in his Chrysler days. South Hall.

Ferrari Superamerica: In addition to the F430, Ferrari has a convertible version of the 575M Maranello that features an electric rotating roof that drops out of sight in 10 seconds. Concourse Hall.

Mercedes-Benz CLS 55 AMG: A muscular four-door sedan with a coupe’s sleekness. It got a steroid injection from AMG. West Hall.

Porsche Boxster: For 2005, the Boxster got its first makeover: a tiny bit wider, a bit more powerful, more than a bit more alluring. Petree Hall.

Spyker C8 Spyder: Handmade in the Netherlands, this roadster wears an aluminum body, an Audi engine and a $250,000 price tag. Concourse Hall.

2005 Venturi Fetish: The first electric sports car accelerates from 0 to 60 in less than five seconds -- and almost silently. A handful are made to order in Monaco for about $650,000. Concourse Hall.

BMW H2R: Built for speed, this concept vehicle runs on hydrogen. It looks -- and moves -- like a rocket, topping out at 185 mph. South Hall.

Chrysler ME 412: If the H2R is a rocket, the ME 412 resembles a stealth bomber. One with a V-12 engine. South Hall.

Dodge Slingshot: Here’s a concept: a sports car that gets 45 mpg. Oddly, from the people who brought you the Viper (12 mpg city). West Hall.

Ford’s Shelby cars: The sinewy concept Shelby GR-1, designed in California, is a fastback that builds on the ideas of 2004’s hot concept car, the Shelby Cobra roadster. West Hall.

Toyota FTX: The inflated-looking future of Toyota pickups. Get used to it now. South Hall.