Editor's Report

Motor, Feb 2007 by Lypen, John

Auto shows and collector car auctions provide a glimpse of Americans' infatuation with the automobile, and a reminder that while our industry may be changing, it's not going away.

Auto shows and collector car auctions are fascinating events. And if Detroit's annual extravaganza, the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), and the annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event in Scottsdale, Arizona, really are the biggest and most important respective events of the year, I guess that also makes them the most fascinating.

I'm privileged to be able to attend the NAIAS during Press Preview days, which occur the week before the show opens to the general public. This is the time when 7000 automotive journalists have a chance to get up close and personal with the cars and the people who design them. The automakers go to great lengths to get the attention of all those roving journalists, and do a great job of it-even if it does sometimes seem a bit over-the-top. One DaimlerChrysler press conference, for example, afforded press people the opportunity to participate in a giant bongo fest as two new concept cars were rolled out. Let me tell you, watching Dr. Z (DaimlerChrysler Chairman Dieter Zetsehe) and a few thousand friends tap a bongo to the heat of an African percussion hand is quite a sight!

Soon after the auto writers are done whetting their readers' appetites, the public gets their own chance to see and feel the latest models. In the case of the NAIAS, this phase lasts lor nine days and this year drew a little over 700,000 attendees.

What's so fascinating is the dichotomy of the proceedings, where hundreds of thousands of people elbow each other out of the way to get close to a car that's typically either a concept that may never reach the market or a model so expensive they could never expect to actually own one.

Speaking of expensive, that's just what most of the nearly 1300 cars sold at this year's Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event in Scottsdale, Arizona, were. The final tally added up to an incredible $112 million, which works out to an average of almost $90,000 for each vehicle! And, speaking of astronomical numbers, one car, Carroll Shelby's 1966 Shelby 427 Cobra, sold for a world record $5 ½ million.

It's not just a handful of moneybags that attend the auction, either. The six-day-long event drew more than 250,000 auto buffs and received 40 hours of live TV coverage from cable TV's Speed channel.

Whether it's the interest shown in spectacular events like these or any other expression of the booming car culture that exists in our country today, one thing is for sure: Great numbers of Americans cherish their vehicles and don't consider them throw-away appliances.

As long as that remains the case-and there's no reason to believe it won't-the business of maintaining and repairing cars will always be full of opportunity.

John Lypen

jlypen@motor.com