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Automakers dress up show to lure in buyers

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 4, 2007

DETROIT - The world's automakers are spending big at this year's North American International Auto Show in hopes that vehicle buyers will do the same.

The exhibits - at a cost of more than $200-million - and the scores of new models on display are designed to impress car executives, analysts, reporters and the general public alike and help fill auto showrooms in 2007.

"It's a great opportunity for us to get our message across," said Timothy Peters, assistant director of auto shows for General Motors Corp.

The area occupied by the world's top-selling carmaker seeks to convey the message of "one car corporation with eight divisions," Peters said, standing in front of the still-rising GM exhibit at Detroit's downtown Cobo Center.

The smell of fresh paint and sawdust and the buzz of power tools filled the air in the days ahead of the start of the show's media preview. Touring reporters dodged construction workers and stacks of lumber as show co-chairmen Bob Thibodeau Jr. and Carl Galeana guided them around the 750,000-square-foot show hall.

"Every year, you see the manufacturers trying to outdo one another," Thibodeau said. "It gives these manufacturers a big marketing push worldwide."

Among this year's display highlights are an ice-skating rink and ice wall installed for DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes-Benz division.

Video screens are everywhere, some stretching from floor to near the 25-foot ceiling.

Auto shows are more than just a chance for carmakers to show car shoppers their new offerings, said Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for the auto consulting company IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Merkle said the more than 6,000 journalists from 75 countries help to "create a buzz" that extends beyond the 750,000 or so members of the public expected to pass through Jan. 13-21. .

What everyone, from dealers to investors, wants to see is whether carmakers - particularly the struggling American companies GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group - have offerings that can compete with Japan's Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

"People ... are worried quite frankly about the health of the Big Three," Merkle said. "What are they doing to turn their fortunes around?"

The Detroit show is marking its 100th anniversary this year under the sponsorship of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association. It draws the chief executives of all major automakers, as well as about 2,100 representatives of supplier companies.

[Last modified January 3, 2007, 23:11:20]