Back in the 1950s it was certainly the premier show in the US, often creating major news in the media capital of the US. And according to its organisers, the New York Auto Show is the longest running (102 years) and largest (1.2 million visitors) motor show in the world, writes John Rettie.
Go deeper with GlobalData
During the past couple of decades its importance has waned as Chicago, Los Angeles and, most recently, Detroit have become the pre-eminent shows in the US. This year though, the New York Auto Show, which opened to the public on Good Friday, proved quite significant with no less than 15 world premieres though many – the Lincoln Aviator, VW Golf GTI 337 and Chrysler PT Cruiser Turbo for instance – are not of global significance.
Some wondered if the manufacturers had made a special effort to launch cars in New York to help make the show a success and raise the spirits of New Yorkers six months after the pain of last September. However this seems to be just a coincidence. Most pundits reckon that it is far more likely manufacturers held off showing many cars in Detroit because that show has become so crowded and busy that many new launches go unnoticed. Saving some roll-outs for the less chaotic New York show helps spread out the publicity. Some journalists now even compare New York to Detroit in the same way their counterparts in Europe compare Geneva and Frankfurt.
Judged on a long-term basis, the most significant New York launch was that of Toyota’s new US-only Scion brand. It’s been a badly kept secret for many weeks but the company chose New York to announce preliminary details of the brand and the reasons for its launch.
Toyota is really concerned because the average age of its buyers in the US market is getting older every year. With their average age now in the mid-40s, Toyota buyers are now right in with those who choose cars from companies like Volvo and even Oldsmobile. Meanwhile its main competitors, such as Honda and even Audi, are seeing the average age of their buyers fall year by year as young buyers gravitate to cars such as the Civic and TT coupe.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalData
Rather than try and introduce cars that appeal to younger buyers under the Toyota name, the company has decided that a new nameplate that concentrates on young buyers will have more success in the US. However, unlike Lexus cars which are sold in America through entirely separate dealers, Scion cars and trucks will be sold through existing selected Toyota dealers, albeit in separate areas of the dealerships – coincidentally in much the same way Lexus shares real estate with the Toyota nameplate at many UK and European outlets.
Cynical journalists and analysts at the announcement asked the big question: why?
Mitsubishi and Volkswagen have the youngest buyers and they have managed to remain appealing to younger buyers through existing products sold through existing channels.
Toyota said it sees a nameplate’s popularity as being generational and does not see how young people can be attracted to a brand that appeals to older people such as Buick. It seems to have ignored Volkswagen’s success at appealing to young and old at the same time with good products and dynamic advertising.
The general consensus was that Toyota would be better off spending the millions of dollars it takes to get a new brand established on producing more exciting products. Ironically the first models to be sold under the Scion brand in the US will be Toyota models that are already on sale in Japan – including a derivation of the bbX microminivan.
Toyota says it will start producing unique Scion-only models by 2005. Scion will first be sold only in California with two models, the bbX derivative and another unannounced car, one year from now. It hopes to sell 100,000 cars a year by 2005.
Wags at the show suggested that if Toyota is successful with Scion the Toyota brand will have to die sometime in the future as its aging owner profile passes on and are replaced by today’s young people. They will presumably want to stay with Scion-brand cars rather than move up to the ‘stodgy’ Toyotas owned by their aged parents.
Saturn is one of only two (Lexus is the other) recent new nameplates that have made serious inroads in the US market. The General Motors division unveiled the first major change to its main line of cars with the ION which will be sold as a four-door sedan plus a four-door coupe with ‘suicide’ (rear-hinged) doors, in effect these are ‘half doors’ that can only be opened after the front doors.
This feature, first seen on the previous model coupe (though only on the kerb side) and now copied by Mazda for its new RX-8, makes for easy access to the rear seats as there are no centre door pillars.
Honda unveiled the Element, a near-production version of the X concept it showed first at Detroit and Tokyo. As expected, this innovative small boxy minivan, which is remarkably similar to the Scion bbX, also has a similar pillarless construction with rear-hinged rear doors like the ION’s.
The Element is quite a radical styling departure for Honda but it shows that the brand believes in appealing to younger people with models that feature the Honda nameplate – rather than the more upmarket Acura badge or inventing a whole new one like Toyota has done with Scion.
New SUVs continue to garner much more attention than new cars. Newest was the Lincoln Aviator, which is an upscale version of the Explorer with a more refined chassis.
Lincoln also unveiled technical details of its upcoming Navigator which, though it rides on a truck chassis, is quite different from any that have gone before with its hydroformed tubular frame and independent suspension all round. It comes with rack and pinion steering for the first time and Ford claims the Navigator will drive just as well as a BMW X5 even though it is bigger and more powerful.
If Ford engineers have managed to make a truck handle and ride like a car they will have finally been able to update a chassis design that has remained essentially unchanged since the Model T!
Bob Lutz was the keynote speaker at the official show opening and formally announced that GM will import the Australian Holden Monaro into the US and sell it as the Pontiac GTO starting in Spring 2003. Lutz was forthright in his condemnation of the US government for trying (unsuccessfully) to introduce a ridiculously high CAFE fuel economy of 37 mpg. As he has said before (but reiterated in front of many non-automotive journalists): “Its like asking clothing makers to only produce small clothes in order to fight the nation’s obesity problem.”
Lutz went on to say that if the government were really serious about lowering the US dependency on imported oil it would tax fuel as highly as in Europe. But, as Lutz rightly points out, no US politician will ever do that because it is a sure-fire way of losing an election.
But, as thinking people acknowledge, the CAFE system of enforcing fuel economy standards on manufacturers actually leads to less choice. Europeans enjoy a freedom of choice in vehicles that Americans will not enjoy if the government continues to try and enforce fuel economy ratings on an unwilling population.
