Before the Auto Show: Welcome to Press Days!

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Two days, non-stop, moving from exhibit to exhibit every 45 minutes or so. You must be a fast walker to get a seat for each “act”. The major stars today are made of shiny sheet metal. Oh, don't be bored, there's a celebrity or two thrown into the mix. Lots of gents in black or dark gray suits far outnumber women in any audience. Most women dressed somberly as well, including myself. At any given time, you’ll see waves, hugs, small huddles of intense conversation, and people whizzing by carrying tall tripods or pulling a wheelie behind them.

Where are you? Press days at the Los Angeles Auto Show. And no, I'm not going to share a bunch of car reviews with you. Plenty of those already available. Instead, I’ll tell you a little bit about the day, starting with two things you don't see:

• Pretty models.
• A full array of vehicles for some brands; chairs hold higher importance.

The rest of the cars and the models will be there for the consumer days though. Whew, right?

The day began promptly at 8AM in room 515, a vast space with plenty of seating for all. A quick intro from the Motor Press Guild and then the keynote speaker, Takashi Yamanouchi, President and CEO of Mazda Motor Corporation. His speech was lively and chock full of Mazda heritage and terminology, from the Wankel engine to the more recent and enduring “Zoom Zoom” tag line.  I quickly befriended a woman who told me she “works on the Motor Press Guild website” but looking her up on LinkedIn that evening, I realized she was being modest!

Afterwards, the crowd moved from exhibit to exhibit, growing in numbers as the day progressed and soaking up news, including new car debuts, first looks at concept vehicles and announcements for important awards. Not every brand holds a press conference, but many do; day one included  seventeen of them, actually sixteen, since one was a “double bill”.

And it can be hazardous. Not just bumping into rushed people or folks appearing confused about where to go next (like me), but avoiding various stages of construction still going on, ladders, floors being altered, and the last speck of dust being removed from a vehicle.

Removing dust from an Audi

Final touches on the Hyundai exhibit

Waiting for the show to begin.

I managed to get yelled at by a gent who scored a seat at the Hyundai exhibit. Stepping aside slightly to let two polite guys (they said excuse me) through the crowd, I apparently moved into this fellow’s “zone”. He tapped me hard on the back and said something nasty. I said “I was letting them through”, then I stepped about 3 inches to the right. That seemed to pacify him.

Have a seat and we'll serve you!

And the food! Many brands provided snacks. The best edibles I found were at Kia, where servers came around several times before the 2:05PM “show” with chicken and shrimp dumplings, and my personal favorite for the day, spicy tuna in a crispy cone. I passed on the Kogi beef. Last year, Kia was serving up sliders, but this year they kept it more aligned with the brand heritage.



This ends part one; yes, there's more. For those of you who want to linger a bit longer, here’s a classic Mazda commercial that enlightens us to the fact that piston engines go “boing”... click here

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A Research Study, Cars, and Objects That Disappear.

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Who is safer…the driver or the pedestrian? A just released study by HLDI (Highway Loss Data Institute) reveals some interesting findings, with Automotive News summing it up nicely on the strength of the title of their piece: “Study: Hybrids safer in accidents, more dangerous to pedestrians”.

According to the HLDI press release, the study concluded that “On average, the odds of being injured in a crash are 25 percent lower for people in hybrids than people traveling in non-hybrid models.” Rational as to why this is so suggests weight of the vehicle plays a role, since hybrids are heavier than their non-hybrid counterparts.

Of course, HLDI reminds us that in general, the larger the vehicle, the greater the safety. Guess investing in sheet metal IS still a good thing then, but it’s nice to know that smaller vehicles can “weigh in” with being safe too and provide stellar fuel economy to boot.

But now, I’d like to mention a specific market research aspect of this study. The intention was to make a comparison between vehicle powertrains; HLDI clearly stated that ONLY models available as both as a “conventional” vehicle and as either an all-electric or a hybrid vehicle, covering model years 2003 through 2011 were included in the analysis. Therefore, these parameters leave out the popular Toyota Prius. It also excludes some vehicles whose names aren’t on the tips of everyone’s tongues…yet, the Honda Insight, Nissan Leaf, and Chevy Volt.

And that criteria is fine of course. Parameters for a study are dependent on what the original question is that’s requiring an answer. Don’t know exactly what that question is, and let’s face it, most people wouldn’t find it interesting anyway. But the findings are.

After initially reading the Automotive News article, hungry for more info I did a quick search, and prior to seeing the press release from HLDI, came across an article from the LA Times.

Right from the start, I couldn’t help noticing a photo of a Prius that accompanied the article. Reading along, I was surprised to see the emphasis of the discussion on, yep, the Toyota Prius.
That was three hours ago (as of this writing). While originally planning to use that article as an example of how easy it is to provide incorrect information to the public, I’m happy to report that the article is gone… poof… no longer in my rear view mirror but replaced by a smart article that combines some of the excitement of the LA Auto Show Press Days with the study findings.

Now this raises a whole other issue. Corrections and pulling information on the internet occur at the drop of a hat. No doubt someone realized the error and remedied the situation in a jiffy! So now it’s a question of whether you believe in what I saw. Perhaps I should have taken a screen shot? Nah; how was I to know the article would disappear? And originally, my plan was to point out how information can be misconstrued in a short summary, link the article and post. If I had, that article would have been available for all to see for a short while.

Ah... the power of the internet.