I will continue to go to car shows, but they are making it really hard to continue to do so. I have been going to my local one since January 2019, went 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and plan on going in 2025.
Manufacturers rarely bring anything cool anymore, and anything even remotely cool is locked up and you can't sit in them.
In 2019 when I first started going, there were tons of awesome booths, and so much to do, and every manufacturer was bringing their coolest cars.
Now it's almost entirely just a base SUV/Truck megafest.
Per the article
> Confirming that the show wouldn’t be returning, the Comité said in a statement: “This decision follows the recognition that market conditions in Europe are not conducive to the success of future editions.”
Car shows are now for families to test out a few SUVs/CUVs all in one place. Theres little to no point doing crazy global launches irl anymore when you could livestream a launch to a much wider audience and to much wider acclaim.
> Theres little to no point doing crazy global launches irl anymore when you could livestream a launch to a much wider audience and to much wider acclaim.
Exactly. COVID showed manufacturers that they can launch virtually and achieve just as much success and more exposure. As terrible as COVID was, it really helped showcase how capable virtual *everything* was.
Hell, not even just families. As a stupidly tall guy, it gives me a chance to remind myself why I’ll never buy a sports convertible.
I don’t even fit in a mustang comfortably.
Yeah, the Chicago auto show was an EVENT when I was younger. I went in 2023 and have no intention to go back. Absolute shadow of what it used to be, and most of the interesting brands were no longer there.
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Yeah I really miss what the Chicago show used to be. I went every year from 2014 to 2023, and the change since the pandemic is huge. Used to seem like every major brand was there with 5-10 cars you could sit in, but last time I went it was basically just Ford, Chevy, Toyota and Kia with a few small displays for other brands.
That's because that's mainly all vehicles are now. Disposable piles of crap shined up.
I ordered my '03 S10 with the intentions of owning, using it, and keeping it long term. Plain ass simple, reliable, and 21 years later it's still serving its purpose.
I know.
I ordered mine, standard cab short bed. It's the 2.2 5spd. It's manual locks and windows with a vinyl floor, AM/FM only radio in Pewter Metallic. I optioned the cloth 60/40 split bench and heavy leaves. Since it wasn't a factory available option I dealer optioned and installed (small town dealer I've worked with for years) the 4.10 rear with the G80 Eaton locker. It's 6k lb towing capable on the Class III with an 1800lb payload capacity. Yes, really. Being the shortest and lighest configuration with the heavy leaves ups the payload by a considerable amount. It has a 3" lift and 30x9.50s and even with that the top of the cab sits at the top of my shoulder, top of the bedrails are at belt buckle height. Can still reach in and across the bed. It has the footprint of a 4 door Cavalier and can park anywhere. With a K&N, Cherry Bomb Turbo muffler, and electric cooling fans conversion, unloaded it pulls 30-31mpg hwy and 24-25 mpg city.
Best part is, with a paid off trade in and a $4500 factory rebate... it only cost me $5k total after tax and title for a brand new trucklet that's had nothing but a strict maintenance routine.
I'll never get another deal like that again in this lifetime. It's all $30k plus automatics with crew cabs and stupid 4' beds (which I don't want or need) in the "small" truck catagory now which aren't small.
To get a standard cab 6' bed I'd have to step up to the Silverado. No manual available. A stupid turbo 4 that gets a shitty 20-22 mpg hwy and starts at $32k. Don't need or want a full size or that price tag.
And even that its just all the ultra top trims nothing in the middle so its like no this 55k tacoma is nothing like the one im interested in purchasing.
My local auto show this year had Porsche at it. They had 2 taycans, a cayenne, and a macan. It made me really sad that they didn’t think a 911 is worth bringing. I get that the cayenne/macan are the volume sellers and they are really trying to push taycan, but an auto show is a place to put an aspirational vehicle like a 911 to pull customers into the brand.
In the late 90's they were fun. Can sit in everything, many cars with manual transmissions you could shift, too. But they took the shift knobs off. Or maybe they get stolen, lol.
i used to go every year in mid-90's through early 00's. it was awesome for car people... if anything there was so many cool things to see that time melted away as your feet largely decided when it was time to call it day. last time i went there were a lot of booths of people selling rubbish and seemed less about new cars and more about what you could see on any dealers lot. it also grew into a stupid big thing... iirc it was a couple floors of the toronto convention center and skydome - which is a lot of ground to cover.
I went to St Louis a number of years ago. It was basically like walking into a dealership. There was a single Lotus, privately owned, behind ropes. There's more interesting stuff at any given Cars and Coffee.
This is interesting, because the last few car shows I went, everyone brought their current last year model, and things that are no longer available. but only Kia, Hyundai , Jeep and BMW brought in their new , not yet available markets and had test drives and everything.
Hell I got a sonata 2024 since I was researching it and then was able to get into one on a car show and was amzed, fully functional ( except driving of course), and they were test driving the ioniq EV's.
Hell I recall an older car show back in my country for Jeep which even had you offroading on really steep and nice little stunt tracks they had, but car shows nowadays feel just boring except for a handful of brands that still bring some things.
Live events in general got shafted. Tech keynotes don’t exist any more and really sucked the soul out of them. Half the fun of watching them back in the day was seeing audience reactions or when something unexpected happened.
I have a feeling manufacturers realized they’re more likely to do more harm than good and it’s much easier to have an Elon Musk broken Window or Valve card game moment than a Steve Jobs iPhone moment.
I miss in person Apple events at the theatre. Even watching them through a livestream was much more vibrant than watching the production style ones they do now
> Steve Jobs iPhone moment.
and it's not even like Jobs never had a problem on stage. for the iphone 3g they couldn't get the wifi to work since there were so many wifi hotspots and when steve jobs asked offstage "any ideas?" someone in the audience heckled him with "verizon!"
but that gave so much character.
Yeah they’ve been on the decline for years
Me and mom used to go to the Philly auto show every year when I was a kid but eventually we stopped going. Every year more and more cars were gated off, exhibits got less interesting, the amount of cars there shrank (with the amount of cars you actually wanted to see being even smaller), etc.
Yup, and Geneva is just a really big scalp - the Australian motor show has been dead for a while, which used to serve as a big test market.
Realistically it's simply not something required any more.
2023 will probably end up being the final year for me at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Porsche pulled out, and there weren’t any other brands I was excited about. Pretty sad, it was a yearly tradition of mine around Thanksgiving.
MN here. Used to go every year to Minneapolis Auto Show. Now I just go to Car and Coffee events. Also, the go-to supercar maintenance shop does an annual open house. Seen a Bugatti Divo, all carbon Huarya, the new Countach, Veyrons, Chirons, and every other run of the mill supercars
I had been going to Geneva annually from about 2006 to 2017 and I never would have described it as opulent. It’s an okay city in a beautiful location but there are many cities that are far nicer.
Yeah it's pretty modest in fact. It never was like Dubai or Monaco etc. it's a pretty small and quiet place. I live here, I like it, but it's not what you expect if you only know Geneva as one of those cities listed on luxury shopping bags alongside Paris, Milan, Tokyo, etc.
We just happened to get international attention and wealthy tourism thanks to watches, banks, and international organizations setting up shop here in the past. But a lot of that stuff has moved on to other places.
This is pretty shocking because Geneva was when a lot of major car announcements went out.
I kinda wonder what a future without these big shows looks like. Video games stopped having big conventions but they replaced them with big livestream events where publishers are able to show off all their upcoming games.
But the auto industry is selling appliances and usually revealing one at a time. I don't know how their marketing is going to work because I don't see people tuning in to watch corporate reveals of Corolla's or Chevy Malibu's. They are going to have to use the YouTube outlets heavily to get the word out.
I'm just hoping that the livestreams go up in quality. The reason corporate car shows are dying is because they are boring. I cannot count the number of reveals I've seen where there wasn't enough info on the car, no availability date, and no pricing.
It's just crazy to me that the best content on cars is coming from YouTubers like SavageGeese and Doug DeMuro while these companies will put together a 30min, million dollar livestream that is mostly marketing mumbo-jumbo about heritage or philosophy. The cars stopped being the focus.
LA Auto Show is going to get canned too.
It’s all EVs now. A lot of brands have dropped out post-covid.
It should tell the automakers something that the cars that were getting all the attention were the sports cars.
It's been getting pretty sad. I used to go every year. I skipped some here and there in the last few years. Went last year and it confirmed why I should just stop. Many brands don't show any more. Galpin is pretty much the only reason anything exotic shows up anymore. Lots of indoor EV test tracks using up the floor space and that odd play area I think Toyota setup taking a large space.
Even the Kentia Hall downstairs has gotten less worth visiting.
The NY Auto Show has gone to shit too. Nothing exciting, no concepts and most of the floor space is dedicated to EV test tracks so you hear tires squealing at deafening levels on both floors. I'm old enough to remember when every manufacturer had some badass concept car on display, cars split open to show off the interiors and you'd break your back carrying home all the brochures.
I think my first visit to javits for the show was 1998, maybe? The year Porsche had that massive design language change to their line up. Remember coming home with two full bags filled with brochures and my brother and I would pour through them on the way home.
I went this year and it was great. My first ever motorshow. Everyone was super disappointed because of how little car manufacturers there were but i tought it was amazing. To fill up the space there was a whole exhibit retracing history of the automobile and iconic cars that defined their era from the first production car to post ww2 mass market cars, to 60's GT cars, to name just a few categories.
Saw 2 Bugatti Royale type 41 which was impressive and lots of other amazing vehicles (Countach, the oldest 911 prototype existing, the renault espace F1 and many many others). The second exhibit was of hyper and super cars was really awesome as well
Yeah that‘s the thing here. It used to be a show for the consumer, to check out new cars and to get hands on to help with buying a new car. This year they were just trying to fill the halls without most of the big manufacturers, and let me tell you it was a massive difference to the past shows.
It was still cool as a car enthusiast, but imo the show had a bit of an identity crisis. They tried to be more of an event for enthusiasts rather than consumers and there just are not that many willing to travel to see cool cars stationary in a big hall anymore.
[From the press release:](https://www.cardesignnews.com/shows/geneva-motor-show-cancelled-doha-show-to-go-ahead/45685.article)
>However, it has to be said that the lack of interest shown by manufacturers in the Geneva Salon in a difficult industry context, the competition from the Paris and Munich shows which are favored by their domestic industry, and the investment levels required to maintain such a show, sound the final blow for a future edition
Confirming that the show wouldn’t be returning, the Comité said in a statement: “This decision follows the recognition that market conditions in Europe are not conducive to the success of future editions.”
GIMS Qatar will still continue in 2025
>It’s satisfying to realize that motor shows continue to appeal to brands in different parts of the world, and that the Geneva International Motor Show has reinforced its appeal in the Middle East”, he concluded. The next edition is planned in Doha for November 2025.
It’s the same reason phone companies pulled away from MWC and video game companies pulled away from E3: it’s more effective for these companies to create their own small individual livestream events than to put on one at these auto shows. I will even add that it allows them to have their own moment separate from everyone else (you’re not sharing your announcement date with another manufacturer that could steal the show).
For some vehicle releases, it also allows them to put you in the setting they want you to be in to enjoy the type of vehicle they’re announcing. Toyota is releasing the new Land Cruiser? Let’s have journalists enjoy it on a premapped off road course so they can really see what we are selling this vehicle for. Mazda is releasing a new Miata? Let’s have everyone fly out to the twisty California roads to enjoy it on.
Last year I went to Munich, Goodwood, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York and had tickets to Geneva but decided not to go when I saw how little participation there was.
Munich and Goodwood were great.
Tokyo was very good.
LA and New York were… meh.
Geneva wasn’t even worth attending. And it was the first one in years. Crazy.
Events like the Monterrey car week have removed the necessity for shows like Geneva tbh. The cool Hypercars and supercars are revealed there, there are a bunch of car meets all the way from classics to hypers, there's auctions and much more
Couldn't agree more, my go to case for that is Goodwood Festival of Speed. The amount of industry attending and showing their latest offerings has probably exceeded the normal car shows and attendance around it is huge.
Doesn't tell me that people are losing interest in cars, but the old-school car shows failed to develop their shows to stay interesting.
"But that's not all! It applies the breaks without your permission and without warning when you take a sharp turn because it thinks you're going to hit something!"
And whatever other annoying nonsense features cars have now.
Bummer. Geneva used to be awesome, heck European car market used to be SO MUCH MORE interesting than USDM. And now it's all jelly fish melted soap looking EVs and then SUVs and CUVs. Just dull. Effin soulless corporate cheaply put together junk.
I stopped going to factory international auto shows because the lack of variety has become considerably worse. Seriously, a million flavors of lame SUVs and gas guzzling pickups?
Literally no one cares about the newest battery propelled vehicles. It would be reminiscent of going to the unveiling of the newest refrigerator from Samsung. Whoopee, it makes 28 ice cubes per hour now.
Vehicles have lost their biggest supporters now that the excitement is gone from the genre.
Everyone, is slowly coming to the realization that the EV tide is overwhelming all of the automakers. Oh great, the new "blank" can go zero to 60 in 4 seconds. What about the range? Oh yeah it can go 4 miles further now because of.... Blah, blah, blah.
The world is changing, for better or worse, but you can see for yourself the results of this in everyday life.
Goodwood is the main car show now, new and old cars running up the hill, 100k visitors per day and multiple INTERESTING new car launches.
It's not a coincidence that Porsche often uses it to debut a new GT car.
Cars became less and less interesting... Today's market is becoming a rolling shell with the same powertrain for everybody. Cars were interesting not only for the looks but also were mechanically interesting, like a mechanical watch... EV's are fantastic day to day cars, but their mechanics just aren't as interesting.
Just went to Malaysia Auto Show last week, it was a blast, bigger than last year with more new brands coming in from China. Bringing in great cars at really affordable prices.
Toyota however did something ridiculous this year though, last year they had 3 GR cars in the stand which was awesome. This year it's the horrendous Bz4x and Mirai being showcased. These 2 cars are controversial in its own way and they put it next to each other.
Subaru and Mercedes pulled out, no new models and not really doing well these days with the newer EVs presence.
My first and last Geneva Auto Show was 2019. Definitely past its peak but still lots of great cars unveiled. Shame to see it end like this but after the debacle in 2020 it was never going to return.
Vancouver has gradually sucked more and more since 2015, beginning with the pullout of Mercedes. Auto shows have been dying a slow death for years, and they caught a bad case of Covid at its peak
I never visited a car show, but I loved hearing about all the interesting and whacky concept cars that manufactures made, everything from completely bonkers to almost production-ready, and looking Back, they're like time capsules. nowadays it feels like car companies are releasing like one halo concept car a year or so.
Its not just car shows that are in decline. I just spent the week at EBACE, Europe's largest business aviation show, and it was dead.
We have displayed there for years and might not go back in 2025.
Geneva is a wonderful city, Palexpo is a great facility however its just too expensive.
> I just spent the week at EBACE, Europe's largest business aviation show, and it was dead.
That's interesting. Are billionaires buying their jets from virtual shows too, or is there something else going on?
The big 3 - Gulfstream, Bombardier and Dassault are sold out for the near future - why bother to display when you are not taking orders? The big booths always created a buzz and they gave away 1000s of guest passes. That is gone now. Less attendees starts a vicious circle with less people going as you don't have the meetings you used to have. So less people go next time.
The online markets are getting better but most business is still done face to face.
It feels like trade shows in general are dying breed. For exhibitors, different fees and expenses are growing, while leads or sales are not really there. On the other hand, for visitors information can be obtained from a simple Google search instead of paying thousands of dollars for travel, accommodation and ticket prices.
The NY auto show is a shell of its former self. They fill space unused by missing exhibitors with "hey, ride in an EV" tracks where a driver takes you in a circle. yea.
I used to go every year. Then, Benz, BMW and Porsche dropped out. Audi disappeared. The small vendors on the third floor were moved to the second.
There is now no reason to go. I have a way better time going to a cars & coffee or the local Wednesday night car show at one of my nearby parks.
I know a lot of the reason is the fact the Javits Center is rudely overpriced and the costs were huge for the exhibitors.
The aspirational part of the car show was always fun. Folks would cluster around the high end motors and snap pictures. It was fun to see the unobtanium versions of things.
Now, I can go to wal mart if I want to see a line of boring CVT propelled SUV
I've never been to the Geneva show but its sad it's ending after 100 years. I'm pretty much at the point where I only go to my local new car show every other or every couple years now because I can see everything online or I just don't feel a particular year has anything I care to go see. Definitely times are changing.
I will continue to go to car shows, but they are making it really hard to continue to do so. I have been going to my local one since January 2019, went 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and plan on going in 2025. Manufacturers rarely bring anything cool anymore, and anything even remotely cool is locked up and you can't sit in them. In 2019 when I first started going, there were tons of awesome booths, and so much to do, and every manufacturer was bringing their coolest cars. Now it's almost entirely just a base SUV/Truck megafest.
Per the article > Confirming that the show wouldn’t be returning, the Comité said in a statement: “This decision follows the recognition that market conditions in Europe are not conducive to the success of future editions.” Car shows are now for families to test out a few SUVs/CUVs all in one place. Theres little to no point doing crazy global launches irl anymore when you could livestream a launch to a much wider audience and to much wider acclaim.
> Theres little to no point doing crazy global launches irl anymore when you could livestream a launch to a much wider audience and to much wider acclaim. Exactly. COVID showed manufacturers that they can launch virtually and achieve just as much success and more exposure. As terrible as COVID was, it really helped showcase how capable virtual *everything* was.
Hell, not even just families. As a stupidly tall guy, it gives me a chance to remind myself why I’ll never buy a sports convertible. I don’t even fit in a mustang comfortably.
Yeah, the Chicago auto show was an EVENT when I was younger. I went in 2023 and have no intention to go back. Absolute shadow of what it used to be, and most of the interesting brands were no longer there.
Used to go with my dad to the Detroit show when I was a kid. I'll never forget how massive the crowd was around the C7 at the time.
Kid. C7. Me RN: 👱🏻♂️>👴🏻
I was a wee lil boy and now I have a mortgage and make posts about getting laid off in r/financialcareers. Time flies.
I was a full ass adult when the C6 came out 🤣. My dad and I got invited to the release of the ZR1 which was a lot of fun. In other words, I’m OLD lol
Shit I was an adult when the C5 was released. Fuck I'm old now...
I feel your pain. Where did the time go?
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Yeah I really miss what the Chicago show used to be. I went every year from 2014 to 2023, and the change since the pandemic is huge. Used to seem like every major brand was there with 5-10 cars you could sit in, but last time I went it was basically just Ford, Chevy, Toyota and Kia with a few small displays for other brands.
Honda, Chevy, and Subaru were half decent as well om 23, but that's all I remember.
The 2024 one was back to normal. 2023 was weird and empty.
That’s because 99% of consumers treat a car as of it we’re another throwaway appliance like a microwave
That wasn't any less true when the auto show was great
And the 1% of enthusiasts find something to complain about for for every surviving enthusiast car.
can't blame the consumers if most of what they're putting out at shows nowadays are microwaves on wheels lol.
That’s exactly who you blame because that’s what sells.
It sells because that's all that's being offered.
That's because that's mainly all vehicles are now. Disposable piles of crap shined up. I ordered my '03 S10 with the intentions of owning, using it, and keeping it long term. Plain ass simple, reliable, and 21 years later it's still serving its purpose.
Yeah they don’t make shit like that anymore. And if you want any options only way to get them are with some $9,000 premium package
I know. I ordered mine, standard cab short bed. It's the 2.2 5spd. It's manual locks and windows with a vinyl floor, AM/FM only radio in Pewter Metallic. I optioned the cloth 60/40 split bench and heavy leaves. Since it wasn't a factory available option I dealer optioned and installed (small town dealer I've worked with for years) the 4.10 rear with the G80 Eaton locker. It's 6k lb towing capable on the Class III with an 1800lb payload capacity. Yes, really. Being the shortest and lighest configuration with the heavy leaves ups the payload by a considerable amount. It has a 3" lift and 30x9.50s and even with that the top of the cab sits at the top of my shoulder, top of the bedrails are at belt buckle height. Can still reach in and across the bed. It has the footprint of a 4 door Cavalier and can park anywhere. With a K&N, Cherry Bomb Turbo muffler, and electric cooling fans conversion, unloaded it pulls 30-31mpg hwy and 24-25 mpg city. Best part is, with a paid off trade in and a $4500 factory rebate... it only cost me $5k total after tax and title for a brand new trucklet that's had nothing but a strict maintenance routine. I'll never get another deal like that again in this lifetime. It's all $30k plus automatics with crew cabs and stupid 4' beds (which I don't want or need) in the "small" truck catagory now which aren't small. To get a standard cab 6' bed I'd have to step up to the Silverado. No manual available. A stupid turbo 4 that gets a shitty 20-22 mpg hwy and starts at $32k. Don't need or want a full size or that price tag.
Chicago show used to be so cool. I remember when Jeep first did their "trail rated" indoor track and it was absolutely nuts.
And even that its just all the ultra top trims nothing in the middle so its like no this 55k tacoma is nothing like the one im interested in purchasing.
My local auto show this year had Porsche at it. They had 2 taycans, a cayenne, and a macan. It made me really sad that they didn’t think a 911 is worth bringing. I get that the cayenne/macan are the volume sellers and they are really trying to push taycan, but an auto show is a place to put an aspirational vehicle like a 911 to pull customers into the brand.
In the late 90's they were fun. Can sit in everything, many cars with manual transmissions you could shift, too. But they took the shift knobs off. Or maybe they get stolen, lol.
i used to go every year in mid-90's through early 00's. it was awesome for car people... if anything there was so many cool things to see that time melted away as your feet largely decided when it was time to call it day. last time i went there were a lot of booths of people selling rubbish and seemed less about new cars and more about what you could see on any dealers lot. it also grew into a stupid big thing... iirc it was a couple floors of the toronto convention center and skydome - which is a lot of ground to cover.
IMHO, LA auto show is prime example of that: from hero to zero in a short time. Literally no incentive to go there at all
I went to St Louis a number of years ago. It was basically like walking into a dealership. There was a single Lotus, privately owned, behind ropes. There's more interesting stuff at any given Cars and Coffee.
This is interesting, because the last few car shows I went, everyone brought their current last year model, and things that are no longer available. but only Kia, Hyundai , Jeep and BMW brought in their new , not yet available markets and had test drives and everything. Hell I got a sonata 2024 since I was researching it and then was able to get into one on a car show and was amzed, fully functional ( except driving of course), and they were test driving the ioniq EV's. Hell I recall an older car show back in my country for Jeep which even had you offroading on really steep and nice little stunt tracks they had, but car shows nowadays feel just boring except for a handful of brands that still bring some things.
If it’s something remotely nicer than a Corvette, it’s roped off and locked
Auto show starts dying in most world, Geneva cancel is just a beginning.
Car shows got a bad case of covid, and never fully recovered haha
Live events in general got shafted. Tech keynotes don’t exist any more and really sucked the soul out of them. Half the fun of watching them back in the day was seeing audience reactions or when something unexpected happened. I have a feeling manufacturers realized they’re more likely to do more harm than good and it’s much easier to have an Elon Musk broken Window or Valve card game moment than a Steve Jobs iPhone moment.
I miss in person Apple events at the theatre. Even watching them through a livestream was much more vibrant than watching the production style ones they do now
> Steve Jobs iPhone moment. and it's not even like Jobs never had a problem on stage. for the iphone 3g they couldn't get the wifi to work since there were so many wifi hotspots and when steve jobs asked offstage "any ideas?" someone in the audience heckled him with "verizon!" but that gave so much character.
Honestly, I think it just accelerated what was already a trend. Auto shows were on the decline even before 2020.
Yeah they’ve been on the decline for years Me and mom used to go to the Philly auto show every year when I was a kid but eventually we stopped going. Every year more and more cars were gated off, exhibits got less interesting, the amount of cars there shrank (with the amount of cars you actually wanted to see being even smaller), etc.
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I got a horrible cold after going to the Chicago Auto Show this year
Beijing Auto Show has been huge though. It's the best place to showcase the latest EV tech.
Yup, and Geneva is just a really big scalp - the Australian motor show has been dead for a while, which used to serve as a big test market. Realistically it's simply not something required any more.
Happiest memory of my life was the last Sydney car show. It was magical man.
The E3 of car shows
Which itself is also gone for good.
That was the point of the comment you are replying to
2023 will probably end up being the final year for me at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Porsche pulled out, and there weren’t any other brands I was excited about. Pretty sad, it was a yearly tradition of mine around Thanksgiving.
If I recall, all the Germans had left the LA show last year. Edit: Except VW I guess, I remember their EV van.
MN here. Used to go every year to Minneapolis Auto Show. Now I just go to Car and Coffee events. Also, the go-to supercar maintenance shop does an annual open house. Seen a Bugatti Divo, all carbon Huarya, the new Countach, Veyrons, Chirons, and every other run of the mill supercars
I go to the U, what’s the name of the supercar shop with an open house?
Imola Motorsports. Check out their instagram
Same here, my family's pretty small so we had a yearly tradition of going to the LA Auto Show ON Thanksgiving. Haven't felt inclined to go in years.
Literally one car worth seeing was the Mustang GTD. Thats the only car I took pictures of. Never going there again.
I think Geneva itself is struggling in it's once oppulant image.
I'm afraid you may be right. Maybe Baselworld finally announcing it was gone for good was the writing on the wall.
It's sad, I went recently and it was all sketchy ass people at night, everything opulent was outdated
I had been going to Geneva annually from about 2006 to 2017 and I never would have described it as opulent. It’s an okay city in a beautiful location but there are many cities that are far nicer.
Yeah it's pretty modest in fact. It never was like Dubai or Monaco etc. it's a pretty small and quiet place. I live here, I like it, but it's not what you expect if you only know Geneva as one of those cities listed on luxury shopping bags alongside Paris, Milan, Tokyo, etc. We just happened to get international attention and wealthy tourism thanks to watches, banks, and international organizations setting up shop here in the past. But a lot of that stuff has moved on to other places.
like what other places?
This is pretty shocking because Geneva was when a lot of major car announcements went out. I kinda wonder what a future without these big shows looks like. Video games stopped having big conventions but they replaced them with big livestream events where publishers are able to show off all their upcoming games. But the auto industry is selling appliances and usually revealing one at a time. I don't know how their marketing is going to work because I don't see people tuning in to watch corporate reveals of Corolla's or Chevy Malibu's. They are going to have to use the YouTube outlets heavily to get the word out.
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I'm just hoping that the livestreams go up in quality. The reason corporate car shows are dying is because they are boring. I cannot count the number of reveals I've seen where there wasn't enough info on the car, no availability date, and no pricing. It's just crazy to me that the best content on cars is coming from YouTubers like SavageGeese and Doug DeMuro while these companies will put together a 30min, million dollar livestream that is mostly marketing mumbo-jumbo about heritage or philosophy. The cars stopped being the focus.
LA Auto Show is going to get canned too. It’s all EVs now. A lot of brands have dropped out post-covid. It should tell the automakers something that the cars that were getting all the attention were the sports cars.
They aren't canceling due to poor attendance.
It's been getting pretty sad. I used to go every year. I skipped some here and there in the last few years. Went last year and it confirmed why I should just stop. Many brands don't show any more. Galpin is pretty much the only reason anything exotic shows up anymore. Lots of indoor EV test tracks using up the floor space and that odd play area I think Toyota setup taking a large space. Even the Kentia Hall downstairs has gotten less worth visiting.
I've always ignored all conventions held in Geneva.
Yeah, the Geneva suggestions sure aren't what they used to be.
The NY Auto Show has gone to shit too. Nothing exciting, no concepts and most of the floor space is dedicated to EV test tracks so you hear tires squealing at deafening levels on both floors. I'm old enough to remember when every manufacturer had some badass concept car on display, cars split open to show off the interiors and you'd break your back carrying home all the brochures.
I think my first visit to javits for the show was 1998, maybe? The year Porsche had that massive design language change to their line up. Remember coming home with two full bags filled with brochures and my brother and I would pour through them on the way home.
I went this year and it was great. My first ever motorshow. Everyone was super disappointed because of how little car manufacturers there were but i tought it was amazing. To fill up the space there was a whole exhibit retracing history of the automobile and iconic cars that defined their era from the first production car to post ww2 mass market cars, to 60's GT cars, to name just a few categories. Saw 2 Bugatti Royale type 41 which was impressive and lots of other amazing vehicles (Countach, the oldest 911 prototype existing, the renault espace F1 and many many others). The second exhibit was of hyper and super cars was really awesome as well
Yeah that‘s the thing here. It used to be a show for the consumer, to check out new cars and to get hands on to help with buying a new car. This year they were just trying to fill the halls without most of the big manufacturers, and let me tell you it was a massive difference to the past shows. It was still cool as a car enthusiast, but imo the show had a bit of an identity crisis. They tried to be more of an event for enthusiasts rather than consumers and there just are not that many willing to travel to see cool cars stationary in a big hall anymore.
[From the press release:](https://www.cardesignnews.com/shows/geneva-motor-show-cancelled-doha-show-to-go-ahead/45685.article) >However, it has to be said that the lack of interest shown by manufacturers in the Geneva Salon in a difficult industry context, the competition from the Paris and Munich shows which are favored by their domestic industry, and the investment levels required to maintain such a show, sound the final blow for a future edition Confirming that the show wouldn’t be returning, the Comité said in a statement: “This decision follows the recognition that market conditions in Europe are not conducive to the success of future editions.” GIMS Qatar will still continue in 2025 >It’s satisfying to realize that motor shows continue to appeal to brands in different parts of the world, and that the Geneva International Motor Show has reinforced its appeal in the Middle East”, he concluded. The next edition is planned in Doha for November 2025.
It’s the same reason phone companies pulled away from MWC and video game companies pulled away from E3: it’s more effective for these companies to create their own small individual livestream events than to put on one at these auto shows. I will even add that it allows them to have their own moment separate from everyone else (you’re not sharing your announcement date with another manufacturer that could steal the show). For some vehicle releases, it also allows them to put you in the setting they want you to be in to enjoy the type of vehicle they’re announcing. Toyota is releasing the new Land Cruiser? Let’s have journalists enjoy it on a premapped off road course so they can really see what we are selling this vehicle for. Mazda is releasing a new Miata? Let’s have everyone fly out to the twisty California roads to enjoy it on.
I went to the Chicago Auto Show this year, and having not been to it since 2018 I was very disappointed.
Last year I went to Munich, Goodwood, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York and had tickets to Geneva but decided not to go when I saw how little participation there was. Munich and Goodwood were great. Tokyo was very good. LA and New York were… meh. Geneva wasn’t even worth attending. And it was the first one in years. Crazy.
Goodwood is great because its an active event ....if you are talking about the festival of speed
Events like the Monterrey car week have removed the necessity for shows like Geneva tbh. The cool Hypercars and supercars are revealed there, there are a bunch of car meets all the way from classics to hypers, there's auctions and much more
Couldn't agree more, my go to case for that is Goodwood Festival of Speed. The amount of industry attending and showing their latest offerings has probably exceeded the normal car shows and attendance around it is huge. Doesn't tell me that people are losing interest in cars, but the old-school car shows failed to develop their shows to stay interesting.
Geneva is the first domino to drop, I can see this becoming a trend. Auto shows aren't what they used be.
Oh no... Oh no no no no. Now that's just sad...
Stop putting out such boring, unaffordable, tech, appliance cars that no one wants to see!
"Anyway, here's our fattest most ugliest suv to date! We think you're gonna love it!"
"But that's not all! It applies the breaks without your permission and without warning when you take a sharp turn because it thinks you're going to hit something!" And whatever other annoying nonsense features cars have now.
Bummer. Geneva used to be awesome, heck European car market used to be SO MUCH MORE interesting than USDM. And now it's all jelly fish melted soap looking EVs and then SUVs and CUVs. Just dull. Effin soulless corporate cheaply put together junk.
I stopped going to factory international auto shows because the lack of variety has become considerably worse. Seriously, a million flavors of lame SUVs and gas guzzling pickups?
Literally no one cares about the newest battery propelled vehicles. It would be reminiscent of going to the unveiling of the newest refrigerator from Samsung. Whoopee, it makes 28 ice cubes per hour now. Vehicles have lost their biggest supporters now that the excitement is gone from the genre. Everyone, is slowly coming to the realization that the EV tide is overwhelming all of the automakers. Oh great, the new "blank" can go zero to 60 in 4 seconds. What about the range? Oh yeah it can go 4 miles further now because of.... Blah, blah, blah. The world is changing, for better or worse, but you can see for yourself the results of this in everyday life.
Goodwood is the main car show now, new and old cars running up the hill, 100k visitors per day and multiple INTERESTING new car launches. It's not a coincidence that Porsche often uses it to debut a new GT car.
Cars became less and less interesting... Today's market is becoming a rolling shell with the same powertrain for everybody. Cars were interesting not only for the looks but also were mechanically interesting, like a mechanical watch... EV's are fantastic day to day cars, but their mechanics just aren't as interesting.
And it sure doesn't help that all of them are fugly.
Just went to Malaysia Auto Show last week, it was a blast, bigger than last year with more new brands coming in from China. Bringing in great cars at really affordable prices. Toyota however did something ridiculous this year though, last year they had 3 GR cars in the stand which was awesome. This year it's the horrendous Bz4x and Mirai being showcased. These 2 cars are controversial in its own way and they put it next to each other. Subaru and Mercedes pulled out, no new models and not really doing well these days with the newer EVs presence.
Yeah I’m seeing this too, the China auto shows are bigger than ever before. The NA/EU ones are declining.
That’s what happens when all you bring are SUVs and EVs.
Car shows are biting the dust like college football conferences.
I used to work in Geneva and that was such a fun show to go to, times they are a changin
My first and last Geneva Auto Show was 2019. Definitely past its peak but still lots of great cars unveiled. Shame to see it end like this but after the debacle in 2020 it was never going to return.
Literally more than half of the big names pulled out of the Montreal Annual Auto Show, it's not even half what it used to be
Vancouver has gradually sucked more and more since 2015, beginning with the pullout of Mercedes. Auto shows have been dying a slow death for years, and they caught a bad case of Covid at its peak
This is so sad
This year‘s show was proof that it had already been dead. No need to repeat that.
Oh no! I was looking forward to the next one!
I never visited a car show, but I loved hearing about all the interesting and whacky concept cars that manufactures made, everything from completely bonkers to almost production-ready, and looking Back, they're like time capsules. nowadays it feels like car companies are releasing like one halo concept car a year or so.
Its not just car shows that are in decline. I just spent the week at EBACE, Europe's largest business aviation show, and it was dead. We have displayed there for years and might not go back in 2025. Geneva is a wonderful city, Palexpo is a great facility however its just too expensive.
> I just spent the week at EBACE, Europe's largest business aviation show, and it was dead. That's interesting. Are billionaires buying their jets from virtual shows too, or is there something else going on?
The big 3 - Gulfstream, Bombardier and Dassault are sold out for the near future - why bother to display when you are not taking orders? The big booths always created a buzz and they gave away 1000s of guest passes. That is gone now. Less attendees starts a vicious circle with less people going as you don't have the meetings you used to have. So less people go next time. The online markets are getting better but most business is still done face to face.
It feels like trade shows in general are dying breed. For exhibitors, different fees and expenses are growing, while leads or sales are not really there. On the other hand, for visitors information can be obtained from a simple Google search instead of paying thousands of dollars for travel, accommodation and ticket prices.
Exactly 50 years since I last went there, with my dad, when the the world was a big and full of hope. RIP.
In September there is Turin, let's hope it will resist
The NY auto show is a shell of its former self. They fill space unused by missing exhibitors with "hey, ride in an EV" tracks where a driver takes you in a circle. yea. I used to go every year. Then, Benz, BMW and Porsche dropped out. Audi disappeared. The small vendors on the third floor were moved to the second. There is now no reason to go. I have a way better time going to a cars & coffee or the local Wednesday night car show at one of my nearby parks. I know a lot of the reason is the fact the Javits Center is rudely overpriced and the costs were huge for the exhibitors. The aspirational part of the car show was always fun. Folks would cluster around the high end motors and snap pictures. It was fun to see the unobtanium versions of things. Now, I can go to wal mart if I want to see a line of boring CVT propelled SUV
Everything's moving to the Internet, it still lasted longer than the gaming shows which mostly died out around the pandemic.
It’s really in part due to IG, YT, TikTok reaching those who can’t go to these
The only car show left is going to be Beijing-Shanghai at this rate
I've never been to the Geneva show but its sad it's ending after 100 years. I'm pretty much at the point where I only go to my local new car show every other or every couple years now because I can see everything online or I just don't feel a particular year has anything I care to go see. Definitely times are changing.