Auto Show in Motion????

[goofyfan13]

Anyone know if GM plans on doing Auto Show in Motion and bringing it to Epcot again? Just curious because it took place at around this time last year over at Epcot, but their website has nothing. Did GM scrap it? Or is it coming back but at a different time? Thanks. :wave:

 

[TowerOfTerror]

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/05/04/gm-heeding-economic-stop-sign-when-halting-popular-auto-show-in/

In an interview with General Motors the Chicago Tribune reports that the automaker has temporarily suspended its Auto Show In Motion program. The popular event where consumers can test-drive GM vehicles without pressure from sales folks has been halted this year due to The Drive, which opened in Las Vegas, Nevada last month. According to a GM representative, the automaker will evaluate The Drive at year's end and decide to either continue the "autotainment" with presumably a renewed Auto Show In Motion, or with other promotions.

Jim Mateja of the Tribune, though, sees cost playing a big role in the Auto Show's stoppage. Though GM does not provide official figures on how much either program costs, he calculates The Drive is easily topping two million. The amount must be significant enough, he writes, since an attendee, usually a "GM avoider", is three times as likely to buy a GM vehicle after participating in Auto Show.

And GM is not the only automaker cutting on such test drives: Ford has halted similar programs while DaimlerChrysler, whose Chrysler division made money last year, has drastically cut its test drives.

 

[goofyfan13]

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/05/04/gm-heeding-economic-stop-sign-when-halting-popular-auto-show-in/

Thanks! Thats a bummer though...

 

[TP2000]

Did GM scrap it?

As that link states, GM has scrapped it. Although the official PR line from Detroit is that GM is "evaluating" Auto Show In Motion, the buzz on an automotive forum I read is that in all likelihood it's dead and gone.

Auto Show In Motion was always a big deal here in Orange County, California where practically no one except a few housekeepers would be caught dead driving anything made by General Motors, except for Hummers or Escalades. I always got an invite to Auto Show In Motion held at the El Toro Air Base about 15 minutes down the freeway from Disneyland. I would also get invites to the Cadillac-only version since I drive a competitor of Cadillac. Somehow GM got my info! I went to Auto Show In Motion a few times in the last five years, and it was entertaining. But in talking to the other participants, all OC upper-middle class hipsters, it only really solidified the feeling that we had made the right choice by avoiding the subpar stuff GM has been hawking in the last five years.

Auto Show In Motion was thinly veiled desperation by GM to try and stay relevant in important markets they had already lost to the competition. GM has lost SoCal, that's for sure.

However, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a The Drive type experience show up at Epcot. I did The Drive in Las Vegas two months ago, and it was clever and lots of fun. It would be wildly popular in Epcot with Americans, and the foreign tourists would get a kick out of driving the giant SUV's and cars that GM makes. Although perhaps the average British tourist without an international drivers license might not be eligible to participate in something like The Drive. But a European tourist would probably find it very amusing to pilot some huge Escalade or Suburban or DeVille over a test road. :lol:

 

[mkt]

sigh... it was a good event. My favorites were the C-Spot Drive Party by Mercedes Benz and the MX-5 Challenge by Mazda.