Why the Detroit Auto Show is happening in January again

For years in the American auto industry, the beginning of the year meant one big thing: It’s time for the Detroit Auto Show. It’s a chance for automakers to show off new models or features and for car lovers to gawk at the fanciest, fastest cars out there.

For the past few years, the annual gathering of opulent automaker displays and tire-kickers was held during warmer months. But many Michiganders didn’t go for it, which may seem surprising.

“Detroiters love their cars,” said Shannon Cason, a writer and lifelong Detroiter. “It’s the Motor City. Our parents or grandparents — even my peers — all work for a car company. So cars are part of life.”

Going to the Detroit Auto Show is tradition for many families in the city and Metro region. And many memories involve the cold.

“It was always freezing cold,” Cason said. “I think going to the Auto Show in the cold, feet hurting, fingers hurting, that discomfort makes me remember going to the Auto Show when I was 10, 12, 15 years old.”

For much of the show’s history, this cold was part of the deal. It’s been in January most years since the first Detroit auto showcase back in 1899. Back then, it featured just two electric and two steam-powered cars.

“This was like an oddity, these are horseless carriages,” said Jamon Jordan, the City’s official historian. And Detroiters quickly took to these “oddities” and the annual show; the Detroit Auto Show can draw upwards of 800,000 attendees.

“That means hotels consider it important, restaurants consider it important, nightclubs, bars,” Jordan said. “So it becomes a major boon, particularly to the businesses and entities and institutions that are downtown or near downtown.”

In 2018, organizers made an announcement that shocked the community: The Detroit Auto Show would move to June. They wanted warmer months to give the showcase more of a festival vibe. 

Then, organizers canceled the June shows in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID. They tried September for a couple years, but attendance was clearly down. 

“It has bounced around. It is trying to find a spot,” said Glenn Stevens, executive director of MichAuto, a Detroit-based industry advocacy group. “It was very much a victim of the COVID situation and in all the change with the world. But it’s also an industry that’s changed tremendously.”

Attendance at big events has fluctuated, and shows like the Consumer Electronics Show have stolen away some of the attention from the Auto Show. That huge Las Vegas-based tech show is also in early January, and the auto industry plays a bigger and bigger role at CES these days.

So that’s why, Stevens said, the Detroit Auto Show needs to get back to its roots as a consumer-driven event. And oddly, consumers here seem to want a freezing cold Auto Show.

Detroit-based auto journalist Phoebe Wall Howard agreed. She stood outside of Huntington Place, the event center where the Auto Show has long been held downtown Detroit. 

“It’s 25 degrees out here,” she said, “and you take your life into your own hands to get to this Detroit Auto Show, and it will be worth it. In fact, I talked to a guy from Florida who’s flying in for the auto show and he’s like, ‘Damn the weather. It’s all worth it. I’m coming.’” 

Those warm months in Michigan were likely never going to take off for the Auto Show, she said.

“People have too many competing activities, sailing, paddle boarding, swimming, hiking, and it really drained the crowd. In January, you have a total captive audience.”