2012NAIASprogram.qxp 12/29/2011 10:12 AM Page 1 Supplement to: in conjunction with the North American International Auto Show [AUTO SHOW MAP INSIDE] awpage.qxp 12/14/2011 2:09 PM Page 1 The only Forbes Four-Star Hotel, Spa and Restaurant in Michigan. You’ll see it in the hottest lounges and largest gaming floor in the Midwest. Taste it in the three signature restaurants from legends Michael Mina and Wolfgang Puck. Luxuriate in our multiple award-winning, 400-room hotel with its spectacular views, resort-style spa, and 30,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. It’s called perfection. And it’s everywhere you turn at MGM Grand Detroit. Come feel what it’s like to be the center of the universe. 2 011 1.877.888.2121 mgmgranddetroit.com | mlife.com become our fan on facebook ©2012 MGM Grand Detroit 2012NAIASprogram.qxp 12/29/2011 2:18 PM Page x1 This publication was produced for the North American International Auto Show by Autoweek and Crain’s Detroit Business. Keith Crain Chairman, Crain Communications Inc. KC Crain Vice President, Publisher, Autoweek Media Group Mary Kramer Publisher, Crain’s Detroit Business Bob Gritzinger Executive Editor, Autoweek Gary Piatek Copy Desk Chief, Crain’s Detroit Business Kathy Krick PAGE 3 Designer Marla Wise DETROIT ENDURES Advertising Director Why the world still comes to North America’s auto show. Christine Galasso > PAGE 3 Matthew Langan Lori Tournay Liggett Tamara Rokowski RESEARCH IS KEY WHEN Cheryl Rothe BUYING A NEW CAR Dale Smolinski Some helpful tips that will Account Executives, make your new-car purchase Crain’s Detroit much less stressful. > PAGE 8 Business PAGE 19 BUY OR LEASE? Nadia Iio What choice is best for Account Executive, SHOPAUTOWEEK.COM your lifestyle. > PAGE 10 Autoweek 2012 NEW CAR MOVE-IN INCENTIVES BUYERS GUIDE Diane Carver A roundup of 37 all-new cars Production Manager Company relocations a boon to downtown Detroit. in the U.S. market for 2012. > PAGE 19 Larry Williams > PAGE 12 Production Supervisor SHOPAUTOWEEK.COM Candice Yopp 2012 NEW TRUCK Circulation Manager AUTO BUYERS GUIDE SUVs, crossovers and Advertising: SHOW minivans make our list of new (313) 446-6052 Crain’s Detroit MAP or substantially updated trucks Business > PAGE 14 for 2012. > PAGE 38 (313) 446-6041 Autoweek WHAT TO DO 2012 POSTER AROUND TOWN CONTEST WINNERS For more copies: A list of things to consider Students are honored for their (888) 909-9111 while you’re in Detroit for the creativity. > PAGE 48 North American International Editorial: SPONSORS (313) 446-0419 Auto Show. > PAGE 16 Meet the companies that help make the show possible. PAGE 8 > PAGE 51 awpage.qxp 12/20/2011 2:47 PM Page 1 More people carry it. More doctors and hospitals accept it. It’s one amazing little card. When you carry a card from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, you get incredible value. Value that comes from having access to high-quality care, the largest network in Michigan and your choice of countless plans that give you the flexibility to get exactly the right coverage for you and your family. So you can always feel confident that you’ll get excellent care wherever, whenever you need it. bcbsm.com Leading Michigan to a healthier future.SM Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is a nonprofit corporation and independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. 2012NAIASprogram.qxp 12/29/2011 10:27 AM Page 3 DETROIT ENDURES DETROIT ENDURES Why the world still four board members—never mind that those directors might loathe the locale, comes to North the options for diversion and the hotel ac- America’s auto show commodations. They come, as they go to Geneva or Paris, bringing their glitziest BY J. P. VETTRAINO wares. For many European and Asian The 2011 North American International autoweek.com manufacturers, the North American Auto Show (top); inside the 1910 show International Auto Show in Detroit in the Wayne Hotel Gardens. ECIDE FOR YOURSELF WHICH (NAIAS) is the only A-rated show in the sounds most appealing: Geneva New World, so it’s the only one to which D in the spring, Paris in the fall or they bring full exhibits, replete with din- Detroit in the dead of winter. ing, hospitality and office space. car business. Detroit in early January can mean sub- After a few years when their ranks “I attend shows from Bogotá to Beijing, zero wind chills and transit-clogging bliz- thinned, through what can legitimately Dubai to Los Angeles and Frankfurt to zards or, at best, temperatures in the high be labeled an automotive depression, they Detroit,” said General Motors global de- 20s under slate-gray skies, in environs came to Detroit again in 2011 because sign chief Ed Welburn, who calls greater often described as drab. And still, the they had to. They came because their ri- Detroit home. “There is no other show in world comes. vals were there, and so were executives the world that serves as such an obvious The automotive world, anyway—start- from key suppliers and financiers, with barometer of our industry’s health.” ing with CEOs from nearly every brand thousands of accredited journalists eager The barometer was rising again in with a presence in the Americas and from for something to broadcast. They came 2011. NAIAS attendance increased by 3 a lot of brands that only hope to have a because Detroit gauges trends, expecta- percent over 2010, to more than 735,000. presence. German groups send three or tions, products and moods in the global New-vehicle premieres increased by 18, 2012 3 awpage.qxp 12/20/2011 2:21 PM Page 1 LEGAL CHALLENGES LEGAL RESULTS Work with attorneys focused on winning — inside and outside the courtroom. Our proactive approach curtails legal challenges. But when we must visit the courtroom, we’ve got you covered there, too. Through it all, you can stay focused on your business. That’s a better partnership. A BETTER PARTNERSHIP™ WNJ.com Southfield Sterling Heights Lansing Grand Rapids Holland Muskegon 2012NAIASprogram.qxp 12/29/2011 10:28 AM Page 5 DETROIT ENDURES to 55. And the number of accredited trepreneur Heinz Prechter, the group ap- gations of federal administrators and media members ticked up past 5,000, proached executives at GM, Ford and politicians have become yearly occur- with reporters from 60 countries. Chrysler. The Big Three bought in with rences. It seems appropriate that the center of pledges of expanded presence, and the Since its inception, the NAIAS has the motoring industry in North America show hired agents to promote interest hosted some 450 worldwide production- should host the continent’s central motor among manufacturers and media in vehicle launches and 440 concept debuts. show, but it hasn’t always been so. Europe. Yet the single biggest element in Paid attendance over Detroit’s nine- Individual promoters displayed automo- Detroit’s changeover was rooted in Japan. day public run peaked at 811,000 in 2003, biles at public expositions in Detroit as By 1988, Toyota and Nissan were and new North American vehicle intro- early as 1899. The first dedicated auto about to launch luxury brands Lexus and ductions peaked at 70 a year later. Yet show was held in 1902. The fledgling Infiniti in the United States. For the with the economic slowdown, the num- Detroit Auto Dealers Association Japanese manufacturers, introducing their bers started eroding. In 2007, Porsche an- (DADA) sponsored its first show in 1907. high-line brands in the domestic indus- nounced that it would not be at the That progenitor of the NAIAS featured try’s backyard guaranteed a splash. With NAIAS in 2008, and a year later, Nissan five cars at a fishing exposition along the Lexus and Infiniti in the fold, other Asian (and Infiniti) followed Porsche out the Detroit River. The inaugural Los Angeles manufacturers such as Honda, with its door. By 2009, the Detroit Three were auto show that same year was indoors Acura division, and Hyundai followed. In deep in the federal bailout/bankruptcy and far more impressive. January 1989, the first NAIAS opened, maelstrom, and the NAIAS hit a low There was no Detroit show at all from with 850 journalists attending, including point. Veteran reporters were struck by Detroit auto show program and posters from 1910, 1921, 1924 and 1925. the start of World War II through 1953, 60 from outside the United States. the general despondency of those who ac- and Detroit didn’t host import manufac- The 1990s were boom years for the car tually came to the Detroit show. By 2010, turers—Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, business, and the NAIAS rode the wave. things seemed to be improving, but no Volvo—until 1957. Promoted by DADA, Attendance, exhibitors, new-car introduc- one in the car business wanted to appear the show prospered into the 1980s but tions and media steadily increased. In too optimistic. never ranked higher than 11th by floor 1991, the show was sanctioned by the In 2011, the rebound was obvious space, exhibits or attendance among auto Organisation Internationale des enough that Ford vice president Jim shows in North America. Constructeurs d’Automobiles, and it re- Farley noted with genuine surprise: That changed in the late 1980s, thanks mains the only North American show to “Detroit is back!” to big ideas, dedicated promotion and receive that accreditation annually. And the departed manufacturers were timely convergence of circumstances. In Automotive News rescheduled its yearly returning. Unveiling the 918 RSR coupe 1987, Detroit finalized plans to double World Congress to coincide with the at the 2011 NAIAS, Porsche North the size of its convention space at Cobo show, and AutoWeek tied its annual America CEO Detlev von Platen ob- Center, the show’s home since 1965.