Real-estate downturn good for car business
AutoShow president predicts another banner year for show and Canadian vehicle sales
It’s records, records everywhere for the Canadian automotive industry these days.
In 2017, light vehicle sales — meaning a combination of cars, SUVs, pickup trucks and vans — surpassed 2 million units in this country for the first time ever.
And at this year’s Canadian International AutoShow, which wraps up its 2018 run at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre at 6 p.m. Sunday, an all-time single-day attendance record was set when 54,487 people passed through the gates a week ago on the Sunday of the Family Day long weekend.
This contributes toward what’s projected to be a new full-show attendance record, which would top the previous figure of 339,590 visitors set just last year.
Although the market in the United States is starting to show signs of slowdown, Canadian International AutoShow president Bob Redinger says the show’s continued ability to pull crowds demonstrates that the sales environment north of the border remains robust.
“I believe that the market will be as strong this year in Canada, especially in Ontario, as it was last year,” Redinger told the Star in an interview.
“People are looking not to buy a home because of the current situation locally in terms of what’s happened with the extra tax and foreign investments. They’re thinking about the next major purchase, which is an automobile. I think the attendance in part is due to the features at the show, but also in part due to (this) economic situation.
“(The auto show) opens up the spring market, so a lot of people consciously wait for the auto show and then shortly thereafter the weather turns and they’re ready to buy a new vehicle.”
Redinger says that it’s a mix of this year’s headline features and the brands that the show attracts that has drawn visitors back through the doors in 2018.
“Everybody is excited about highend supercars, so the Koenigsegg (Agera RS, the world’s fastest production car) is a huge attraction,” he says. “The Hot Wheels 50th anniversary spans all ages and genders.
“We have all 40 brands sold in the (Canadian) market at the show, which a lot of shows cannot come close to boasting. And I have to say, I’ve heard a lot of people as they walked through the show asking where Tesla is.
“They’re at the show and featuring the Model 3. A lot of people want to see it.”
The increased interest in electric vehicles such as the Tesla Model 3 is a trend that the show’s organizers sought to tap this year.
“Quebec was the first (province) to push that five per cent of the market has to be electric vehicle sales, and in Ontario we’re trying to grow (electric vehicles sales) organically,” Redinger says. “The show echoes that by having test drives.
“We had (electric vehicle) test drives just in the south building last year, and this year we had them in both the north and south buildings. And we had the Automotive Intelligence Series (expert panel discus- sions) about it as well so that the public could hear it. I think that makes a huge difference.”
The role of president at the Canadian International AutoShow is a rotating one that’s taken over each year by the outgoing president of the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association. It’s a one-year term, which means that as the 2018 show draws to a close, Redinger’s duties will as well.
He’s spent the last few months travelling the world to attend international automotive and trade shows and to seek out initiatives that will make Toronto’s show even better for visitors here at home, a duty he says he’ll miss as he prepares to hand the reins over to the current TADA president, Larry Lantz, for 2019.
“We will continue to visit other shows, automotive as well as nonautomotive — for example, CES — to see what new trends are happening in not just the automotive marketplace but in the marketplace in general and to bring those ideas back (and) incorporate them into our show to add extra value to visitors.”
What Redinger says won’t change is one of the Canadian International AutoShow’s most enduring draws, which is the giant automotive showroom it becomes for locals and tourists alike every February.
“It’s like having a super big showroom and having all the vehicles side by side without the pressure of having to buy,” he says. “Consumers love it for that reason.”