Twenty-five years ago this week I walked onto the floor of a packed North American International Auto Show in Detroit as a new reporter for Plastics News. My first assignment was covering General Motors' introduction of two new vehicles: the Aztek crossover and the Chevrolet Avalanche, a pickup with a "midgate" behind the passenger area that could be opened to create a bigger truck bed.
It was the first time I heard about sheet molded compound (SMC) and reaction injection molding (RIM), the two mainstay composite production processes.
A lot has changed since then, both in terms of my duties at PN and the auto show. At its height, NAIAS in Detroit was truly an international show, where anyone involved in the auto industry was expected to show up. Automakers spared no expense — picture beef-carving stations at press lunches, celebrity appearances by actors such as Eva Longoria and David Spade, music legend Ray Charles popping up in a convertible at a Ford event and of course gimmicks such as a Jeep driving through a plate glass window.
This year? To begin with, it's no longer NAIAS, but instead the Detroit Auto Show. Only two events — awards for design and the North American car and truck of the year — are on the schedule for Jan. 10.
That smaller show reflects an industry that has been trimming expenses and shifting attitudes about how to promote new vehicles. While that transition had been in process for a few years, the arrival of COVID-19 provides a sharp division between the way things used to be and what auto shows are now. Of course, journalism — and PN — have changed a lot in the past 25 years too, most notably with a greater emphasis on news available online. And I've changed too, but I'm happy to report that we're all still here, despite everything.
