Detroit Can Keep Secrets After All
Coming to Detroit in the middle of January is nobody's idea of a good time, unless you're a car junkie, that is. For decades, car junkies from around the globe have been trotting to Michigan in the dead of winter to attend press conferences on a grueling schedule at which some of the hottest cars on the planet are debuted. The 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit marks my 11th consecutive year covering this media extravaganza, and to be perfectly honest, it's not much fun anymore.
In 1998, when print publications ruled and the Internet was viewed as an amateur-hour fad, attending the media preview days in Detroit was a thrill. Every product unveiling was a surprise to all but a select few, and the competitive aspect of rushing to a workstation to write, file, and publish a story before anybody else produced an adrenaline high that lasted throughout the three-day event. At the time, I worked for a little start-up called Edmunds, and we felt like David taking on Goliath. We worked hard, slept little, and ultimately grew that little start-up into a dominant force in automotive publishing.
Today, there are no more surprises. With the advance information that is distributed and the broken embargo dates in the new competition to get the story live, spidered, and indexed by Google in the race for Top 10 link ranking, the show has lost much of its excitement. The media attend more to schmooze rather than to report on new product. And with live video feeds, such as those provided this year by General Motors, why fight for territory at a press conference or in the press room when you can stay home, see your kids every night, and pull everything you need down from a Web site?
This morning, just after lamenting the state of the world with a former colleague and wondering aloud if I would bother to attend in 2009, I went to the GM press conference. Upon arrival, it was clear the news would be from Cadillac. Predictably, after the thudding techno music and flashing lights stopped and GM product czar Bob Lutz came onstage, the Cadillac Provoq and the Cadillac CTS-V rolled out to more flashbulbs and video cameras than Britney Spears confronts outside the Malibu Trancas Canyon Starbucks. Yawn. Been there, done that, time to pack up.
But wait a minute. Now Ed Wellburn, GM's VP of Global Design, is up there on the stage, and he's yakking about a car they've managed to keep secret. I flick the camera back on as a new montage begins rolling on the giant screen behind Wellburn. Now I'm excited! Now I'm going to get a thrill! Now I get to see something never seen before! GM has made coming to Detroit in the middle of the winter fun again!
Onto the stage rolls the Cadillac CTS Coupe Concept , gleaming in a Titanium finish, and looking gorgeous under the klieg lights of Cobo Hall. I've got the video camera trained on the car as it spins on a turntable .It's beautiful, it's exciting, and now the press conference is reminding me why I give up a weekend of my life every January, leaving my family in palm-dotted Southern California for dark, gray, wintery Detroit and a room at the Holiday Inn Express. This smoking hot Cadillac CTS Coupe, a car we all knew was coming to battle the BMW 335i Coupe , Infiniti G37 , and Mercedes-Benz CLK , has reignited my automotive passion, my competitive spirit, my reason for being here in the first place.
After the remarks have concluded, I immediately e-mail colleagues about the car, and within hours a photo gallery for the Cadillac CTS Coupe Concept is live on JDPower.com . Have I beaten the competition? No. GM's live press conference feed was probably on You Tube within minutes of the car's unveiling. But that doesn't matter to me as much as the fact that Cadillac proved it could keep a secret, and because it could keep a secret, I'm glad to be in Detroit in the middle of January.
