- Many show visitors plan to buy or lease a new vehicle within a year.
- Most attendees expect to purchase a new ride within the next 24 months.
- Younger visitors are more likely to recommend shows to family and friends.
Auto shows have lost a lot of glitz, glamour, and excitement as consumers have turned to the internet. This has resulted in lackluster attendance and the 2025 Detroit Auto Show only had 275,000 visitors, which was down from 774,179 people in 2019.
However, a new study, commissioned by the New York, Los Angeles, and Canadian International Auto Shows, has shown they’re still relevant to new car buyers. Conducted by the Clarify Group, the study found that 40% of auto show visitors intend to purchase or lease a new vehicle within the next 12 months.
Who’s Still Showing Up?
Furthermore, visitors are 2.9 times more likely than the average consumer to buy or lease a new vehicle within a year. Longer term, 68% of auto show attendees are in the market to buy a shiny new ride within two years.
More: Detroit Auto Show Attendance Plummets As Glory Days Fade
Despite this, only 37% of people go to auto shows with the intention of helping inform their purchase or lease decision. This is a little surprising as auto shows are a great opportunity to check out multiple vehicles back to back.
While most people don’t specifically go to shows for research, 84% of visitors said attendance helped make their purchasing decision.
For visitors attending a show and planning to get something within 12 months, 58% went online after attending to learn more about a particular vehicle. 55% visited a dealership, while 39% arranged a test drive. A respectable 28% ultimately ended up getting a new vehicle.
Missing Brands, Missing Buyers
So what drives people to auto shows? 80% of visitors want to see new models and brands. That’s hardly surprising, but it has become increasingly difficult as companies scale back their presences and drop out of some shows altogether. Dealers have been helping to fill in the void, but this can be hit or miss.
In what almost comes across as a message to automakers, the study found that brand absences have an impact on consumers. 23% of visitors said they were likely to consider a different brand, while 20% said they were less likely to consider a brand that was absent from the show.
Can Gen Z Bring Them Back?
The study also hints at a possible generational shift. Gen Z visitors were 1.5 times more likely than average to recommend attending an auto show to friends or family. However, they’ll need a lot of them to help reverse current trends.
Los Angeles Auto Show President Terri Toennies said, “Auto shows continue to play a vital role in the car-buying journey” as the “data confirms that we help consumers make more confident, informed purchase decisions.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Clarify President Darren Slind, who stated “These results challenge the outdated notion that consumers have lost interest in in-person automotive experiences.”
Still, context matters. Forty percent sounds good at first, but when you think about attendance drops, the picture changes significantly as you’re looking at a much smaller group of people.
In the case mentioned above, 40% of 2019 numbers would be 309,672 people, while 40% of this year’s attendance would be around 110,000. That’s a difference of nearly 200,000.
Clarify Group
