An “International” Auto Show seems like a silly venue for that. I would’ve assumed they have a guaranteed quarterly BBQ built into their contract.

Byron: I like flipping. So I’ll flip yours another way…
Choosing to “not elevate” California and it’s CARB regs doesn’t change the fact that CA is the biggest auto market in the country or that the regs exist.

In fact, the attitude of “we’ll ignore everything we don’t like, understand, or that the Japanese are better at” is exactly what’s plagued Detroit for the last 30 years. If they want to be competitive going forward, they need to embrace or at least engage what CA represents.

I don’t agree with how CARB operates, but I agree with the mission of cleaning up cars. It’s just a matter of how. But that’s a whole different pet argument of the internet.

Of course, one could easily argue that, the way things are going, in order for the actual line people to see “their” cars, they should hold the show in Hermosillo.

Let’s flip this around for a sec and look at it from the global auto industry/press perspective. Honest question: Do they really want to elevate California that way? Sure, it’d be logistically convenient for many of them, but do they really want the CARB and hybrid state to be the public face of the American automotive landscape? Toyota might. Honda might. Ferrari and BMW might. But what about Volkswagen? CA has made their diesel plans far more complicated than they likely wanted. And the domestic manufacturers won’t like it just on spec, because after all, CA isn’t real America.

I won’t argue the historical impact of CA on the world of cars, but there’s a political side of this that is probably more complicated than we give it credit for.

It’s the only of the “Big 4″ that takes place in a city you’d want to visit that time of year.

New York and New Yorkers don’t get cars at best, and hate cars at worst.

LA is and has been at least as much the cultural home of The Car as Detroit ever was. In fact, I’d say more-so.

Sure, Detroit has production, but we’re not talking about the Manufacturing Robotics Show, we’re showing the end product to consumers, which Los Angeles has more of.

If we’re talking about media incentives to make that one trip per year, I’d say LA makes a lot of sense. No canceled flights, plenty of media presence already here, plenty of other things to do, plenty of room to drive any of the new cars on freeways not covered (or torn up by) ice.

No one’s making the case the the Auto industry is going to move out of Detroit, but there’s no reason they can’t take their marketing dollars away from home to where they’ll be best spent.

Can you guess where I’m writing this from?