The Detroit Auto Show is set to begin this weekend, returning to a wintertime event for the first time in several years.
The auto show will run from Jan. 10 to the 20, beginning with the media day Friday followed by the charity preview Friday evening.
The return to a January schedule comes after the auto show was held in September in 2022 and 2023.
Sam Klemet, executive director of the Detroit Auto Show, told AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides that having the auto show in January is a natural fit.
"This is a time of year, right after holidays, right after New Year's; it's a little bit slower here. So this is a way to inject a little bit of life into the city, economically, into the city every year. We have hotel rooms filled up, and people are coming down and eating at restaurants after they come to the show, so from an economic impact standpoint, it makes a lot of sense," he says.
As for the show, Klemet says you're going to get to see a little bit of everything.
"We have more than 500 cars on the show floor. The biggest thing is the experiential stuff. We have four different ride and drive tracks and 40 different vehicles that you can get in. You can ride in them and see the technology within the vehicles, so it's very experiential," he says.
Klemet says they've also partnered with the Michigan Science Centres.
"If you're a family and you want to bring the kids down, you can actually help build the foam vehicles to get kids engaged with engineering and design," he says.
This year's show will include four indoor test tracks, a "Detroit Through the Decades" exhibit of classic cars, along with a sampling of celebrated TV and movie vehicles, including the Ferrari Modena Spyder California from the hit 1986 film, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
There's also Racing Day presented by the Detroit Grand Prix on Jan. 17.
Public shows run from Saturday, Jan. 11, to Monday, Jan. 20, with hours from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.—except Wednesday, Jan. 15, and Thursday, Jan. 16, when doors open later, from 1-8 p.m.
The auto show will be held at Huntington Place, the former Cobo Hall, at 1 Washington Blvd. in downtown Detroit.