The Car Show Resurgence
Many industries have faced hardships because of the pandemic.
Some have been forced to temporarily close and others have had their operations reduced to a fraction of that what they used to be.
For the car industry, it is the same story.
Since March of last year, the car industry, the show side specifically, has seen fewer and fewer events because of the pandemic.
However, as of March 2021, car shows and meets have been starting to come back
Why?
One of the main reasons why car meets and shows are having a resurgence is due to the state of the pandemic.
The Biden administration is pushing for vaccinations to be available to all adults by April 19, As more people are vaccinated, they can gather at public events.
As more and more Americans are getting vaccines the number of people able to go out has risen considerably.
In an interview with Good Guys Rod & Customs Association by Autoweek, Andrew Ebel, chief operating officer, said the vaccination effort “only accelerates” the return of car shows.
“Being displaced by local vaccination efforts only accelerates the pace of our return to a healthy community without restrictions,” Andrew says.
Jerry Liu, a videographer and car enthusiast who documents a lot of cars meet in Southern California, shares similar sentiments about the vaccine being a driving force behind the resurgence of car shows.
“Since the beginning of March last year, there haven’t been a lot of car meets,” he says. “Because of herd immunity and the Covid vaccines we’ve been hosting a lot more car meets.
While vaccinations are one of the reasons people are more willing to go out to these events, there seem to be other reasons why people are going
James Wehr, the co-founder, and owner of South OC Cars and Coffee share different reasons why he thinks there is an influx of people and car shows.
“Funny enough the show is initially bigger now than pre-Covid,” he says. “I chalk that up to people wanting to get out of the house and do things.”
Additionally, James believes that having the car show hosted in San Clemente, CA, where it is majority republican; people are willing to go out to these events regardless of the vaccine or not.
“A lot of people thankfully have the vaccines,” James adds. “But since our car meet is hosted in San Clemente, California people go out regardless of whether my show is held or not.”
Issues with the Resurgence of Car Shows
While there has been an increase in car shows across the nation, police have been cracking down on illegal shows.
For example, in Lakeland, FL, police arrested 53 people in an illegal car meet of 300.
The article about this incident mentioned how this particular pop-up or takeover had “sport-coup drivers pushing down the gas and brake pedals simultaneously to do donuts.”
An event like this poses a risk to the public as not only does dangerous driving cause injuries it can also cause death in severe cases.
When asked to comment on illegal and unpermitted car shows, Jerry says illegal car shows are a bad reputation for the car industry.
“If a car meet gets shut down it’s sort of a bad reputation for us,” he says. “We always get permission and permits, and if they get shut down it’s kind of their fault.”
However, not all unpermitted meets are bad.
Private car meets are common in the car show industry and many of them aren’t as disruptive and dangerous as some pop-ups.
James says there private meets that are conscious about their actions and not breaking the law.
“If it’s not one of these takeover meets and it’s just people hanging out in an area,” he says. “I don’t necessarily think it’s bad.”
“If people are enforcing the mask mandate and social distancing guidelines; I think car shows are a good thing,” he adds.
“At the end of the day as long as they are not breaking any laws or doing any unlawful things, like revving your engine, it’s just like any other car meet.”