35th Annual Houston Auto Show Brings Biggest Vehicle Names to Clutch City
January 2, 2018Houston Students Take Home $348,000 in Scholarships
June 29, 2018Talk about starting the year off with a bang! Already the largest auto show in the South, HADA’s 2018 Houston Auto Show was a smashing success with attendance up an estimated 40 percent over last year. Show-goers
jammed the freeway and waited in long lines to get into NRG Center to enjoy special attractions, like Astros’ World Series MVP George Springer and Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, along with the chance to see, touch, and even test-drive the latest and greatest offerings from 40 of the world’s top automakers.
This year that also included the luxury brands BMW and Land Rover-Jaguar, which made their debuts at the 35th Houston Auto Show. The Jaguar display even included a racing test track for F-Pace Jaguars. And in another first, during our Preview Night Gala, Ram staged the North American debut of the all-new 2019 RAM 1500 Laramie Longhorn at an incredible ceremony that left many wowed!
A lot of the credit here goes to the hard-working HADA staff and my predecessor Steven Wolf. Not only is Steven a pillar of our community but he truly understands the 
car dealer and what it takes to get a manufacturer to bring a new truck unveiling to Houston. My hat’s off to you.
Another incredible success at this year’s show was the ride and drive event, which I am confident, was one of the largest in the USA with 18 OEM’s participating doing 400-600 test-drives a day each. That tells me that the record-breaking attendance and tremendous enthusiasm bodes very well for 2018 sales, both new and used.
We know that replacement of flood-damaged vehicles gave a short-term boost to fourth quarter 2017 new vehicle sales in the Houston Region – enough so that we ended the year only slightly off 2016. According to the latest TexAuto Facts Report published by InfoNation, Inc. for HADA, total sales of 290,354 units were only down 3.0% and down just 1.9% for retail sales of 249,918 units – still, a pretty strong year historically for Houston dealers.
Looking ahead, the report said “2018 total new vehicle sales are expected to increase moderately as the impact of Harvey is resolved in the local economy, oil prices hold at current levels and employment levels increase slightly. In addition, the average age of vehicles in operation in the Houston Region in 2017 reached a historic high of 9.06 years, an increase in average age of 3 months. This increase is the highest one-year growth in pent-up demand since 2009 to 2010. Total new vehicle sales are expected to begin recovery to 306,000 units in 2018.”
The report also indicated that strong fourth quarter used vehicle sales in the region should continue as “record levels of new vehicle sales in 2014 and 2015 will increase the availability of late model used vehicles as returning leased vehicles provide growth in inventory.”
I would go one better and call the Houston used car market “phenomenal.” Market pricing is through the roof at the auction, and you better get that trade or you will lose a car deal over pricing of the new vehicles because your used car manager didn’t put enough money in the trade vehicle. Pre-owned vehicles and service will continue to be primary profit centers in 2018.
Overall, I see no reason not to be optimistic this year. Houston region sales growth continues to outperform US growth. Our energy sector continues to rebound and other sectors, like the Houston Medical Center and our port, are a huge part of our more diversified economy. Just down the street from one of my stores is the headquarters for Exxon-Mobil, which is putting $50 billion into the US market, and a lot of that money is coming back into Houston.
So what I would say to my fellow dealers is take the rearview mirror from your car and throw it out the window, because what’s behind us doesn’t matter. It’s time to go full speed ahead for franchised dealers.
That’s the message we will be promoting this year and one HADA Vice President RoShelle Salinas and I delivered recently as keynote speakers at the January meeting of Houston Media Alliance. We told the representatives of TV stations, ad agencies and ad sellers in attendance, about the importance of the Houston Auto Show and the economic and civic impact of franchised auto dealers.
We also broke out some truths to them: dealers want to see where our money is being spent and how much traffic it’s driving to us, and not just the old shotgun theory of we hope the customer shows up. We want some tracking.
This is an off year for the legislature in Austin, but still, no time for dealers to relax on public policy. Rest assured that HADA and TADA will keep a sharp eye on, and keep you informed of, all local, state and national issues that affect our operations. Our number one goal is protecting the franchise!
Once again, I would like to offer a special thanks to Steven Wolf for doing a great job as HADA chairman in a difficult year. It is a great honor to follow in his footsteps, and I will enlist Steven and the HADA Board of Directors and staff to promote this great franchise system and keep us rolling in 2018.
– Chris Gillman, TEAM Gillman