2001: NAIAS Auto Show
Automakers try `rational exuberance’ to stare down a likely U.S. dropoff. What the organizers of the 2001 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit really needed, amongst all the usual glittery and expensive vehicle-touting displays, was a mock graveyard.
That way all the automakers could’ve whistled as they passed by. That was the overwhelming feeling at the 2001 NAIAS: that although the ’01 calendar year could be one of the stronger sales years in history, the thunderclouds were on the horizon. And somebody stood to get wet. The watchword of the show, of course, was “downturn.” Every automaker said it was coming. Yet in the same breath, just about every automaker said its U.S. sales would increase.
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