Auto show attracts more than 800,000

DETROIT - With relatively good weather - for January in Detroit, that is - the North American International Auto Show notched an impressive final attendance of more than 800,000 ticketed visitors, officials said.

The Detroit auto show at Cobo Center in downtown wrapped up a 16-day look at the latest in shiny sheet metal as well as cutting-edge advances in autonomous and connected driving technology.

The show ended Sunday with 100,605 attendees, bringing total ticketed attendance for the 2018 auto show to 809,161. That was slightly above last year's figure of 806,554, but below some past years that climbed above 820,000, said Rod Alberts, executive director of the North American International Auto Show for more than 20 years.

David Sowerby, managing director for the investment advisory company Ancora, estimated the 2018 show had an economic impact of $480 million to the regional economy.

The auto show officially opened on Jan. 13 with the Gallery, a collection of some of the most exclusive and acclaimed automobiles in the world. It was held for the first time in nearly a decade at Cobo Center and expanded into a public event.

In its second year, AutoMobili-D - an event designed to show off technology advances in mobility - saw a nearly 40 percent increase in start-up participants from around the world, show organizers said.

As for the reveals from automakers, bigger seemed to be better. Increasingly passenger cars, crossovers and pickups are getting supersized as the price of gas stay low and Americans' taste for roomy roadsters grows.