There aren’t many automotive spectacles like the annual Specialty Equipment Marketing Association show in Las Vegas. Automotive events just don’t come larger, more diverse and more relevant than this. With thousands of manufacturers, aftermarket suppliers, automotive startup companies, hot rodders and customizers crammed into a convention center that’s larger than some small towns, it’s almost too much to take in.
The show is not open to the public, but draws hundreds of thousands of industry people from behind the scenes. So why does Driving Fans go every year? With a dizzying concentration of every imaginable discipline of custom cars and tuned vehicles, SEMA is a great place to pick up on future trends. At SEMA, it’s possible to see the current automotive trends that will soon be applied to older cars via the aftermarket, as well as the car-customization tuning trends that are beginning to find their way into factory-built vehicles. The oversized wheels that characterize many modified cars and that have helped to drive the average wheel size of normal cars up first appeared at SEMA. Back-up cameras and capless fuel tanks also made their initial debuts at SEMA.
Several manufacturers have press conferences at SEMA as well. It’s a good time to catch the attention of both the valuable enthusiast tuning market. Ford, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Honda, Kia, Chrysler (Mopar) and Toyota commonly take advantage of SEMA’s spotlight. This year, the biggest announcements were the unveiling of the new Kia Forte Koiup SX with a turbocharged engine and the arrival of several new Chevrolet performance cars, including the Camaro Z/28. Hyundai and Ford also announced new engine partnerships, providing powerplants to racing teams and tuners for various projects.
If it’s got two, four or six wheels, someone has probably modified one at SEMA. Tracking trends, it seems that the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is the most popular kid on the block this year. Two- and four-door Wranglers were the most common vehicles Driving Fans saw while walking the show floor.
The most commonly-seen accessory was the LED light bar. They’re everywhere this year, thanks in part to the cost of LED lights finally going down somewhat, and in part to the still-growing trend of LED light “accents” hidden in the DRLs” of many cars lately.
