Sema 2010
I've been going to SEMA 2010 in Las Vegas this week. It is THE aftermarket car show for wholesalers, distributers, and those in the industry. The weather is perfect. The show does not generally target specific cars. There are hundreds, if not thousands of wheel and tire dealers in a half million square foot area wanting you to sell their wheels or tires. They may have cars on display exhibiting their tires, but they usually make tires and wheels of all sizes. There is a huge section for trucks and off road vehicles. There is a huge performance area. There is an area that used to be electronics but now has tooling, wraps, and other items. And there are companies like Borla, and Meguiars. Big manufacturers also have displays focusing mainly on their concept cars and racing programs.
Specific to names mentioned in this forum, I spoke with reps from K&N, WeatherTech, Mobil 1, Honda, and Optima to name a few. The K&N rep talked a lot about the intake air filter. He got kinda lost when I started to quiz him on K&N oil filters. The Optima reps that I spoke to were very friendly and informative. They admitted that they don't have a deep cycle battery program, but that their yellow battery with good CCA numbers would be a fine deep cycle battery. Just give 'em the size, and they got one for ya. The WeatherTech people were nice but not real knowledgeable. They would go so far and then offer swag. The Mobil1 folks were the most intelligent to talk to. We talked oil for a while and then I asked what I should be looking for when selecting an oil filter and why I should choose theirs over a K&N, or any other top level filter. Most of the important differences occur on high performance situations, and for those cars that come with Mobil1 oil from the factory will often have Mobil1 filters installed, but branded for the manufacturer, such as GM. I also talked to several people with tools to service nitrogen in tires. They had big signs with the benefits of nitrogen (all BS), and they wouldn't back up those claims. They said that was to be understood. What they were selling were tools to store nitrogen and get into the customers tires. As for Honda, they must have had 10 or more CR-Zs, but no Insights. They had factory CR-Z, they had Honda modified, they had Mugen modified, they had wrapped, they had customs.
I also talked to several sun roof manufacturers that I will be investigating. I started talking tires and went into information overload. I didn't even bother talking HIDs.
If you've never been to SEMA, it is ginormous. Millions of square feet of indoor display, and even more outside. Plus there are meetings, conferences, and seminars. I've put in 2 days with 2 more to go, and I haven't seen it all. I have not seen a single Insight yet. I know there was supposed to be some company doing an aero mod for the Insight there. I haven't found him yet, and don't know if I will.
Last edited by Jayemtee; 11-03-2010 at 07:24 PM.
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