The New York region has traditionally been Jeep’s greatest strength in sales, but you’d never know it from the New York Auto Show at the Javits Center. Once neglected in a desolate land of taxi repair shops, in an island of subway-inaccessibility, the show is now right by the tourist attraction/residential complex Hudson Yards, with the 7 line riding practically to its door.
Jeep will not be in the building. Nor will Dodge, Chrysler, Maserati, Fiat, or Alfa Romeo, except in displays by customizers and such. Stellantis is sitting out the show, except for Camp Jeep—which is likely to be overshadowed by the copycat Ford Bronco Off-Roadeo.
Both rides appear to take place in full view of the busy city streets, and over the course of the show tens of thousands of people will walk or drive by and watch—not to mention the people who buy tickets to the car show. The advance publicity email for the show clearly highlights the one known reveal for the show—which used to have a new car reveal roughly every 20 minutes for two days—and Ford’s “Bronco Mountain.” No mention is made of the Camp Jeep on which it was based—and which has dominated the show’s entrances for years.
Camp Jeep has other obstacles, including the pictures breakover test, which might be more impressive to true off-roaders than pothole-beating New Yorkers (who still need tough wheels and chassis, but perhaps don’t need their vehicle to withstand the torsional forces of having diagonally-opposed wheels lifted and dropped at once). Ford’s Off-Roadeo may well have these obstacles too, though. The Jeep course is accessible to Grand Cherokees, and the Bronco is likely able to do what a Grand Cherokee can do.
The show has press/industry days on March 27-28, followed by public days from March 29 to April 7, a relatively short run. Many car shows have been facing hard times as some manufacturers focus on cost-cutting rather than marketing and customer acquisition, or desire control more than publicity from an uncontrollable global media.
David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest, most comprehensive Mopar site in 1994 as he pursued a career in organizational research and change. After a chemo-induced break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales.
David Zatz has around 30 years of experience in covering Chrysler/Mopar news and history, and most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the Chrysler marque.
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