No Honda Press Conference at Detroit Auto Show

LOS ANGELES : November 25, 2008 - American Honda Motor Co. is bagging the flashy formal press conferences at the Detroit auto show in January.


The company says it will forgo traditional product unveilings because of depressed business conditions.

"Normally we have a great TV moment with special effects to reveal a new model," says Chris Martin, a spokesman for American Honda. "That's a very expensive prospect. Given the economic times, we just didn't see that as appropriate this year."

Honda still plans to debut the production version of its Insight hybrid vehicle in Detroit, Martin says. And during press days, Honda executives will do media interviews as usual.

Honda's decision was reported earlier by Bloomberg News.

Several carmakers have pulled out of the Detroit show altogether. Nissan North America said this week it won't take part in Detroit or at the Chicago Auto Show in February. Besides Nissan and its Infiniti brand, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Land Rover and Rolls-Royce have withdrawn from the Detroit show. Porsche dropped out of this year's event and says it won't return in 2009.

Honda still will show cars in Chicago. It has no press conferences planned for that show, says Martin.

"We are not pulling out of shows completely," he says.

At the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, Honda debuted a design study of its FC Sport fuel-cell-powered sports car.

[Source : Automotive News .. Sub. req.]