2002 L.A. Auto Show Factoids

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 27 -- The prestigious Greater Los Angeles Auto Show drives into the Los Angeles Convention Center Jan. 5 through 13 featuring more than 1,000 of the industry's newest vehicles, including more than two dozen that are making their World or North American debut. Following are some interesting facts about the show.

-- The L.A. Auto Show is the largest multiple-day annual exhibition in the Greater Los Angeles area. -- It would take 16 sold out Los Angeles Dodger games to equal the attendance figure of the 2001 Los Angeles Auto Show -- more than 935,000. -- Los Angeles Auto Show exhibits occupy the equivalent of 17 football fields, using the entire 760,000 square feet of the L.A. Convention Center. -- If you laid out all the carpet used in L.A. Auto Show exhibits in a one-foot-wide strip, it would stretch for 85 miles -- enough carpet to furnish 265 average-size homes. -- If the more than 1,000 cars, trucks, SUVs and minivans on display all took to a five-lane highway at one time, a mile-long bumper-to-bumper traffic jam would result. -- While the large exhibits take about 10 days to set up, they are dismantled in a mere two days. -- More than 40 automakers represented, about 3 million pieces of brand literature is distributed to consumers over the show's nine-day run. -- More than 5 million pounds of display materials and vehicles are transported into the Convention Center by over 200 trailer trucks, 100 forklifts and 700 teamsters. -- All show car batteries are disconnected and gas tanks contain less than a gallon of fuel to ensure optimum safety. -- The least expensive car displayed is a Kia Rio valued at $9000, while the most expensive is a Rolls-Royce Corniche worth $365,000 (You could buy a fleet of 40 Rios for the price of one Corniche) -- In 2000, the U.S. vehicle population was more than 200 million. -- The number of cars worldwide has increased 1,000 percent since 1950. -- Today's cars pollute about 90 percent less than cars built in the early 1970s. -- Americans spend an average of $18,448 on new domestic cars and $31,551 on new import cars. -- When purchasing a new car, women tend to select lower-priced, less statement-oriented cars with less options than their male counterparts.