People's Dream Cruise 2020 Locally Organic

Editors Note: Hmmm no carmaker promotions or events, the Chinese Wuhan Virus lurking in the shadows and the big collectors at home polishing their cars. Yet the people's Dream Cruise still attracted a crowd that was estimated at 50% of normal, tradition has trumped political correctness.

By Martha Hindes
Senior Editor
Michigan Bureau
The Auto Channel

Detroit MI August 15, 2020; After a quarter century of annual Dream Cruises in August confirming the Detroit area as the self-proclaimed Motor City, a cancellaion because of the coronavirus wasn’t about to deter diehard cruisers.

On Saturday, which would have been the 2020 Dream Cruise day, a lot of car people apparently missed the event cancellation notice.

It didn’t matter that the Detroit 3 auto companies didn’t have any vehicle reveals, or special event setups as they do every year. There wasn’t a Mustang Alley from Ford or racing venue from Chrysler.

And many of the truly classic collector cars that in the past have arrived from as far away as Australia were missing. But that didn’t keep the locals from celebrating a tradition that had its roots in hot rod racing down Woodward Avenue, the main drag, more than a half century earlier. Many of this year’s unofficial cruisers appeareed to be customized pet cars rather than lhan costly classics.

Ronald Reed, of Warren, in suburban Detroit, with his partially restored 1950 Chevrolet DeLuxe on display, hasn’t missed a Dream Cruise since he was a child. Now he’s introducing the holy grail of collectors to his six-year-old son Ryan, a car guy in the making.

He estimated there were about half the usual number of vehicles inching along Woodward Avenue, the annual cruise route, as autophiles refused to let a nasty viral bug take another victim. “Normally they’d be at a standstill,” he said.

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