Dateline, The NADA Show
31 January 1998
Here in New Orleans, the sound click-ity click click-ity click, normally means a tourist wagon is coming by powered by an old nag who knows her way around the Vieux Carre better then a 25 buck-a-thrill Bourbon Street babe. But this week that quaint old sound is being superseded in the area around the New Orleans Convention Center by the click-ity clicking of mice in the booths of Internet based car dealer services. And there are a million of them, from the good old standbys, Auto-By-Tel to those companies with digital dollar signs in their eyes: "low cost per deal," "the latest," "the newest," "the greatest." Whew, all this to try to lead a new car buyer into the lair of the local dealer. An example is the just announced www.cars.com, a new site funded and owned by 3 major newspaper groups, The Times Mirror Company, Tribune Company, and The Washington Post Company. I guess they finaly see the writing on the wall. The world's future WCs will have to be designed with electric outlets and LAN connections (I can almost hear the forests breath a collective sigh of relief at the prospect of being spared the woodsman's axe, because those bastions of free speech will soon be using silicon chips instead of wood chips to diseminate those first amendment protected classifieds. By actual count there are almost 70 companies exhibiting here under the Computer Services banner--from A.D.I. Forte Performance Systems, to Wizard (for a complete list, send a self addressed E mail with 50 cents enclosed, and I will forward the list directly to you). There are probably more millionaires here on the show floor then in any one place on the planet right now, (how do they all sell cars below invoice and still afford their 500 dollar per night hotel rooms?) That is a mystery that may never be solved. To that point, the most unusual exhibitor is not in the auto business at all but Piper Aircraft, previewing a new model private aircraft for those guys who don't make money selling cars, don't make money selling parts, and definitely don't make money servicing your car at 60 bucks an hour . . . that Piper is sure is a pretty plane On a personal note, with the room rates jacked up to meet the demand from those folks, the only room I was able to locate was kinda historic, a place that I recognized right away--it just has to be the former abode of Porgy and Bess . . . "oh my room, I love it so . . . youll never know" (sorry Ira and George) it may not be that exact building, but it sure looks , sounds and smells like it, and at only 95 bucks for the night (the days are free). Well I gotta go now, there seems to be a groundswell of movement from the working press toward what I heard is a so-so press conference with a great lunch . . . jouranalism is sure a dirty job but I guess someone has to do it. Hmmm lets see--if the newspapers' number one revenue category, the classifieds, are no longer being printed in the paper, what's going to happen to the reason the bosses put up with those messy reporter types? Another mystery for the ages, folks--talk to y'all again soon, unless I find a car manufacturers' junket to Spain for the week to test drive their newest model . . . and eat a few free great meals. Click-ity-click, from The Big Easy