Why The Auto Channel's Press Pass Coverage of the 2009 Geneva Motor Show is So Important?

This may be the last great international auto show. Don't miss your chance to see it all.

GENEVA - February 28, 2009: One of most visible effects of the current economic depression on the automotive world is what has happened to the once fabulous new car expositions. Not only have important shows in Los Angeles, Detroit and Chicago been neutered by the absence of major automakers (or their usual theatrical media presentations), but in some instances entire events have been cancelled.

Over the last few weeks, in the face of the mounting news that various car companies are pulling out of shows, the folks that produce the Geneva Motor Show have worked hard to assure the international press that the 79th Annual Geneva Show (2009) will be as grand as ever. From the looks of it, we think Geneva will be grand, owing mostly to the fact that regardless of what's happening in Detroit, there's still some great automakers, whose products are not available in North America, that are capable of picking up any slack left by diminished Detroit Three involvement.

But, considering that the economic outlook for the balance of this year (and the next couple of years) is that things will continue to get worse before they get better, its disheartening to think about what might take place in New York in April, Frankfurt in September, and LA in November.

Therefore, even if the depression ended by the start of 2010 (which is what some foolhardy economists are pretending will happen), next week's Geneva Show may really be the last great auto show for many, many years. It’s hard to think that if there was a quick end to the economic downturn that twice-bitten car companies will be willing to return to the glory days of multi-million dollar media presentations, particularly when you consider that until The Auto Channel started providing comprehensive video coverage of the major shows in 1996 the staging of exorbitant Media Days presentations were limited to just several hundred journalists and hangers-on. The public, that is to say, the car buying public, really never saw any of the presentations.

This is why The Auto Channel's Press Pass Coverage has been so important, and will be of critical importance to all journalists, auto enthusiasts, and auto industry personnel next week. TACH will again be on location in Geneva and will endeavor to once again record, on video, every automaker press conference, in their entirety. No other media outlet has ever presented the breadth and scope of coverage that The Auto Channel does; not any buff book, not MSN Autos, not Edmunds or Kelley, not Automotive News, and certainly not that thing called Speedvision. The Auto Channel is and will be your only source of extensive, unabridged video and text coverage of the 2009 Geneva Motor Show.

Oh yeah, if we forgot to mention it before, all of the coverage will be available to anyone with a computer and Internet connection FOR FREE!

Our coverage has already begun and you can start enjoying the Geneva Show right now by CLICKING HERE.