This years show was made into a 3 day Festival event, held May 31 – June 2, 2024, in (mainly) Centerline, and Warren, Mich., who are both now co-sponsoring this event.
The actual car show is now on SUNDAY (it was on Saturday in previous years).
The past few years turnout for the actual car show / cruising event has been dismal (comparatively to other car cruises), and the cities yet again this year really haven’t done any extra promotion for this (online, at any rate, we saw no announcements for it, other than a couple individuals who posted about it).
We feel the lack of letting people know it was happening was one of the main reasons the cruise isn’t as successful as other nearby city auto events.
Or perhaps it was just the fact that the event was ON a Saturday, when other things are occurring?
Considering it’s now on a Sunday (and there’s no other big car shows going on), there should be no excuses, right?
Wrong, the participation level was pretty much on par with past events.
There’s usually a decent amount of people spectating, but as far as show cars, cruisers and the like, well, it’s just sad.
With rain clouds lurking in the skies (and a couple times it sprinkled briefly), and virtually no actual cruising going on, car show attendees gathered in the ABC Warehouse parking lot [ the former Lions ABC Warehouse car show location ], where we saw less than 50 show cars on display.
The car show arena use to be in front of the (same) strip mall (Van Dyke side, on the corner of 10 Mile Rd), but not this time around.
There were a few older Buicks participating here, but only a single GM G-body for us to adore.
Less than 20 hot rods were situated at Sandbaggers [ they have a weekly Wednesday meetup: Sandbaggers car show ].
Warren’s Civic Center car show area contained less than a handful of automobiles, although the Fire Department had their normal display of trucks in attendance.
This “cruise” event has turned basically into the likes of a small parking lot show, not that it ever was any really better.
We’re not sure why people don’t like the auto event, (but residents seem to like the festival portion), but as for a car cruise, it’s doomed, time to write this one off.
If it weren’t for the friends we meet up with here, we probably wouldn’t even bother attending this one.
And may not next year, as we can’t see this one getting any better…
[of course, this is simply our own opinion, if you participate and have a good time, you should continue to do so!]
.
.
.
