Still no auto show, so Detroit tries car crawl

It's been more than 800 days since the Motor City has had an auto show, and the next one is still about 500 days away.

To fill the void until September 2022, the Detroit Auto Dealers Association is helping to bring a new car-focused event to the city this summer.

The Motor City Car Crawl aims to bring some economic activity back to Detroit while also raising money for the children's charities that would have benefited from the charity preview of the North American International Auto Show had it been held in 2020 and 2021.

The four-day outdoor event set for August will showcase dealer-supplied vehicles throughout six downtown parks.

The event will be free to the public but include a ticketed event to support eight charities that have lost a collective $4 million for two years in a row from the cancellation of the auto show and charity preview because of COVID-19.

Motor City Car Crawl is an entirely new event, not a replacement for the charity preview, Rod Alberts, executive director of the dealers association, said in an emailed statement.

"Because we haven't had a traditional auto show in the past two years, along with the changing landscape of auto shows in general, we wanted to ensure we kept our long-standing relationship with our local charities."

As of now, the event is planned only for 2021. "If it proves to be successful, we'll look at how to improve and expand it for the future," he said.