Dealers Hope to Drive Up Sales, Profile at Auto Show

If Orange County’s new-car dealers operated as a single entity, they would make up one of the biggest companies around--in gross sales, total employment and tax receipts to the various cities in which they operate.

There are about 110 dealers, and together they employ more than 8,000 people and sell about 250,000 new cars and trucks each year. Their gross revenue from retail sales in 1996 totaled $2.6 billion, which generated about $200 million in sales taxes, according to the State Board of Equalization.

Car dealers are not usually thought of as a unified industry because most of the time they are in fierce competition for buyers’ dollars. But starting Saturday, the region’s new-car dealers will be pulling together for a week as the California International Auto Show gets underway.

It is the second year the show at the Anaheim Convention Center will be jointly sponsored by the Orange County Automobile Dealers Assn. and the Long Beach-based Southland Motor Car Dealers Assn. In years past, the organizations held separate auto shows.

“The benefit, for the consumer, is that it lets them go one place to see all the new vehicles we sell,” said Al Parajeckas, co-owner of the Barwick Automotive Group in San Clemente and co-chairman of the auto show this year.

In addition to displays of 1998 models by all the U.S., Asian and major European car companies, the show organizers have booked special displays of exotic vehicles, race cars and vintage cars. Several of the big manufacturers will have fancy exhibits of their own as well. The show covers 406,000 square feet of floor space, and more than 500 cars will be there for consumers to inspect and compare, Parajeckas said.

The show runs from Saturday through Nov. 30, and organizers expect about 300,000 people to attend. A special charity invitational preview and dinner kicks off the event Friday night, with proceeds to benefit the Long Beach City College Foundation, the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the Newport-Balboa Rotary Club.

Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on both Saturdays and on Friday, Nov. 28; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. both Sundays and 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. (The show is indeed open on Thanksgiving, usually a day with big attendance numbers).

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John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com