SEMA - heading there in November! Is it worth it?

People ask all of the time about going to SEMA every year and is it worth going?

I always tell them if you have never gone and want to see the World's largest automotive car/truck industry show - yes they should!

But! Bring lots of $$$$ because that is a week where the entire city of Las Vegas raises their prices by 3 times. Don't believe me, look up the same hotel the week before for rates. My current hotel is at $89 a night but during SEMA it is $289 a night! Plus tack on $30-50 per night in luxury tax at every hotel, so if you find one for $160 a night add another $30-50 per night.

Uber and/or taxis will charge you $20 to go anywhere plus if you rent a car every body charges for parking, even the hotel you are staying at for the week. Food is expensive everywhere, long gone are the steak dinners for $4.99! Expect to spend $35 for a hamburger and a beer.

Bring really good walking shoes and be prepared to walk a lot in a very crowded show every where! There is a lot to see and you do have to walk many miles to see it. When they say it's only a block or two it is a mile away.

For the good part, you will see the best of the best vehicles at SEMA from weird to the newest hottest cars/trucks on display. The parts that we all look for are displayed at this show. Is it hard to find those parts? Yes, it is hard to find so do your research and look companies up before you get there.

SEMA does have the show categorized in to sections pretty well so if you want different interest you can go to that area. The outside tents are the new companies and it is a smorgasbord of parts and services.

I usually walk 7-9 miles a day and I know where I am going and who I am going to see before I get there. Most of the show vehicles are outside but some are in the booths inside the show.

Don't forget to include some time for the AAPEX show at the Sands Convention Center for hard parts and liquids. Not much on showing vehicles and this is if you are a service garage which does a full service maintenance for vehicles. A great show to walk around for the day.

It is all about business for me since I have gone for so many years but for those who have never gone it is a site to see for the first time. For the auto enthusiast it is eye candy everywhere!

I will post many photos from there this year with reports!

DIESELS - EPA - Rolling Coal - Industry Standards and how we all get along!

As I described last week our diesel industry has gone through yet another transition this past year. It seems with the EPAs budget being cut they have decided to pick from low hanging fruit in order to get fees and monies from a few diesel programmers and shops.

As stated before and from earlier warnings from a few years ago, you can not advertise or market DPF/EGR delete kits. This has been against the law for many years whether we like it or not it is the law. I don't make the laws I'm just reporting what is realistic.

Also as stated before, the DPF delete started years ago by farmers who were catching their fields/trucks on fire when they left the truck running while out in the fields. Doesn't take long to want to fix that problem, I have had many rural dealers tell me they had the choice of removal or not sell large farms numerous trucks.

It has surfaced and is interesting that the two officials who are responsible for the latest intrusions are from Indiana and not California. Also interesting that two large diesel events are held near where they live and one even has their own rap sheet on the State Highway Patrol web site. This has drawn too much attention to unruly kids with smoking diesel trucks.

The majority of the industry relies on brick and mortar business of doing diesel truck maintenance on every day trucks that are used in business and life. 80% of their business is regular maintenance on our trucks and 20% on performance parts for our trucks.

Most new trucks come with near 500 hp drivetrains with low mileage warranties. Most people rely on the dealer for maintenance until the warranty runs out and then seeks better service from our brick and mortar shops.

It is the big 3 OEMs direction is to keep all maintenance at their dealerships. Their efforts involves the government agencies which are funded by the people they search out.

DIESEL Motorsports has had a no smoke street police for many years and has hosted several events a year for enthusiasts to bring their trucks to official licensed tracks for competition. It has been fun for many years and is a lifestyle for many of us across the country.

That has temporarily changed and we all have to be more considerate of other drivers in populated settings by not smoking the truck. We all know how not to do that and to do it! Many of us have pre-DPF trucks that are not included in the regulations but we still must be cognitive of other drivers.

We all want more power and more torque for when we pull trailers and such. It is the American way to change your vehicle, SEMAs new marketing report show that trucks are double the sales of all other vehicles so we are not alone.

What the Big 3 don't get is many our our shops being creative mechanics and engineers has fixed many of their problems regarding the drivetrain be it pumps, injectors, valves, cooling, etc. It was the same way during the 70s and may of those performance parts are now on current OEM vehicles.

They are hurting themselves and the industry by trying to regulate our diesel market. They could learn so much more and apply the improvements to our maintenance diesel vehicles that supply 90% of our services such as street maintenance, goods delivery, transporting parts for industry and garbage removal.

I'm sorry, I have research the electric option enough to know it is not the answer! It is ironic that the very states pushing for electric are having brown-outs and can not even power the homes/businesses much less millions of vehicles and they are cost prohibitive.

So let's try and be aware of other people while driving, do not advertise what is against the law and keep wrenching and try to make a living working on our diesel trucks. See you at our events!