What should we expect at the 2026 Detroit Auto Show? Sam Klemet, the Executive Director of the event, joins me to walk through what's happening at Huntington Place.
From cars, to interactive experiences, to performances — there's a lot to look for.
The public show days are January 17-25. Tickets available here.
You can listen to the show in the player above, or read the full transcript below.
Then, I bring you 5 things to know around town so you're caught up and what to know and where to go for your Monday.
- A shake up in the race for Michigan Governor
- A proposed bill to use the Defense Production Act with the aim of building more housing
- It's the end of the rack for Dittrich Furs after 132 years
- MSU's Endowment has bought even more of the Fisher Building in Detroit
- Mic Drop Comedy is opening in Detroit with a unique theme
Feedback as always - 313-789-3211 or dailydetroit@gmail.com
Live stream on Tuesday afternoon on our Daily Detroit YouTube, we may discuss these and other stories around town.
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Podcast Conversation Transcript
This transcript was generated digitally and lightly edited, so please refer to the original audio for exact words and to check against any errors.
[JER STAES]
We are here at Huntington Place to talk with Sam Klemet, the head of the Detroit Auto Show.
It's exciting. I've been going to the Auto Show for almost my entire life. In fact, I remember covering press days years ago. It's got a very special place in my heart, and it's so important for Detroit. Especially in these colder months, it's something for people to get out to.
So Sam, what are your thoughts about the Auto Show this year? I know that you're kind of recent to the job.
[SAM KLEMET]
Yeah, I took over in May of 2024. So last year I served as co–executive director with Rod Alberts. He had been running this for over 34 years.
It was helpful to do that first year working side by side. I learned a lot in that first year, obviously. I was drinking from a fire hose and maybe then some. But that was super helpful because then we really got to work on the 2026 show the minute the ’25 show ended.
From the lessons that I learned from ’25, my biggest takeaway was we have to evolve the show and kind of reinvent it. As you mentioned, this has been a historic show. It's got a lot of history here. It means a lot to the city.
But I think there was a desire, not only from industry but from those that come — our consumers and attendees — to have something new, a facelift, to give it something fresh. So what we've built over the last 11 months is a reimagined show.
There’s certainly some nostalgia that'll be tapped into, but I think what people will see over the next two weeks is a more modern auto show, something more engaging, more interactive. We'll have that kind of glitz and glamour that the nostalgia crowd asked for.
The show in recent years has made changes, but it looks like you want to have a bit more of a fresh direction. So talk about what “modern” means to you.
[SAM KLEMET]
Absolutely. We'll still have the reveals. Ford is having a huge press event on Tuesday of this week. I think that shows that especially the Detroit Three still see the value in having large auto shows, and that’s important.
The U.S. Army is coming here and they're unveiling one of their new tanks. We've got a couple of other special things. A group called AEA is showing off one of their new off-road–type vehicles. So organizations still come to the show to have reveals.
There's no doubt that the landscape of how OEMs reveal vehicles has changed. Social media has evolved that. They do a lot of one-off, smaller events and then use their reach on social to show it to the masses.
So what I see in our new version of the show is still having those reveals, but then on our media and industry days we have some huge speakers coming in. We have potential future presidential candidates. We’ll have some members of the administration coming in.
We have important people who are making policy decisions. That’s part of the media and industry piece: if we're not going to have the reveals like we typically did, how do we have the conversation about the direction of the industry moving forward?
Having Detroit as the epicenter of that still matters, because you have worldwide media that comes here to hear from these people. Policy will be dictated by some of what they say, and it’s important to bring them together and have those conversations here.
From a more entertainment standpoint, I've taken the model that this needs to be a festival. That means we need to have — we're Detroit — we're a very stylish city. We have music, arts, culture, fashion. How do we ingratiate all those things into our show, with auto being the epicenter?
Cars tap into all those elements. The first thing you do when you get into a vehicle is you turn your radio on, or you turn your Bluetooth speaker on and you…
Your favorite podcast.
[SAM KLEMET]
Your favorite podcast. Well done, I missed that one. Well done, well done.
So there's an entertainment value in that. Car designs are tapped into fashion. We have incredible fashion designers here. How can we bring all these elements into our show over the course of two weeks?
I want people to come back multiple times. I think the experience they have on a Saturday might be very different than on a Tuesday. That’s how you keep energy and a new vision going.
There's also more participants this year, right?
[SAM KLEMET]
Absolutely. We anticipate a much larger attendee base. One of the big things is people want to get into these vehicles.
We've got about 40 different vehicles that people can get in. They can do test rides and see the technology. We gave 100,000 rides last year, and I anticipate that’ll go even higher.
We have four — actually five — different tracks, because we're adding one this year for kids, which is special. We're going to put that in the atrium.
It's a reimagined thing, because 30% of our attendees last year were first-time attendees. They don’t necessarily have that relationship with the history of the show like you or some of the other listeners have had.
But we don't want to abandon that either. I think there are elements we can bring in from the “heyday” to this new modern version and blend multiple generations.
Well, and that’s one thing I would mention as somebody who's test-driven a lot of cars. Going in them, getting in them really does matter.
I know a lot of people shop wholly online, but when it comes to how you fit — listeners will know, I'm a big man. Not every car fits me. Sometimes cars you wouldn't think fit me fit me like a glove. You’ve got to get in there.
[SAM KLEMET]
You absolutely do. I encourage people to read about these vehicles before they come to the show. I think that's helpful because they can narrow down what they want to hit.
But then when you get here, you're like, “Oh, what is that over there?” Your imagination opens and you see something that sparks your interest.
Again, the media landscape of how OEMs unveil vehicles has changed. We're not running from that; it is what it is. But I think we still have a lot of value in having all these brands under one roof where people can spend a day, see different experiences, and see what fits best for them.
Why don't you walk through some of the public show experiences? We've got a major presence by the Detroit automakers, but there's a lot more, right?
[SAM KLEMET]
Oh, there's a lot more. We have groups like Subaru coming back. We've got these special chalets on the main show floor, which is something new.
I'll walk you through it step by step. For those who have been coming to the show for decades, they knew that the stage was always in our atrium. I didn't personally love that — I'm a former media guy — because I thought the acoustics weren't great in there.
I also thought that space was disconnected from the show. If you're familiar with Huntington Place, you have to leave the main show floor, go to the concourse, go down the escalators, and then you get to the atrium.
We've moved our main stage and built this performance stage on our main show floor. Every single minute of every single day of the show has programming tied to that stage, whether it's DJs, performances, presentations, or special concerts.
There will be activations going on at that stage because maybe you're not in the market for a car, but you just want something to do on a Saturday afternoon in Detroit and come down here for a couple of hours. I want to entertain you.
Then maybe while you're down here, you see a car that sparks your interest, so there's a tie-in.
In the atrium, now that we have this hole because we moved the stage, we're creating what's called our Visit Detroit Interactive Experience. We've heard from a lot of people like Jim Farley that say there's a need for young talent in the automotive industry. How do we engage our next technician? How do we get our next designer?
Our philosophy was: let's use that space to engage with STEM activities. Down there we've got the Michigan Science Center. We have groups like Code 313. We’ve got a group called Pit Lane Sim Racing that's going to have these high-end sim race cars.
Jeep and Ram are bringing a kids’ track. Down there it's for families and kids to explore the opportunities in the industry. How can we get people excited about maybe a career in this industry? It's all about career exploration.
There's real value in that because, if we are the Motor City and we want to continue to be that, we have to have the talent here to support the auto industry. I think that's a step in the right direction to get people engaged.
You know, a question I ask people often on the show is: what is it that you thought you knew that you now know differently, now that you've been doing this a little while?
[SAM KLEMET]
My perspective from when I got the job 18 months ago is totally different, for a multitude of reasons, but I'm very bullish on the direction of the show.
I've read every negative comment. I've gotten a lot of feedback and opinions, and I'm very appreciative of that because it lets me know people care about this show. It means something to the city and people want it to be the best version of itself.
So how can we bring a more modern version into this? Nothing is the same as it was 10 years ago. If you find something that is, please let me know.
How do you make it something worth people's time when there are so many different things pulling their attention? I think we've found a good sweet spot for that.
I will say I think this is just the start. We're going to build year after year and it’ll grow bigger. We have some new brands that came back in that haven't been here in a number of years, so they see the vision.
We have more partnerships coming in to support the show. I think that’s going to continue to grow as people come down here over the next two weeks and say, “Okay, I see something different. I felt something when I was at the show.”
All right. If the public wants to go, when can they go? What are the details?
[SAM KLEMET]
Public tickets are on sale right now: January 17th through the 25th. But we have all kinds of activations going on leading up to that.
Charity Preview is January 16th. Our media and industry days are the 14th and 15th. I would encourage everyone to come down.
January 17th is that Saturday. We're going to have a nice opening ceremony. It'll be a lot of fun. We'll have some surprise guests. We're going to have some athletes here. We're going to have celebrities here.
You'll see people walking the show floor. They'll really create a buzz. I just encourage people to come down, engage, and if you see me, honestly, I ask that you give me your feedback, because we want to build it year after year.
This is something that I'm really proud of — what our team has done, what our board has done. I think it's two weeks that the city of Detroit will be really proud of.
Well, look for the guy with the excellent suit, right?
[SAM KLEMET]
Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Sam Klemet, thank you so much for your time on Daily Detroit. I appreciate you.
[SAM KLEMET]
I appreciate it. Thank you.
