GM to test-drive auto facility in LV

Sunday, Dec. 11, 2005 | 12:25 p.m.

For most of us, shopping for a new car and dealing with a high-pressure salesman ranks right up there with getting a root canal on a list of fun things to do.

So automotive giant General Motors is trying a new marketing strategy that would put potential customers behind the wheels of the company's newest cars at a test-track facility that could someday become a new tourist attraction near the Las Vegas Strip.

The test-drive attraction will be modeled after the popular AutoShow in Motion, a traveling GM test-drive operation that gives people a chance to drive the company's vehicles on test tracks.

The new Las Vegas marketing facility could be in business with 40 to 50 employees by spring. GM also is in talks with the Las Vegas Monorail Co. on a promotional tie-in.

Company officials stressed that plans are in preliminary stages and no long-term contracts have been signed. GM will construct a temporary facility to gauge whether the project has the legs to justify a permanent investment.

"What we're looking at trying to do is get the consumer engaged with our products in a little different environment," said Steve Tihanyi, general director of marketing alliances and regional programs for GM, and the man who developed the AutoShow in Motion concept in 1998.

"We look at it as a nonthreatening, nonpressure environment that allows consumers to get the full experience," he said. "Millions of people visit Las Vegas and there are a lot of potential customers we want to touch."

Within weeks, three huge tents will be erected in the parking lot east of the Sahara and two test tracks will be available for people to get behind the wheel of GM vehicles. About 50 cars and trucks are expected to be available for test rides.

GM's traveling AutoShow in Motion has given 4 million test rides since the program began.

At AutoShow in Motion's stop at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October, thousands of motorists drove and rode Corvettes and Cadillacs with professional drivers on a performance course, while others took a Hummer H2 through a desert obstacle course, two of the seven tracks at the event.

The facility at the Sahara would be different with only those two types of tracks and only GM vehicles to choose from. The AutoShow in Motion event provided vehicles by other manufacturers to give drivers the chance to compare.

The off-road track included berms, divots and moguls and a steep 30-foot mound that motorists ran over, around and through.

Tihanyi said monorail riders would get an excellent view of the test tracks as trains approach the Sahara station from the south. GM is considering advertising deals with the Las Vegas Monorail Co., which generates part of its revenue by wrapping trains with corporate logos and turning stations over to companies to promote their products.

Las Vegas Monorail President Curtis Myles is delighted that GM is considering a deal.

"Anytime you can get the No. 1 or No. 2 advertiser in the world to be associated with you, that's got to be good," Myles said. "We feel like Cinderella waiting for the prince to show up with the glass slipper."

Richard N. Velotta can be reached at 259-4061 or at velotta@ lasvegassun.com.