Hedges & Co.—a SEMA-member market research and database marketing
firm—reports consumer confidence and the SEMA Consumer Demand Index
(CDI) both rebounded in September. An analysis is posted on the Hedges & Co. website as part of its "66 Trends in 66 Days" series, leading up to the opening of the 2012 SEMA Show, October 30.
With new-car sales growing and the economy slowly ticking upward, SEMA News
checked in with restylers and restyling experts to find out what to
expect in that segment for 2012.
The SEMA Market Update is a regularly published report that tracks
industry and economic trends affecting the $30 billion
specialty-equipment industry. Each update tracks a regular set of trends
and contains a "Current Topics" section that provides SEMA members with
new research or information sources to better understand changes in the
industry.
The SEMA 2012 Annual Market Study will be released the week of April 9.
This annual report will help SEMA-member companies to better understand
the overall specialty-equipment market and its components.
Paint has long been a necessary product in the automotive world. Perhaps the most prolific painters in the automotive sector, other than
OEMs, would be shops operating in the repair and refinish segment. These
are auto-body shops that make a living on being able to paint fast,
match colors perfectly and be economical in the process.
Tires and wheels are one of the most favored modifications that car
and truck owners make to their vehicles, since a single, relatively
simple change can entirely alter the appearance and character of a
vehicle.
As the automotive specialty-equipment industry moves into 2012, SEMA News
put out a call to the leaders of the association’s councils and
networks to seek their views about what might be in store during the
coming year. Their responses are instructive and should provide helpful
insights for companies in every segment of the marketplace.
This compilation of restoration products that were introduced at the 2010 SEMA
Show runs the gamut from traditional numbers-matching reproductions to
modernization components for handling and power. We’ve also interspersed
comments from the owners and executives of some of the industry’s leading
restoration specialists. Both say a lot about how the marketplace has changed.
Jim Hughes of Hughes Performance and Kelli Wilmore of MasterCraft Safety talk one-on-one with SEMA's membership about their plans for the Motorsports Parts Manufacturers Council.
The bedrock of the automotive specialty-equipment industry is the parts that are used to build, restore and modify vehicles of all types. Every segment of the industry counts on parts that are properly designed, engineered and manufactured to operate as promised. Within the restoration segment, however, those standards are complicated by the fact that the vehicles involved are anywhere from two decades to nearly a century old.
