With many businesses in the automotive specialty-equipment market experiencing consolidation and some of the biggest names in the automotive sphere at the center of the activity, mergers and acquisitions have become important topics of discussion. As the market began to recover from the Great Recession, consolidation became a growing trend. Since then, private equity (PE) firms have continued to actively invest in aftermarket companies.

An entire generation of aftermarket pioneers may remember cruising the boulevard and blaring Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” from their recently invented stereo-cassette radios in the ’60s. Now, five decades later, another generation of aftermarket product developers is giving those words a whole other meaning for today’s vehicle-electronics consumers.

The SEMA Garage’s Tech Transfer program was originally conceived as a way to help member companies acquire original-equipment manufacturer (OEM) computer-aided design (CAD) data, making it possible to quickly produce parts that fit the latest models. By logging into the Tech Transfer online portal, a member has access to OEM CAD data and the opportunity to request specific data for one or more vehicles.

Exhibits at the annual SEMA Show can offer some useful indications of what is trending in the automotive aftermarket in a given year. For those who weren’t able to attend and see for themselves, media coverage following the Show often points to some hot items as well. In surveying these sources and conversing with exhibitors, SEMA News observed a few trends worth mentioning for 2017. The following is a brief look at what the editorial team discovered.