Big brands skip Detroit show

The automotive world’s annual starting whistle will be missing some major players next year, with Jaguar, Land Rover and MINI all pulling out of Detroit's North American International Auto Show in January.

While Jaguar and Land Rover have confirmed their absence, sources insist MINI will follow their lead and may not even show up at the Geneva motor show in March.

Jaguar and Land Rover have said they would shift their focus to other international shows, believed to be the emerging squadron of Chinese shows.

The disappearance follows Bentley’s last-minute bail-out from this month’s Los Angeles show and the constant pressure the New York motor show is under by clashing with the rotating Shanghai/Beijing shows in April.

“Following a review of our global customer engagement program, the decision has been made not to exhibit at the Detroit show in 2016,” a Jaguar Land Rover spokesman said.

“We recognize that the Detroit show is a world-class Tier 1 auto show, however, we have had to make this decision to sharpen our focus.”

JLR confirmed it would show up at the Chicago, New York and Los Angeles shows in the future, along with Shanghai, Beijing, Frankfurt, Paris and Geneva shows.

It is in the midst of a $US6.8 billion cost-cutting drive and it reticent to shed any of its workers.

MINI’s absence is harder to intrinsically explain, with an all-new Countryman due next year and a still-fresh Cooper and Clubman on the books. The company is also looking for the right motor show to launch its Clubman John Cooper Works next year.

“It’s not a move that has a lot of internal support,” a spokesman said on the condition of anonymity.

“There is a school of thought that we should be doing our own events, rather than joining in to motor shows as per tradition, and there is talk that we might not even go to Geneva,” the source said.

Look back at the hits and misses of 2015 Detroit motor show