21.1.2013 Over 100,000 enjoy opening day at NAIAS

With an upbeat mood inside Detroit's North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) this year, more than a hundred thousand people enjoyed the public opening day – a 12% increase over last year's public opening day.

The public part of the show opened on Saturday and will run until the 27th January. Expectations are that this year's show, the 25th annual NAIAS, will be the busiest show yet.

"First day attendance was the strongest in eight years," said Jim Seavitt, chairman, 2013 NAIAS.

"The celebration of cars continued today in Detroit, and the show floor was packed from open to close," said Seavitt. "We started the week strong during Press Preview with 50 worldwide vehicle introductions and nine North American reveals. Combined with the rapidly growing strength of the auto industry, the show has really created excitement among car enthusiasts."

The mood was cheerful off the show floor, too, and many of the car displays offered models that seriously turned heads. With vehicle efficiency becoming a more important attribute for buying new cars, most major car makers had a low emission vehicle on display, such as an electric car or some form of hybrid.

Driving simulators at Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda and Toyota attracted a lot of attention, as did the highly interactive exhibits themselves.

This year's show also offered a ride & drive experience, allowing members of the public to drive chosen vehicles. This year's show features an Asian Drive Green Experience in Michigan Hall, to display and test out some of the greener models on offer. Here there will be electric vehicles, hybrids and for the first time, electric scooters.

NAIAS Public Show ticket prices are $12 for adults, $6 for senior citizens (65 and older), $6 for children from 7 to 12 and 6 year olds and under can enter for free when accompanied by an adult.