The Drive is Over

Link to Original Article @ The Las Vegas Sun

General Motors' marketing gimmick, known as The Drive, has made a quick getaway from its parking lot home east of the Sahara.

GM never promised the attraction, which invited people to drive sports cars and SUVs over two separate courses for $10, would be a long-term resident. The fact that indoor portions of The Drive were housed in a tent made that clear.

A GM spokeswoman said the endeavor was a success - that corporate officials learned a lot about the Las Vegas tourist market and that it's possible that the company will return.

"We were very well received and we're happy with what we got out of the experience," said Christie Conti about the company's seven-month stay. "This was more of a test lab for us than anything."

One of the key findings: The attraction drew younger - and more - customers than the company had anticipated.

"This was a positive surprise for us," she said. "It exceeded our expectations. The 50,000 visitors that we attracted were far more than we expected."

Before the company built The Drive, it operated a traveling road show called Auto Show in Motion, which spent about four days in town and enabled participants to drive all kinds of cars - some made by GM and some made by competitors - over courses set up in parking lots at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hopefully they do the traveling Auto Show in motion again. I was going to go the the one in Kansas City a couple of years ago but had to attend a wedding the same weekend. A friend of mine went to last August on his honeymoon and he went to The Drive, had a hell of a time in a CTS-V.

I totally forgot about this! I could have been visitor 50,001!

Well, there goes my one reason to visit Vegas.

The auto show in motion was awesome. Hopefully they'll start that again and come back to Dallas..

If this means that the ASIM is returning, I'm happy. If not, I guess I don't care that much since I'd never go all the way there to test cars. What pissed me off about ASIM is that it was close to here when I was 17 (and couldn't drive the cars) but it didn't come back the following year when I would have been able to drive the cars.

Well, there goes my one reason to visit Vegas.

*nods*

Same here....

From what I read and saw of this place, it looked cool. Too bad it wasn't going to be permanent.

Cort:33swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve.pacemaker

PICS:lego.HO.model.MCinfo.RT.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort

"I've had enough" ... REO Speedwagon ... 'Time For Me To Fly'

I was hoping to do The Drive, but I never made it to Vegas. If there's any time that GM should be reviving Autoshow in Motion, it is this fall, with the GMT900 trucks, Outlook, Acadia, and Aura still pretty fresh, and the new Enclave, Malibu, CTS, G8, and Vibe out.

That was short lived. Does anybody remember Autoworld in Flint Michigan, this reminds me of that.

Well, there goes my one reason to visit Vegas.

U-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-w-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-h?!?!

Wife and I really enjoyed it last summer. Good value for 10$, especially in Vega$., and no line if you got there it seemed before 11am

They said back then that they thought they'd be around until Fall..seems to have gone a little longer.

Although, it did annoy me,after driving the Corvette and a GTO, that we cannot get the GTO up here.

Strictly on performance (and, I guess, practicality driving around town), I was more then a little suprised that I preferred the pop of the GTO over the Corvette.

Wasn't too sold on the STS-V they had there like I thought I would...but I guess that was comparing it again to the nimble GTO.

The wife enjoyed doing the H2 obstacle course....being tilted 60 degrees in the H2

Hopefully it returns somewhere down there again.

Well, there goes my one reason to visit Vegas.

But ASIM is useless for us up here... Have one in Toronto, please!

Darn..I'd like to have done that.. haven't been to Vegas since Nov 05..was thinking about going for a weekend sometime in the spring.