Houston AutoBoative Show with RoShelle Salinas

Originally aired on January 17, 2026. Doug interviews Houston Auto Show president RoShelle Salinas, where they discuss what people can see at the event starting on January 28.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nine on Sports Talk seven ninety to Doug Pike Show,
Thank you for listening so very very much. As promised,
Frankie's got it teed up. I interviewed Rochelle Salinas from
the Houston Auto Well, which she actually she's Houston Auto
Dealers Association, but she knows she knows her way around
both sides of that that big NRG haul over there
when this show's coming up, and I want to go

(00:22):
ahead and get that teed up now, and yeah, let's
go ahead, Frankie.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
We've come together to now be the largest auto and
boat event, you know, in the region, and probably one
of the very few in the whole country that exists.
And post COVID, of course, you know, people had to
adapt and change and look at what's going on, and
we realized that, you know, Houston drivers and Houston voters,
they really overlap a lot more than people realize. And

(00:48):
being that we were already having our event at the
same venue, NRG Center, you know, one one week apart,
we just thought, why not put these shows together and
create some really special and unique for everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Kieren Houston dog On, On, You did it, didn't you? Yeah? Five?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
This is our fifth year together. You know, we know
that people are towing boat to Clear Lake or Conroe
and their need a truck or suv to toe those
So why not make your purchase decisions all in one
place and have a good shopping playground to enjoy it exactly?

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Is there anything that you know is coming to this
show so far that really kind of caught your eye
and thought, man, everybody needs to see this.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well. I think a fun new edition this year is
that Polaris is now one of our presenting sponsors of
the event, and they are bringing an off road adventure
track outside in front of Energy Center, right in the
front parking lot. They're going to have an off road
adventure track where people can ride along and really experience
kind of the off roading of a side by side

(01:55):
utility vehicle. And we're also bringing back Camp Jeep and
the RAM track that are off roading obstacles. Those will
be inside the building. And then just this week we
added a Ram Monster truck ride. Monster Jam happens the
week after the Auto Votive Show, and so it's perfect
timing for you to come and get the feel of

(02:16):
what it's like to ride in a monster truck in
the bed of this ram Monster truck.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Now is all of this available to the public. I'm
sure that all of it? Yeah, what's the story.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, we've got one ticket for the whole event. Twenty
dollars gets you in the door to both events, all
of these you know, adventure attractions as well as test
driving vehicles on site. You can test drive everything from
a Jeep, ram Ford, Chevrolet, Subaru, Toyota, and more. And
all of that is included. Obviously, you need a driver's license,

(02:50):
need to be eighteen enough to participate in the test drives,
but everything is included the super family friendly event. Wow.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
What Yeah, I didn't realize all that was going to
be no extra charge. You just kind of wait in line,
I guess, like at any theme park because that's kind
of what you man, this is going to be a
big one. What about accessories and stuff like that? For
the cars and for the boats, how much attention do
they get?

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah? You know, the boat show side has about a
one hundred or two hundred vendors of all types of
accessories from your you know, fishing gear of fishing poles,
the live jacket, to outer you know, outwear, outdoor attire,
as well as some really fun things like you're floating
koozies and things. We've got tons of that on the

(03:31):
boat show side and on the auto show side, we've
got some really neat aftermarket vendors this year from Great's Garage,
Texas Truck Works lifted trucks. They're going to show you
how to really customize your vehicle, put on those fancy
wraps and make them tall like we like them in Texas.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Boy, isn't that the truth? You can't just can't lift
the truck high enough unless you unless you have to
try to park in the garage eye park in then
you had that that could be a little bit of
an issue.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's tricky.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah, roche El Selena's here from the Houston Auto Boative Show.
I read that boats and boating accessories and such are
going to cover seven acres of exhibit space, and I'm
presuming at least that much is there for the cars too, Right,
that's a big, big deal.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, Well, Energy Center is a huge venue. You know,
we've got nearly a million square feet of space there
within the lobby and the exhibit floor, and so we
divide that in half between us, and you know, the
boat show looked huge because the boats are ginormous and
they really squeeze in there all together. And on the
auto show side, we've got about three hundred plus cars

(04:37):
from twenty different brands or so, and so, yeah, it
really fills up the space and makes for a full
day of activity there.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah, what I was going to mention to this audience
of mind, any show that's this big and has that
much to see, it's almost unfair to yourself. It may
be impossible for some people to see everything they would
want to see because they don't know what there before
they get there. And if you get in there, you
start walking around, you realize that I'm not going to

(05:05):
be able to see everything in one day. Might be
a good idea to split, like one day for boats
and one day for cars, Huh.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
You could, especially if you're in the market to buy
a boat, because boats are on sale at this event,
and so if you're thinking of negotiating and you know,
comparison shopping and really making a deal while you're at
the boat show, you might want to plan for a
little bit more time on that side for sure.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Yeah. And you know, I've been covering boat shows so
long in this in this city, and elsewhere. Even that,
I know that a lot of these dealers rely on
this show right here to to cover a significant portion
of their annual revenue, don't they.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, it is a great opportunity for them, you know.
There there's definitely this event, and sometimes they do a
summer show as well, and these are they're they're too
big sale event of the year. You know, when you're
buying clothes and other accessories. It might be Labor Day
or Black Friday, but the boat show is where you
want to buy a boat.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Can't think of a better place to buy a boat,
although all these dealers around town I talked to her.
As I mentioned in the interview, a lot of these
dealers do a whole lot of their business for the
whole year at this show, and they want to make
a deal with you. It's a really, really great opportunity,
not only to see all the boats, but to get

(06:25):
a really truly good deal.