Auto show gets new look with faux-road signs, more cars.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Matt Nauman

ANAHEIM, Calif. _ By all measures _ attendance, exhibit space, prestige _ San Jose's auto show has grown substantially over its nine-year history.

But officials with the Silicon Valley Auto Dealers Association see more potential, and that's why they've handed their show over to a new promoter.

Motor Trend Auto Shows, which, like Motor Trend magazine, is an affiliate of media conglomerate Primedia, takes over the 2004 San Jose International Auto Show. It opens Wednesday at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, and runs through Jan. 11.

A spokesman for local car dealers plus several executives with Motor Trend Auto Shows are promising that San Jose's auto show will be much improved. It'll be better organized, have more new models and concept cars, and get more attention from automakers who ultimately decide which cars and which sets go to which auto shows, they say.

``It looks like we're ...