It’s not just about state-of-the-art products and solutions, but creating strong customer relationships

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show, held at the Las Vegas Convention Center each November, is one of the largest automotive expos in the world. On average, it attracts over 160,000 visitors, which includes around 70,000 industry buyers, more than 2400 exhibitors and over 3000 members of the press and media. The show is divided among five expansive halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, which together encompass more than 2-million square feet of exhibition space. 

Big opportunity

For major industry players like Hunter Engineering Company, the SEMA Show, represents an opportunity to showcase new products and solutions, but as Tommy Maitz, Sr. Director of Marketing for Hunter notes, a major strategy is to ensure those customers and prospects that attend the SEMA Show and visit Hunter, view the experience as being worthwhile. Some examples include special promotions on equipment and financing options, so that customers have the option to see the equipment, watch demonstrations and make decisions at the booth. 

Another aspect is one-on-one meetings. “We had seven meeting rooms onsite at our SEMA booth in 2025, says Maitz during an exclusive interview with Autosphere for this story. “Prior to the SEMA Show, we spend a lot of time reaching out to the customers asking them to meet us at the show. We want to show them the equipment and promotions we have available and what the coming year looks like and how we can continue to help support their businesses.”

Meetings a key part

Maitz notes that, Hunter schedules hundreds of meetings each year at the SEMA Show. “It’s a big part of why we come to this event,” he says.

In terms of products, Hunter had 33 new or updated products on display at the SEMA Show in 2025. “We never want to rest our laurels,” explains Maitz. “When we release new or updated products, we want to solicit feedback from our customers and say, ‘what can we do to improve this for you or make the experience better.”

He says its essential for Hunter’s customers to understand that when they purchase equipment, they aren’t just buying something that’s current at that particular time. “When a customer purchases a piece of equipment with software, we will continue to push software updates to make that equipment more efficient and more productive for them.”

An entire network

By taking this approach and adding other aspects such as training and technical support, tire and service centres [and their technicians] can have the confidence they’re armed with not only the latest in state-of-the-art equipment, but they have an entire support network built around it, one that’s designed to help them grow their business, increase customer satisfaction and maximize return on investment.

Product Highlights from the 2025 SEMA Show

Part of Hunter’s display at the 2025 SEMA Show was devoted to ADAS calibration. For tire and service centres, there is still a lot of misconceptions surrounding ADAS calibrations. Some of these include the amount of space required to calibrate a vehicle properly, as well as the tools available to ensure it’s done right the first time. To showcase the distance required for static and dynamic calibrations, Hunter created a special floor graphic in front of its Ultimate ADAS system, to illustrate the distance required and educate customers on ADAS calibrations and how, if shops are already doing alignments, they likely have the space to do ADAS calibrations on most of the vehicles they currently service.

Hawkeye Elite X

Speaking of alignments, Hunter also displayed its Hawkeye Elite X. This is the next evolution of Hunter’s standard wheel alignment system, and the X stands for expandable. In essence, Hawkeye X is Hunter’s industry leading aligner with the option to upgrade to Hunter’s Ultimate ADAS system as they become more familiar and efficient with calibrations required on today’s vehicles. Ultimate ADAS is also seeing enhancements with a growing number of OEM approvals. Hunter has recently announced approvals from Kia, Lexus and Toyota (that join the existing roster of Acura, Honda, Infiniti, Nissan, Subaruand Mazda, with others coming soon.

Maverick Pro tire changer

Hunter also unveiled its Maverick Pro tire changer at the 2025 SEMA Show. This new changer is the result of customer feedback from the original Maverick, introduced several years ago. The Maverick Pro features several enhancements designed to make the technician’s life easier including a pick-and-place wheel lift that reduces physical labour demand on handling wheel assemblies. There’s also an automatic under-wheel light feature that allows the technician to see more clearly when operating the roller, improving both accuracy and the working environment.

Inspection Live and HunterNet

Inspection Live is another new development that allows tire shops and automotive service centres to operate multiple lanes of Quick Check Drive and Quick Tread Edge inspection tools from a single console. This improves cost and operating efficiency within the service department and via over-the-air software updates, ensures the system can gain the most accurate and up-to-date vehicle information from OEMs. This includes updates on ADAS systems and licence plate recognition.

HunterNet has also received enhancements including UI updates to make it easier for shop staff to recognize the need to edit specifications when a vehicle comes into the service drive or a customer didn’t bring the vehicle in correctly.

Road Force WalkAway

Hunter’s all-new Road Force WalkAway wheel balancer was a show-stopper at SEMA. Showcasing an automated air chuck that enables the shop to improve a typical four-tire changeover and wheel balancing operation by as much as 44% when paired with a Revolution Walkaway tire changer. Smaller gains can be made with the Maverick tire changer or conventional tabletop tire changers, as well. 

Huron Automotive Teams up with Hunter

At the 2025 SEMA Show, Autosphere had the opportunity to sit down with one of Hunter’s Canadian customers that have seen the results for themselves. Huron Automotive, located in Windsor, Ont., and run by Jose Cornejo and Sina Nabekhil is a true Canadian success story. When Jose and Sina acquired the business in 2022, it was just the two of them, a service centre, and equipment that simply wasn’t working very well. Cornejo and Nabekhil decided to take a chance and visit a convention for independent service centre owners in Kansas City. There, they first met the team at Hunter. Today, three years later, the shop is a big success and is now able to perform service and repairs on late-model vehicles that in the past, they simply wouldn’t have been able to take on as an independent shop. The partnership has been transformational, and Jose Cornejo said that coming to the 2025 SEMA Show and visiting the team at Hunter “was like coming to see family. They’ve made such a huge difference for us, for our business and coming here and seeing the booth at SEMA, I can tell you that they’ve simply knocked it out of the park in 2025.”