HOUSTON — As Jeep Gladiators, Grand Cherokees and Wranglers conquered hills and uneven terrain set up inside the expansive NRG Center, it almost felt like old times.

That feeling of normalcy was among the biggest attractions for visitors to this month’s Houston Summer Auto Show, one of the first new-vehicle expos since the coronavirus pandemic began more than a year ago. So was Camp Jeep, a show staple that draws long lines and resembles an amusement park attraction.

There were new rules, a reminder that the world is still coping with a crisis as auto shows begin to reemerge, meaning riders got the Jeep experience only from the back seat as masked drivers whisked them around the bumpy setup. Once the rides ended, cleaning crews disinfected the Jeeps and nearby Rams, which had a test track of their own, before the next passengers hopped in.

“We’re pumped to be back,” said Benny Munguia, a Camp Jeep track manager who was shuttling people around the course and felt safe with the additional protocols that were put in place. “I’ve been doing it a long time, and I missed driving a lot.”

The Houston Automobile Dealers Association, which runs the show, had to overcome a barrage of obstacles befitting Camp Jeep, including evolving public health guidelines and the microchip shortage that prompted some automakers to skip the event because they lacked inventory to show. In some cases, local dealers stepped up to represent their brands with independent displays.

Organizers also had just a few months to put the whole thing together. The May dates they had been aiming for were originally blocked by the popular Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, but when that multiweek event was canceled, the dealer association sprang into action.

Some automakers, including Kia, Stellantis and Subaru, committed immediately. Others didn’t sign on until just before the mid-April deadline.

With extra floor space to fill, the association expanded the five-day show to include boats, RVs and fishing and hunting knives. It also added “summer” to the name to reflect the move from the show’s usual January timing.

Back in March, planners thought they would need to check attendees’ temperatures and require face masks. They attended an auto auction to see how the temperature checks worked, said RoShelle Salinas, executive vice president of the Houston Automobile Dealers Association. It was an extra expense the group was prepared to take on, but improving conditions and the ongoing vaccine rollout ultimately made it unnecessary.

The mask requirement was another wild card that shifted at the last minute. The show planned to require masks until the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said May 13 that people who were fully vaccinated could ditch them in most situations.

So the show said masks would be recommended but not required. Many attendees wore masks anyway.

The CDC’s updated guidance relieved a potential headache in trying to enforce mask-wearing, said Wyatt Wainwright, association president.

“For us to be able to put on this summer show, it’s been amazing, and all of the topsy-turvy, all of the fears of people not understanding how to do it, and how to do it safely, I think we did it,” Wainwright told Automotive News. “We held to the total number we can have in the building to the capacity limits yet didn’t infringe on anybody having a great experience.”

Show visitors were thankful that the event returned and looked forward to more normal activities.

Although the show was mostly intact, some traditions were missing. The ride-and-drive lounge that features 80 models for people to try out was gone this year because brands were limiting drive opportunities, but the show plans for it to return next January. Ford and Subaru held their own ride-and-drives.

James Berry, a Houston resident who attends the show every year, said he had no qualms about going. “All of the trends are going down,” said Berry, who is vaccinated.

He thought the Ford Mustang Mach-E was “slick” and enjoyed the Ram display because he was considering buying a pickup.

“It’s just a lot of fun,” he said. “Even if you’re not in the market for a car, it’s cool to see everything.”

Jared Richards of Houston said he wasn’t worried about the pandemic. The biggest eye-catchers for him were the Ford Bronco, the Mach-E and the Chevrolet Corvette.

“If you feel like getting the vaccine, you should get it; if you don’t, you shouldn’t get it,” Richards said. “I think it’s a personal preference.”

Another spectator, Eric Gay, said it was time to get back to normal life.

“I’m glad they could actually squeeze it in this year,” Gay said. “It would be nice if they had more selection out, but it’s still good to see the new models.”

The show drew around 40,000 visitors, down from the typical 100,000, but Salinas was encouraged, considering the circumstances. In addition to the pandemic, she figures rainy weather and the unfamiliar date stunted attendance.

Salinas said developing plans for ticket sales was a roller-coaster ride. The venue initially told organizers they couldn’t have ticket windows open, which would have been a tough break for a show that sells 90 percent of its tickets on-site.

But the parameters eventually shifted, and nine ticket windows were allowed. Attendees also had the option to buy tickets online in advance or by using their phone to scan a QR code on signs at the arena.

Salinas said the association began meeting with organizers from other shows around the country last fall to see how they were handling the challenges in their areas. The Houston show, when it was planning to have a mask mandate, used footage of masked visitors to the Oklahoma City show in March for TV ads to help set expectations.

Dave Sloan, general manager of the Chicago Auto Show, which is planning a mid-July event, said he had been conversing with other show organizers during the pandemic. He said it was “great news” when the Central Florida International Auto Show in Orlando happened in December and that he gathered feedback from automakers that participated to see what worked for them.

At the moment, Sloan is planning for the Chicago show to mandate masks. The event will be scaled down to a little over half of its usual 1 million square feet but will add outdoor activities, such as a Bronco course, that it never had because of the winter weather. The show normally takes place in February.

“I think we’ve all been learning from each other,” said Salinas, adding that she hoped “people can learn and use our show as an example for their own.”

DETROIT — General Motors’ plan to restart most of its plants affected by the industry’s microchip shortage within about a month shows that the crisis might be starting to ebb.

“It does suggest that things are improving — an early indicator that the industry maybe is starting to get on the other side of this,” said Jeff Schuster, president of global forecasting at LMC Automotive.

GM last week said only one plant — Fairfax Assembly in Kansas — would remain down because of the chip shortage beyond July 5. Fairfax, which has been down since Feb. 8, builds the Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac XT4. CAMI Assembly in Ontario, which builds the Chevy Equinox and also shut down Feb. 8, is scheduled to reopen June 14 but pause for a previously scheduled two-week summer break in July. GM’s midsize pickup plant in Wentzville, Mo., went offline last week until mid-July for a model-year changeover.

GM’s aggressive restart plans affirm the bullishness the automaker showed this month when it reported first-quarter net income of $3 billion. Its projection of a swift rebound from the chip crisis contrasted with Ford Motor Co.’s warning that profits would be limited for the rest of the year.

GM’s optimism could be driven by early planning and a potential outsourcing of chips, analysts said.

Still, the automaker and its dealers continue to cope with a drastic inventory shortage. Randy Wise Chevrolet in Flint, Mich., had only three unsold new vehicles in stock last week. The store, which usually sells 110 to 125 new vehicles a month, expects to receive just 21 more in June, 21 in July and 38 in August, said General Manager Patrick Daly.

As of Friday, May 28, GM had lost 272,292 vehicles from its North American production schedule because of the crisis, according to AutoForecast Solutions. That number is slightly lower than the firm’s estimate for GM a week earlier.

The automaker has maintained production at plants that build its popular and profitable full-size SUVs and pickups, opting to cut production at plants that build sedans and crossovers instead.

The restarting of those lower-margin vehicle plants could signal that GM has turned a corner.

“They were doing a lot of scenario planning early on” while other automakers were waiting for the situation to play out, Schuster said. “Did that lead to a better position and the ability to find a [chip] source? I can’t say for sure, but it seems like all of these things played out in a coordinated way.”

Other automakers also are confident that a recovery could begin in the third quarter.

“As we move into summer, it’ll get tougher and tougher, and then we come out of it,” said Michael Colleran, senior vice president of U.S. marketing and sales at Nissan. “We’re pretty bullish.”

Nissan is prioritizing high-volume models such as the Sentra and Rogue for the limited supply of microchips.

“It’s a bit of a Rubik’s Cube,” Colleran said, referring to allocation decisions. “You have to really hand-manage this. Every day, it’s a firefight.”

In early May, GM CEO Mary Barra told Bloomberg that the automaker was working on a number of long-term strategies and new processes to “make sure we’re never in this situation again.”

She added that GM planned chip supplies for this year based on expected demand.

“We were very clear last year on what we thought demand was going to be this year in the chips that we had ordered. We’re continuing to work with the supply base on that,” she said.

When the chip crisis began hampering the industry in the first quarter, experts expected that it would take six months to establish new plants for automotive-grade chip production, said Sam Fiorani, vice president at AutoForecast Solutions.

“We are falling into that window that new supplies of chips could have been accessed if they were located when this whole thing started,” Fiorani said. GM “could be finding new supplies at this point.”

GM declined to elaborate on its sourcing strategy or say whether it had paid a premium to access more chips. The chip crisis remains fluid globally, GM spokesman David Barnas said, but the supply chain team has made strides to mitigate the impact.

Consultancy AlixPartners estimates that the chip shortage could cost the auto industry $110 billion in lost revenue this year, forecasting a net production loss of 3.9 million vehicles.

GM won’t be able to make up all the volume it has lost, Schuster said, but “they’re going to do whatever they can to make up as much as they can to refill that pipeline that’s in deep need of vehicles.”

Urvaksh Karkaria contributed to this report.