The Sydney Motor NO-Show

[Zuzu]

Looks like BMW were true to their word and are giving Sydney Motorshow the flick this year as are most of the German car makers..

http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/Ar...ID=57565&vf=12

[dodgey]

And some French, and Italians.....

[amk2912]

Hey you'll know it's bad when Holden and Ford pull out!

[Alpine*]

Yeh., I will be giving it the miss this year for the first time in many...

[Yep 135]

+1 Havent missed it for years.

[qship]

Porsche, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Bentley, Rolls-Royce.
Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, Citroen, Fiat and Alfa Romeo are also no-shows.

The Europeans argue that if it’s good enough for Frankfurt and Paris to hold their car shows bi-annually, it’s good enough for the rival Australian cities.:iono:

[Guran]

Originally Posted by qship

The Europeans argue that if it’s good enough for Frankfurt and Paris to hold their car shows bi-annually, it’s good enough for the rival Australian cities.:iono:

And you've gotta admit there's some good sense in that considering it's an hours flight between Sydney and Melbourne. I have to admit that I regret not having flown down to Melbourne for this year's motor show. I'll be going to the Sydney motor show on Saturday, but it won't be the same without Porsche, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Citroen, Fiat and Alfa Romeo ... who were all at the 2007 show in Sydney. There's lots of other cool stuff to see though. I'm keen to see the 550 Spyder, not to mention the Zonda, CCX and Nagari.

[Zuzu]

And thats the reason I flew down to Melbourne earlier this year to attend the Motor Show.
My dealer had informed me that there would be NO BMW stand in Sydney this year and that most of the European makers would be boycotting Sydney.

[bfi2906]

I was not aware that the eurpoeans weren't going to be there, so I went along last night. Not a complete waste of time - but nothing to do with cars is (IMHO). But it certainly wasn't what we've come to expect. And it certainly wasn't any cheaper to get in.

As said, there are a couple of realy cool cars - Pagani, etc. Ferrari and Lambo are always good. The rest is GMH, Ford, Mitusbshi, Honda -- lalalalala.

For me, the best car of the whole night wasn't at the show. It was in the Darling Harbour shopping area - just outside the entrance to Jordans, where European Car Specialists (I think that's what they're called), had two cars on show. A 430 Spider - which is always good, and a CL63 Benz - which I'd never seen before. What a stunning car. I've never seen front brake callipers as big on a road car. Just spectacular!!!!

[taiheung]

Their logic is fair and I think having it bi-annually would make it more exciting. It would also allow them to inject more money into the displays.

[dodgey]

I thought the idea was to save money by having it bi-annually..

[Guran]

Just out of interest, I did a quick analysis of YTD sales figures for each make and compared it with the shows vs no-shows at AIMS08 (it's Friday afternoon - the weekend can't come soon enough!). Turns out that only 7% of the "new car fleet" will not be represented at the show. That's not too bad considering that this 7% accounts for 22 different makes -- a perfect example of the "rats & mice" principle. But on the other hand, that 7% is mostly premium models and in dollar terms (rather than cars sold), account for a much greater proportion of the market.

[taiheung]

Originally Posted by dodgey

I thought the idea was to save money by having it bi-annually..

At $1.5m per year it costs them $3.0m/2 years at the moment
Should they go bi-annually, they could inject anywhere short of $3.0m into the bi-annual show and still come out on top!

As an extreme example, imagine a $2,999,999 display!
They save $1 and we get $1,499,999 more of awesomeness! :wink:
Everyone wins!!

[dodgey]

Originally Posted by taiheung

At $1.5m per year it costs them $3.0m/2 years at the moment
Should they go bi-annually, they could inject anywhere short of $3.0m into the bi-annual show and still come out on top!

As an extreme example, imagine a $2,999,999 display!
They save $1 and we get $1,499,999 more of awesomeness! :wink:
Everyone wins!!

I certainly do like your thinking, however, I'd prefer if they use that money to give me a discount when I buy a car instead...

A $150k Cayman could then turn out to be them giving me the car for free and petrol to run it for years :eyebulge:

And they'd still save money...

[Yep 135]

their car prices might come down too!

[qship]

Given that the Aussie Peso has dropped 1/3 over the last 2 months I wonder how long car importers can hold their prices yet alone drop them. Nice idea though..

[Guran]

And remember that the import duty on cars will drop from 10% to 5% in 2010 (I think that's the timing), which could mean that cars will either drop in price slightly. On the other hand, it's more likely that the prices will stay level, rather than increase with inflation. This is exactly what's happened over the last 10-15 years as the import duties have been progressively stripped away. At one stage in the mid 1980s, I think there was something like 50% import duty!

[Breville]

I went to the show this morning & was done within an hour and that was with the boy wonder taking his time fiddling with all the cars. I only found out that there was going to a big no-show after I booked the tickets online otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

[Guran]

I dunno. I thought Miss Pagani and Miss Bufori made some worthwhile viewing pleasure:

[Yep 135]

my wife looked like that Bufori she had kids!

[MikeVictor]

Originally Posted by Yep 135

my wife looked like that Bufori she had kids!

[TimMc]

Originally Posted by Guran

I dunno. I thought Miss Pagani and Miss Bufori made some worthwhile viewing pleasure:

H'mmm. I'm now thinking it's worth going to the Sydney show...