Melbourne International Motor Show

[1750GT]

Went to the Motor Show over the weekend. I found it a bit of a let down. A number of major maques including the whole of the Fiat group (incl: ferrari, maserati, Alfa and fiat) were missing and others incluidng jaguar, mercedes, volvo (not a big deal this one) etc. a number of the more interesting independants were also missing.

But the other thing was the small range of models on display by the Euro maques who had stands and the lack of interesting new stuff. The usual car makers Ford, Holden,Peugo, Reno etc. seemed as if they had just set up mini showrooms and thats about it and the total display area looks substantially shortened by a fair bit because of the lack of turn out of manufacturers. It would seem that the financial crisis has bitten and the bargains are starting to surface with the sales lads willing to reduce price quite substantially as well. What got me as well is that the "enthusiasts" have gone and anyone manning stands is either blond (no so bad) or a salesmen with no real idea about the product, new releases etc. the car show used to be about product, new models and future product with people who actually knew what they were talking about manning stands.

I think the shannons show, out front almost out did the actual show, with a few bargains out their as well! and I hear that we may not be getting a car show next year as Sydney and Melbourne may now share the show bi-annually or Sydney may in fact take it for keeps.

Hopefully things will improve from here, but I must say I would rather a bi-annual "gala" with lots of good stuff rather than a quasi show annually if this is what is going to be offered up every year.

1750GT

[Jack]

Agree absolutely.
Took my boy along and he's at the age where it's fun to jump into the cars and play with the buttons.
I gotta say that was about the extent of it!
Mini showrooms, pretty people, hardly any merch of real note and nothing interactive or interesting apart from a push button movie thing from I think it was Toyota in an upstairs area and the formula one stand where you could cue to help change a tyre.
I remember the motor show of years ago at the exhibition buildings full of all the regular stuff but also including bikes, off road stuff and hotrods.
It was quite distracting being there with my active seven year old so maybe i missed some stuff but i also agree the Shannons display outside was more interesting than inside.

[1750GT]

Don't worry jack you missed nothing, it looks like you covered the whole show really. I to just got sick of asking questions and the people manning the stands knowing absolutely nothing about cars much less their own cars. At the Audi stand the lady with all the info: didn't know what an R8 was let alone that there was one on the stand. Luckily I finally found their R8 on show! and this was not an isolated incident.

At least with the Shannons guys out front you could actually have a conversation if you were interested in a car.

1750GT

[Jack]

Actually
there was one salesman on the Hyundai display that reeled off all the info on the new I30.
He was quite good, although I doubt many people who look at this forum would go anywhere near the Hyundai stand!
Looking for something for my elderly mother.
She could go for anything in the market the way prices are.
I liked the Mazda2, the Honda, and a few others but how do you tell which is a any good?

[John Hanslow]

Checked out the motor show this year and was surprised at the amount of 'open space' inside.

I don't go there that often, but quite a few of the usual manufactures were not there and this one is the last motor show for two years.

As for the Hyundai requirements, I concur in many ways.  As for the car requirements, a reasonable cheap car that's ok to run around in - and that's it.  But no soul at all.

Cheers

[1750GT]

Jack if your looking at these cars you should have a look at the volkswagin Polo, which is about the same price as the Japs and Koreans but much better quality and slightly more spunk (of course if your budget will stretch you could always go the Polo GTI and drive it yourself of weekends!).

But seriously the Polo is comming to the end of current model life (new one arrives in 2010 to Aus and will be released in Europe second half of 2009) so they are stacking the current models with plenty of stuff. Worth a look at as a classier Euro alternative than the Jap cars, much more solid with great safety in this catagory and starts in the high $16K range but with desperate dealers at the moment you are sure to get a better deal.

1750GT

[alfagtv58]

I wanted to go to the Motor Show badly this year, and it just didn't happen.  After reading this (and similar reviews in other places), I am kinda glad I didn't.