Adelaide Motor Show postponed

Another motor show has fallen by the wayside. In the same week that Brisbane announced it would not persevere with a motor show in 2009 (more here)comes the news that neither will the corresponding Adelaide event go ahead next year.

A press release has been issued this morning by Ian Digby, the Director of the Automotive Exhibitors Association of SA Inc -- organisers of the annual event.

Digby stated in the release that the event, which was scheduled for April 1 to 5, will return in 2010, all being well.

"We regret having to make this decision as we had some new and very exciting attractions planned and we were looking forward to exhibiting for the first time in the new Goyder pavilion where all the vehicle manufacturers could be seen in one state-of-the-art showcase," Digby was quoted as saying.

Things are looking uncertain further west also. The Carsales Network spoke to Manager for the Perth Motor Show, Peter Woods, who advised that a final decision to go ahead or not will be made by the organising committee on Friday of next week.

"The purpose of the meeting on Friday was originally just to review how we were going, but obviously there will be a decision made as to the direction [in which] the show will go in Western Australia," said Woods.

"I guess the reality is that without the majors supporting the show, it's probably unlikely [to go ahead], but until we actually assess it...

"We've been a bit creative in Western Australia in the past because of the distance... we've had to do innovative things with dealers and half of the show is actually owned by the MTA [Motor Trades Association]... They might say 'instead of doing a traditional motor show, we want to do something else'.

Woods mourns what seems to be a gradual passing of traditional motor shows in the current (harsh) economic climate.

"I think it's quite tragic... Motor shows; it's all about the passion and all about the love of cars going into a really nice environment where you can get really vibed up. I know that a number of my personal friends have come to the motor show and have been motivated to buy a car from it. It's a non-confrontational environment. We all know that people hate going to car yards..."

According to Woods, Toyota in WA is one example of a distributor (Toyotas are not distributed by TMCA in West Oz) of a company successfully keeping the fit-out costs for the motor show presence pared back to a reasonable level. The company couldn't afford to bring the fittings for the display over from the eastern states, so they built their own and reused the stand for three consecutive years.

"No one's been saying: 'Oh, that's not as good, I'm not going to buy the car'," says Woods.

Things have changed dramatically over the last four weeks, according to Woods. Up to that point, car companies were sitting on the fence, but a couple of importers have definitely said they won't be attending -- and others can be expected to follow.

So it becomes a domino effect... the more importers drop out of the show, the more still will drop out and the show quickly becomes unsustainable.

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