As this is now the second time it's been held in the East End does anyone one know how the show is performing.

Visitor numbers?
Manufacturers?
New launches?

Can you see a point where it would come back home to Brum? Or has it been considered a massive success down there?

Well watching the one show last night, Alice Cooper was on, and he said he was performing at the motor show, along with Status Quo, The Who and Robert Plant, so this can be taken two ways, either they are struggling to get numbers and need additional attractions, or they are taking the motor show into a different direction.

Ultimately the manufacturers want to sell cars. If they're not getting the punters in then it will move back to the NEC.

The concerts and £5 after 5 will obviously bring people in and it will be declared a success but have you seen the woeful exhibitor list?

http://www.britishmotorshow.co.uk/module.php?obj=exhibit&t=list&a=searchByCat&categories=8

Spoken to one of the sound engineers there. They went around the day before opening to the public, he said it was obvious it is not a car show, but a music concert with a small car show attached. People are not going for the cars, just for the music.

The size of Excel is only as big as two halls of the NEC, really is small.

It's a load of bollocks really. Especially when Audi, VW, Skoda, Ferrari, Volvo, BMW, Rolls-Royce, Porsche, and Aston Martin choose not to attend.

Says it all when the bit that gets the TV coverage is Alice Cooper :tongue:

Few comments on it from various sources


London Motor Show
21st July 2008 15:03

We have got a motor show on in London this week and it even looks like the weather is finally looking up here.

Is the London event a biggie? It's sizeable but no, it's not up there with the big shows and is still to become properly established in the automakers' diaries. A number of them are absent and I guess the current economic backdrop doesn't augur particularly well for consumer visits.

But this is only the second London show since moving the event from Birmingham. The first one could be claimed by the organisers to have been a modest success.

It will certainly be interesting to see how busy the show is this time around and see how much media coverage is generated. The London event perhaps needs more time to become established and generate a clear position in terms of the benefits it can bring to consumers and exhibitors alike.

I can see why people question the point of a motor show in the UK. We don't have the large immediate base of local indigenous volume producers that Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Detroit have. And Geneva is an established European 'neutral'.

http://www.just-auto.com/blogdetail.aspx?ID=1875


LONDON SHOW PREVIEW: Mazda boss disappointed at London 'no-shows'

Summary: Mazda UK boss Rob Lindley says he is "very disappointed" that some manufacturers have decided not to be at this week's British International Motor Show in London.

http://www.just-auto.com/article.aspx?ID=95479

Think it's telling from what's been said previously and the no-shows in article above. Though no critical articles yet.

2004 NEC Motorshow's attendance was c~650,000.

2006 ExCeL Motorshow's attendance was c~400,000.

Nuff said really. Stupid decision to move it made by stupid short sighted people who want to be closer to the west end so they can go out on the piss while the show is on.

I refuse to go.

At the time they moved it London was bidding for the Olympics so it had to be seen to be succedding at everything.

It looks crap now, but if they insist on having crap in their backyard for the badge and not a good show then they are welcome to it!

To be honest I think it's been loosing its way for a while. I wonder if those Autosport shows are more popular?

Just got back today from ExCeL. We designed and built the Subaru and Isuzu stands and I went down for the end of the build and to walk the show to sell the company. It's ok - nothing special, and the absentees are obvious. I think, Ginger T, Autosport International and the Max Power (recently re-named) shows pull in more together so the NEC still draws many more visitors thank God!
Anyway, I do think ExCeL has got a bit better in terms of the area now because we stayed in a fabulous apartment with a great balcony with amazing views, and there are more bars / hotels there now along with a great boat hotel that is difficult to walk around when you've had a few drinks (ouch my head this morning!!).

Max Power no longer happens

Plus all the Bike shows we have.

What's happened with Max Power then Djay, was last years the last one then?

well i happened to come across an article the other day sayin it had been scrapped after 8years because it no longer fit with the new direction of the mag...or words to that affect

Interesting review of history of motor show.

What an event 1978 one must have been


British Motor Show: Golden years
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 25/07/2008

1978 The British International Motor Show, as it was now pompously titled, was itself the innovator when, for the first time since 1905, the country's official industry showcase shunned the capital in favour of its manufacturing heartland. This show was the first staged at the new and spacious National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham and an arrestingly beautiful, Pininfarina interpretation of the Jaguar XJ-S was specially created as its centrepiece.

The radical up-sticks was rewarded by a gate of 913,000 - the largest ever at any British motor show - and those visitors fell upon the array of new British models. The Car of the Year, the Chrysler Horizon, made the biggest splash, then there were the Aston Martin V8 Volante and TVR 3000S convertibles. The Vauxhall Cavalier Sportshatch and Ford Capri III made waves, too.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2008/07/26/mfshowold126.xml

Just read about the attendance this year.

472,300 2008
415,000 2006
460,000 2004 - last one at the NEC

Move been worthwhile then?

Just read about the attendance this year.

472,300 2008
415,000 2006
460,000 2004 - last one at the NEC

Move been worthwhile then?

Depends, on the face of it it looks good however........

2004 NEC Motorshow's attendance was c~650,000.

2006 ExCeL Motorshow's attendance was c~400,000.


Lies, damn lies and attendance figures

This years numbers were made up by the concert, I know some of the people that worked there, and those that were there for the cars was very little.

It's not about Cars or even the public.

It's about the supposed "International Kudos" associated with having the words "Motor Show" after your city's name - (especially when bidding for the Olympics as they were).

If it were about the public and attendances it wouldn't have moved to London.

But there are even less car brands there than there ever was in Brum...

Exactly.

Numbers of exhibitors and visitors is irrelevant.

The SMMT are being used as a promotional pawn by the London PR Lobby and until they wake up or their members kick them up the wotsit for not organising a show that represents them, that's how it will stay.

It's a load of bollocks really. Especially when Audi, VW, Skoda, Ferrari, Volvo, BMW, Rolls-Royce, Porsche, and Aston Martin choose not to attend.

Says it all when the bit that gets the TV coverage is Alice Cooper :tongue:

Attendance figures are always massages but its definately true the London arenas have done the Motor Show no favours.

Take it back home to Greater Birmingham and the boys will come back to town

:horse: :cheer: :horse: :cheer: :horse:
:dance:

I agree - Brum should be pushing to host this again.

We can't until 2013 unfortunately.

i think we'll get it back in 2013, and with the investment that has been put into the nec since it left

The Motorshow is only going to struggle even more over the next few years due to the downturn in the market place and car manufacturers slashing marketing budgets...

Yes it a bit depressing really. All the manufactures are buggered especially the big boys. Honda F1 is being off loaded as well as the Chinese F1 being in doubt, Audi have pulled out of ALMS, Saab, Volvo & Pontiac are on the GM chopping block, 8000 jobs are going at BMW, as well as layoffs in NASCAR, general motorsport is on it's knees and even god's motorsport of choice - Drag racing - is seeing very little racing due to the shit weather we've had. :crap:

No one can afford new cars and even if you can you may as well hold out as long as possible as you'll get a better deal.

I predict next year's motor show will be an even bigger series of concerts on the edge of Docklands. It's going to get a whole lot worse so best leave it in London till the good times come round again.

Yes it a bit depressing really. All the manufactures are buggered especially the big boys. Honda F1 is being off loaded as well as the Chinese F1 being in doubt, Audi have pulled out of ALMS, Saab, Volvo & Pontiac are on the GM chopping block, .

Volvo are part of Ford!

At least BMW are getting a shafting! Serves the ******* right!

A mate of mine got offered a job at MG at Longbridge a couple of weeks ago, but turned it down as they have slashed production forecasts to a few hundred and could only offer a three month contract.

Yes, they are I should have phrased that better. They're still in deep shit though.

There's was suggestion of an MBO or possibly a Renault Nissan bid. Volvo have used Renault engines in the past

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=19055

Apparently next years has now been cancelled. Well done Excel!

I've posted an article in the all the other stuff thread on the skybar. Forgot we had this thread.

Reuters article


British motor show scrapped as downturn bites

ONDON (Reuters) - Britain's car industry is cancelling its showpiece exhibition in 2010 because of the economic slump, which has savaged demand for new cars.

The British International Motor Show, held every other year, attracts large crowds but the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said unprecedented challenges facing the industry had made staging the event impossible for exhibitors.

The news is a fresh blow for the country's struggling auto industry, which is getting a 2.3 billion pound aid package from the government to help it cope with plummeting sales.

"The global credit crunch has placed the automotive sector under unique pressure and has created a level of uncertainty that deters manufacturers from committing to large-scale, international events," said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt.

The motor show is Britain's largest consumer exhibition.

The event returned to London from Birmingham in 2006 after an absence of three decades, in a shift designed to regain some prestige on the international arena.

When Britain's motor industry was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s many manufacturers opted to unveil their latest models at the show.

But as the home-grown market shrank during the 1970s, the big car makers increasingly chose foreign venues like Frankfurt, Geneva and Detroit to showcase their new models.


http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringNews/idUKLNE52I03E20090319

Maybe we should set up an alternative motor show?

:lol:

Of course no-one will say anything about it being due to the fact that it was a crap show, in a crap location with crap visitor numbers (artificially propped up with pop concert attendances).

Funny how during the recessions of the '80's and '90's the Birmingham Show continued.

I agree - Brum should be pushing to host this again.


Official line from the NEC is that they are not bothered about hosting the Motor Show.

The truth is that there has been a realisation that the Motor Show is dead. The focus has now shifted onto the niche markets such as AutoSport, MaxPower, and Top Gear Live.

The NEC have been able to make better use of their facilities offering the halls to trade shows which are far more lucrative than public shows.

I agree i'd love to romanticise over having the latest supercar unveiled in Birmingham, but Britain is just not a mass car manufacturing country. We do odds and sods and niche.

The Motorshow would have been cancelled whether it had gone to London or not I expect, without major enthusiasm and investment from British manufacturers there's just no point in it. All the other big shows do well because they have homegrown manufacturers willing to launch brand new models (thus bringing all the motoring media along) or offer a unique and desirable location for carmakers to show off their concepts and existing models. The British Motorshow couldn't compete without the support of manufacturers, who are all owned by foreign companies now and so have no desire to reveal new models to their home market first.

Who are the home manufacturers at the Geneva Motor Show?

it's mid placed neutral territory for the French, Germans and Italian manufacturers

I know....I was just being pedantic.;)

Geneva's also full of rich international playboys and wealthy passengers of the global bureaucratic gravy train.

It's all very embarrassing for ExCeL though isn't it? On the ITV news they tried to blame falling figures and the public losing interest - as you've said above, the NEC didn't have many problems attracting the crowds through other recessions.
The Autosport Int, and Top Gear Live are the prime car shows now and I'm happy the NEC can hold these exhibitions without too much stress.

Visitor numbers were falling at the NEC too remember, it's not a case of everything was fine and dandy then it went to London and fell apart.

No, but the visitor numbers in London were less that the NEC... despite what the press are saying. Also the number of manufacturers exhibiting in London was less than Brum too.

visitor numbers where faling because hardly any companies were turning up if i remember, one year there was like 5 of the big manufacturers or something. also nothing was hardly being revealed at the british motorshow so its no wonder no one actually went

Yes, bit of a viscous circle really; the UK arm of the manufacturers decided that too few sales were being generated from enquiries at the show and they decided to limit what they showed or not to bother at all. Consequently fewer people visited, made enquiries and bought cars...

The motorshow had become nothing more than a sales pitch to the punters who visited

At one of the last ones at the NEC, Ford hired all of hall 5 (I think) and it cost them in the region of £5m for the week! That's a lot of cars to sell to make that.

According to another forum I frequent that Ford stand cost them £12m.

I'm not surprised it's going. The SMMT put this show on and are wildly out of touch with the general public. Holding the motor show in the only city in the UK that makes a good case for not owning a car when you live there? Very sensible. I have felt the cost of entry and for visitors & exhibitors to the NEC & Excel has been more than excessive. £70 entry for 2 people plus overpriced rubbish food and travel is a lot to most people.

I've been to Excel a couple of times for office furniture exhibitions and it is a nightmare to get to. I wont go to any exhibitions there ever again. It's not especially convenient for people in the SE to get to either. If Excel had been built down the M4 corridor it may have been different.

For the vast majority of people in the capital it's just as quick to get to the NEC as it is Excel!

yep, it takes me about the same time to drive from Edgbaston to the Ace Cafe as it does Maidstone to Docklands in normal daytime traffic