Unprecedented problems in the motor industry have led to cancellation of the 2010 Motor Show. Or have they?
The Motor Show used to be a great day out. Thousands of us made what was then an annual pilgrimage to London to see our dream cars in the glossiest of surroundings. We took our wives, took our kids and had an exciting day out.
Now that’s the main problem as the London show was always seen as a consumers show, rather than an ‘industry fair’ such as Detroit, Geneva, Frankfurt and Paris. That said, whilst the visitor numbers stayed high, the London International Motor Show was definitely somewhere a car maker couldn’t afford not to attend.
Over recent years visitor numbers have tumbled and frankly the manufacturers are just not happy to spend the huge sums of money it takes to be in London, preferring to attend one of the more industry related shows, so that’s resulted in no Motor Show for us.
So what went wrong, when did we all start to forsake this ‘British institution’. To answer that, I have taken a look back over the years to see how our fascination began, and then apparently ended.
No one saw a long term future for the car way back in 1903, but with the founding of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders that year, bringing together the major players of the time, it was decided to promote this newfangled motor car to the public in general and on 30th January 1903, London’s Crystal Palace opened its doors on the very first British Motor Show.
It’s quite amazing that over 10,000 people attended that very first ‘proper’ show, particularly as there were only around 8,000 privately owned cars on the road at that time.
A year later saw the second show, again at Crystal Palace, but it was switched to Olympia from 1905 right through to 1936, excluding of course the war years of 1914–1918 as no shows took place.
Next big change was in 1937 when the show was moved to Earls Court only to see shows shelved during the war years, only resuming in 1948 at which point it was clear that our appetite for ‘everything car’ had definitely not gone away and some 500,000 visitors paid to look at cars, they could probably never afford to own, or even if they could, might take up to 4 or 5 years after order, before you took delivery.
Without doubt, the show became an annual highlight as we moved into the Fifties & Sixties and some have called it an institution and likened it to the Boat Race, or Grand National. What ever it was, we wanted to go and hassled our dads to take us (not that this was difficult).
1978 saw the big change, with the show moved away from London to the newly opened National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, but at the same time, it was decided the annual show should be replaced in favour of a bi-annual event.
Its fair to say that the early shows at the NEC were a huge success as over 900,000 people squeezed their way into the NEC and by 1980, the NEC had extended its complex and improved its infrastructure to recognise they were sitting on a little goldmine.
London hadn’t entirely given up on the idea of its own Motor Show and from 1979 through to 1999, held its own bi-annual event at Earls Court, called “MotorFair”. This was very much a dealer event, albeit with some manufacturer support and I have to say, much more an ‘on a budget’ thing, but to me, in some ways, more what a show of this kind should be as it was approachable.
After almost 25 years, it was decided the capital needed another go at staging the ‘main event’ and in 2006, the International Motor Show was moved back to a very different London and took up residency in the ExCel Exhibition Centre in London’s Docklands and the 2006 show attracted some 415,000 visitors, which might seem pretty good, but was actually less than the 500,000 visitors the Earls Court show attracted almost 60 years before in 1948.
Important model launches and futuristic concept vehicles had been relatively few over recent years, and even getting close to the cars became pretty much impossible, with every kind of barrier erected to prevent you even touching them and because of that, the show became far less exciting and in 2008, a number of car manufactures signaled their intention not to be at that years show and the visitor numbers tumbled.
So will we ever see its like again, well possibly not, as it’s the SMMT that owns the rights to the show and whilst its claimed that the event could return once the economy picks up, the SMMT recently closed its exhibitions department and industry sources seem to be happy to bury the whole thing, as frankly, its been in terminal decline for years.
Like it or not, our British International Motor Show was a consumer event, but in recent years, it was only visitors from within the industry (who probably got in free) who got behind the barriers to enjoy the full experience and I am sure they thought it was fine, but it was not the same for ordinary punters, who had to lash out for a ticket and pay for the travel to get there, only to be herded around like cattle and fed plastic burgers and sold over priced canned drink, then to be forced to look from afar as the privileged few were invited to take a proper look at the dream car, which you wont ever be allowed anywhere near.
Yes it’s a shame for those little kids who like me would probably develop their life long passion for cars by visiting this automotive sweetshop, but fact is the shopkeeper lost sight of his customer and stuck the gob stoppers in a glass jar behind the counter not even allowing me to look at what I can’t afford and as a result, the shop’s shut its doors, probably forever.
