The return of the Australian motor show is greatly exaggerated

It’s been more than a decade since Australia last held an international motor show and, with the current state of the market, it’s unlikely we’ll see one again.

Crowds of potential new-car buyers will flock to Melbourne this weekend for what’s being billed as “the largest gathering of automotive manufacturers and aftermarket brands in over 15 years” – but I won’t be one of them.

The Melbourne motor show has all the hallmarks of shows I grew up attending with my dad, but rather than a modern revival, it’s set to be a display of largely already-seen vehicles, with less than a handful of proper first-time unveilings.

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In food terms, think of it as vanilla essence, rather than the full-strength vanilla extract that was once the Australian International Motor Show.

One could argue the Melbourne motor show is the closest thing we’ll ever get to a proper display of Australia’s new-car market in one location, but the absence of the nation’s biggest brands and best-selling models means it misses the mark.

Let me be clear, this is not an attack on the event – it is great to see a number of brands get together to show off their current and future products to the buying public, and hopefully inspire the next generation of fanatics who will one day take my job.

That includes carmakers like MG, which has ambitions – and an upcoming product roadmap – to become a top-three brand locally, and will unveil some new models to the world in Melbourne, even if one of them is a badge engineering exercise.

But it’s a far cry from 2012, when the last official Australian international motor show brought more than two dozen brands, with the models on show reportedly accounting for approximately 95 per cent of the market’s sales.

I was there at that final motor show, held at Sydney’s Darling Harbour. It was one of about a dozen I’d attended, in a the tradition of either heading off from home in Canberra in the morning and returning in the afternoon, or staying at my godfather’s in Wollongong the night before.

I can recall many highlights at the motor show throughout my early years: getting to see the billion-dollar Holden VE Commodore in the metal for the first time, being near racing god Craig Lowndes when Ford unveiled a limited-run Falcon ute with his name on it, and sitting in numerous performance cars I still crave.

It was also at the 2012 edition that I won a racing simulator competition, after which I was bought rFactor as a gift, well and truly sparking my sim-racing addiction.

My childhood bedroom walls were held together with nothing other than posters I’d collected from each year’s motor show, while ornaments from manufacturer stands could later only be described as massive plastic waste.

Sadly, there was to be no 2013 show, canned months before it was due to go ahead, making it even more bizarre that the VF Commodore – Holden’s last locally made car – never got to be given a proper welcome into the world.

It’s easy to lament the demise of the Australian International Motor Show, but this isn’t a feeling exclusive to Aussies.

In the past handful of years, some of the world’s most famous motor shows have either become little more than a shell of their former selves, or disappeared completely.

Last year, the Geneva motor show was axed indefinitely, ending its 117-year run, following three straight cancellations in 2020, 2021 and 2022, owing to COVID.

But it wasn’t just COVID to blame for the demise of GIMS, with other shows in the US and Europe also dwindling in size.

The only place where motor shows appear to be gaining momentum is in Asia, with China in particular being the hotbed for auto exhibitions.

China rotates its premier annual show between Shanghai and Beijing, and both events continue to grow every year, in line with the nation’s auto industry – which includes many state-owned carmakers – becoming a true global powerhouse.

This is reflected in the sheer number of Chinese brands which will be on display in Melbourne this weekend, well and truly dominating the show floor.

Whether any of them have products that can truly move the needle for Australian driving enthusiasts like myself remains to be seen, but it does appear we are becoming an increasingly small afterthought as the entourage of new utes and mid-size SUVs swell.

So while I wish those who run and attend the Melbourne motor show all the best, I’ll be spending my weekend in Victoria watching GT racing at Phillip Island and looking at Ford icons in Geelong.

If you want to reminisce about Australia’s motor show, let us know what you miss below. You can also view images of motor shows past on the still-active Facebook page.