Australian International Motor Show (AIMS)

TITLE: Australian International Motor Show (Sydney)WHERE: Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia

WHEN: Sydney: September 2012 – every even year

STATUS: Australia’s premiere annual new-car expoUpdated 25 March 2013The future of the Sydney Motor Show hangs in the balance following the cancellation of the Melbourne due to lack of interest.

For now the AIMS committee will continue to review the merits of each show and determine the future in due course.

The Sydney Motor Show has a long history with cars displayed in various pavilions of the Sydney agricultural show grounds until a move to the prestigious Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour in 1988.

The upgraded premises enhanced the reputation of the show on the world stage and it was called the Australian International Motor show from 2004 to 2008 vying with Australia’s oldest new-car expo – the Melbourne International Motor Show – for the honours as Australia’s premier event.

However, squabbling by car companies over the high cost of staging two international standard exhibits within Australia in the same year lead to the amalgamation of the Sydney and Melbourne events from 2010.

Both shows have been replaced by a joint venture between the organisers of the Sydney motor show, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and the organisers of the Melbourne show the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC ) under the ‘Motor Show Joint Venture’ Australian International Motor Show (AIMS) agreement.

Sydney will host the events every even year (from 2010 onwards) with Melbourne gaining the event for every odd-numbered year.

The Melbourne AIMS will run from July 1-10 2011.

Both show calendars are currently out of step with each other.

The Sydney event was held in October last year because it was locked into the venue date prior to the joint venture agreement.

It is expected that Sydney in 2012 will take place in September with the possibility of shifting to a mid-year time slot to coincide with Melbourne in 2014.

Frankfurt and Paris have a similar alternating agreement every September in Europe, while the Tokyo show is on during every odd year