Citroen AIMS a no-show

CITROEN is the latest brand to announce its non-appearance at Sydney’s Australian International Motor Show in October, because it has no new models to show.

The French brand’s 2008 AIMS pull-out follows similar high-profile moves in recent weeks by Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and at least six other luxury marques, which have called for bi-annual motor shows alternating between Sydney and Melbourne.

Citroen joins Fiat and Alfa Romeo as the third Ateco Automotive-distributed marque to pull out of the 2008 AIMS, but Ateco will present Ferrari and Maserati in Sydney.

“This year’s new model launches fall either side of the Sydney show, with the new C5 due in August and the Berlingo and Nemo expected towards the end of the year, leaving it in a bit of a no-man’s land,” said Ateco spokesperson Edward Rowe, adding that each brand’s motor show appearances are decided on a case-by-case basis.

“There are now so many ways to reach customers to tell them about our cars that no marketing activity can be considered a sacred cow or an automatically ticked box in our marketing budget.

“The decision not to attend the show does not mean we have abandoned the Sydney or any show. Rather, we will look at every show every year to decide whether it meets our marketing or sales requirements for the brand at that particular time,” said Mr Rowe.

Andrew McKellar, chief executive of show organiser the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), said he was not concerned by the absence from this year’s Sydney show of Citroen or the major luxury brands.

“I don’t know that they ever were (going to be at the 2008 AIMS). They may well have been considering it but they weren’t at last year’s show. If they’re not at this year’s show it’s not a net loss,” he said.

“Clearly there are a range of brands that won’t be participating and that’s not unusual. There are some brands who were at last year’s show who won’t be at this year’s show. That’s their decision.

“The fact is we’re committed to putting a show together. It will be a very strong show. We will have a very broad representative presence of brands – certainly much more than 90 per cent in terms of sales. In fact, it’s an opportunity to ensure that this year’s show presents the best aspects of the exhibitors to the motoring public.

“Every other year we have to fight and struggle to shoe-horn the brands into the space that’s available. This year those brands that are there will have a greater opportunity to expose their exhibitions.

“If you look around the world at the leading shows, there are very few shows where you get uniform attendance from all the brands. Here in Australia we actually do pretty well. There are many European shows where many of those European brands don’t attend so there will be nothing unusual about it,” said Mr McKellar.

GoAuto research shows that at last count, at least 26 brands were confirmed AIMS attendees, with 12 confirmed no-shows and more than six yet to decide. Mainstream car-makers including Toyota, Holden and Ford support all current annual motor shows held in major Australian capital cities, but Mr McKellar would not reveal how many brand’s had confirmed their presence.

“We have sent out contracts to all brands that have expressed interest so at this stage I can’t confirm the precise number. We’re going through that process and we are undertaking consultations with the brands.

“I would expect we would have that process completed over the next three or four weeks and we will have a final floorplan and that’s the normal process.”

An FCAI spokesperson confirmed it is still in talks with a number of potential 2008 AIMS exhibitors, and that it could continue to negotiate with interested parties beyond the official registration deadline, which is believed to be at the end of this month.

“There are still talks ongoing with a number of exhibitors and there is still lots of people attending, so the show is still going ahead and will be successful,” said FCAI media and communications manager James Goodwin.

“We’re still happy to talk beyond the official cut-off date. There’s obviously going to be timeframes to set up exhibits and the like, but we’re confident and still happy to talk to potential exhibitors.”

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