2015 Australian Motoring Festival

Attended the 2015 Australian Motoring Festival in  Melbourne in Melbourne over the weekend. I was both surprised and disappointed. Surprised because there was plenty to see if you wanted to, feel, smell and touch a large number of cars old and new! There was also a section devoted to electric bicycles and some motorcycles which peaked my interest. There where plenty of demo’s from the Variety Club cars, jet car to 4WD course and other displays. The whole visit for me was about 4 hours although I could have stayed longer for the later demos.

On the other hand I was disappointed that there where only a few current manufacturers on show. The historical sections was impressive as it had cars from my youth including the Deloren! Of the current manufacturers that showed up, they provided much more hands on experience than I expected! Ferrari, Mercedes AMG, Volvo, Toyota and Isuzu showed up and provided real demos of their cars and should be applauded. Of note the Isuzu had the motorised climb which you could be a passenger in, Mercedes AMG had models you ride with the instructors on a motorkhana style course and even a demo of the self parking system. You could even try on various Volvo models around a track specifically the v40 series – lovely car BTW.

One thing is that’s clear is that these brands and models WILL be on my short list of cars to buy where previously I never thought about. It’s not being biased, its just that because so few turned up these ones have got may attention which is a marketing coup if anything. Mind you I can’t afford a Ferrari but a least the now I know there are affordable models in the various brands on show. On the motorcycle front the only dealer present was A1 Motorcycles (VIC only) which covered numerous brands but I’ve never visited their showroom so they’ll be on my list to visit now too – if I’m in the area! They even sell my favourite SACHS Madass 125 model.

(I’ll post some pictures on Instagram after the motorcycle show series I’m currently posting)