For those who remember the Brisbane Motor Show of old – when the venue was the RNA Showgrounds, and displays were tucked away everywhere – the ‘new’ Brisbane International Motorshow is a complete contradiction.

Held in the impressive Brisbane Convention Centre at Southbank, across the river from the CBD, the Motorshow is held in elegant air-conditioned surroundings.

The displays by the manufacturers and suppliers are world-class, the products are impressive, to say the least, and punters can now sit quietly in lounge-style chairs to enjoy a cold beer.

All of the major manufacturers are on display at the show and Brisbane – far from being a backwoods hick-town – has an enviable record of sales during the show.

Whether it’s the base level Proton Savvy or the Lamborghini Murcielago, the cars are selling to Queensland customers in droves.

Over the years, the tie-in to motorsport by the manufacturers has been embodied in the Motorshow displays.

For Toyota and Honda this year, strapping an F1 car on the wall is one way of promoting their involvement in the highest level of technology on the road.

For the traditionalists, it will always be Mitsubishi and Subaru who use the local Australian market to remind us that they like to go rallying.

Mitsubishi has a very popular, interactive display with two Evo 8s fitted out as full-size PlayStation games! Sit in the actual car and watch the big screen in front while you push pedals and steer the vehicle through stage upon stage. This is one for the kids – big and small!

Over at Subaru, it would not be a Brisbane Motorshow without the Impreza WRC car – and not just a mock-up. Obviously not the current spec car that Chris Atkinson is driving in this year’s WRC, this gleaming blue beast still looks amazing and turns heads anywhere.

Following their withdrawal from the Australian Rally Championship, Subaru is promoting the sale of customer-prepped cars with a quite reasonable sticker price, and one of these sat menacingly at the rear of the stand.

“See the man at the desk for enquiries” the sign said. I wonder how many of those they sold during the week?

Over at the Suzuki stand, the main rotunda featured an SX4 WRC mock-up, looking quite nice in the livery that is expected to be seen in the coming seasons.

This car certainly attracted attention, as Suzuki predicts the model to sell quite well as more of the general motoring populace accept the safe concept of ‘all-wheel drive’.

Thankfully, one feature of the Brisbane International Motorshow does not change, but only gets better. In an era when ‘sex sells’, more and more of the local distributors are using beautiful women to promote their products.

These girls are not just there to look good, they know their stuff – happy to answer questions from an intending purchaser and maybe using a little guile to swing the sale.

In summary, the Brisbane International Motorshow had a lot of good-looking models to look at…… and some of them were cars!!

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